Sir George Williams University Sir George Williams University Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974. In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Ste-Helene street in Old Montreal. Beginning in 1873, the YMCA offered evening classes to allow working people in the English-speaking community to pursue their education while working during the day. Sixty years later, the Montreal YMCA relocated to its current location on Stanley Street in Downtown Montreal. In 1926, the education program at the YMCA was re-organized as Sir George Williams
George Williams (YMCA) converted from Anglicanism to Congregationalism. He went to the Zion Congregational Church and became an involved member. In 1841, he went to London and worked again in a draper's shop. After three years, in 1844, was promoted to department manager. He married the boss's daughter, Helen Jane Maunder Hitchcock in 1853. Williams became a member of the Weigh House Congregational Church and used his time for evangelization. Appalled by the terrible conditions in London for young working men, he gathered a group of his fellow drapers together to create a place that would not tempt young men into sin. That