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The "first" Charles T. Hyte Community Center was located at 1330 Deming Street and opened on September 13, 1942 as a recreation and education center for the African-American youth of Terre Haute. The Hyte Center also served as a meeting place for the NAACP, the Indiana Negro History Society and various civic, social, and church groups. The Center carried on Hyte's legacy of encouraging African-American youth to excel as students and athletes. Charles Hyte was the principal of Booker T. Washington Junior High School from 1924 until his death in 1941. The Hyte Center's audience and activities expanded steadily from its opening in 1943. In 1945 and 1946, a new volleyball/basketball court was completed, a handicraft class was held for girls, boxing was added to the winter sports program, and a movie projector and screen were purchased for showing health and educational movies to the children. As early as 1947, the Hyte Center's Board of Control was moving toward autonomy from the City of Terre Haute. The Board began a 25-year period of leasing the Center from the City for $1 per year. Dr. Herman Sloss, president of the board, announced that the Hyte Center's Board of Trustees would work toward the construction of a new recreation building at 13 1/2 and Deming Streets. Throughout the late 1940s and the 1950s, the Hyte Center continued to meet the recreational and educational needs of pre-teens while developing programs for the teenagers and adults of the community. For example, on Friday evenings in the early 1950s, the Center hosted cooking classes for boys, sewing classes for girls, and social gatherings for adults. And in the late 1950s, the Center offered grooming and tap dancing classes, a singing group was organized, Bible classes were organized for adults, and a Golden Age club was formed for senior citizens. By the 1960s, after twenty years of serving the community, the Hyte Center's leaders and clientele continued to take steps to make it a more self-sufficient organization. Ozonator Hoke, director of the Center from 1953 to 1971, assisted the Center's teenage users in the formation of the Hyte Center Booster Club. The Boosters sponsored money-raising events for the purpose of financing improvements in the Center's facilities. Adult women formed a Mother's Booster Club for the same purpose. The efforts of the two organizations resulted in the redecoration of the Hyte Center and the purchase of new equipment and furnishings in 1962. In 1965, recognizing the greater need for its services by the entire low-income community, the Hyte Center Board of Directors took two steps toward the goal of making the transition into a multi-purpose organization. First, the Hyte Board reorganized itself in April with the help of the United Fund charitable organization. Then the Hyte Center's Board of Directors broadened the Center's scope to include the entire community, amending its constitution to read, "The purpose of this association is to foster and promote the educational, cultural, and recreational well-being of the people of Terre Haute, Indiana." The Hyte Center also spent nearly $5,000 on repairs and improvements to the building. The Hyte Center's programs continued to expand from 1965 to 1969. In the fall of 1965, the Center inaugurated a tutoring program for elementary age children, utilizing faculty and students from Indiana State University and Rose Polytechnic Institute. The Center also initiated homemaking and family living classes. The Center's financial support from the United Fund tripled. By the late 1960s, the Center was being stretched beyond its capacity. Thus the Center's Board of Directors began to actively plan for the construction of a new and larger Hyte Center building. In February, the Hyte Center's Board and the Terre Haute Park Department agreed that the city would contribute $80,000 of an estimated cost of $230,000 for the construction of a new facility. In June the Park Department passed a resolution in support of a "Comprehensive Community Center" to be located on city-owned property, folllowing the rejection by the group "Young Adults for a Better Black Community" of an offer by the Vigo County Public Library's to provide an old railroad car to be used as a library for the Center. The "Young Adults" successful effort was widely seen as the impetus needed to build a new Hyte Center. The Coalition Board for a New Hyte Center was created to oversee the funding and construction of a new multi-purpose facility. The Coalition Board was made up of representatives from the Hyte Center, the NAACP, CATCAP (Community Advisers To Community Action Program), the Good Neighbor Housing Improvement Association, and Young Adults for a Better Black Community. In the spring of 1970, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development approved a $500,000 grant toward construction of a new building for the Hyte Center. The government would provide the money contingent upon the local community raising $200,000 from private donations. In announcing the grant, HUD declared that the Hyte Center had a 92% need rating, the highest indication of need ever given. The Coalition Board launched a fund drive with a dinner at the Central Presbyterian Church on June 29, 1970 for the purpose of raising $206,000 by October 1, 1970. Led by Franklin D.W. Brown Sr., the community achieved their fund raising goal. The new Hyte Center, located at 1101 S. 13th Street was completed in June 1972. and The Center's staff moved into their new headquarters on June 24 under the leadership of Director Wilene Deal. A handbook published in 1974 lists 20 separate activities offered at the new Hyte Center including breakfast and lunch programs, tutoring services, legal aid services, health clinics for mothers, infants, and children, and a comprehensive health education and referral service. By the late 1970s, the Hyte Center had opened up a medical clinic. In the Hyte Center tradition were things like Midnight Basketball and Miss Hyte Center beauty contest. The Charles T. Hyte Community Center is still in operation at 1101 S. 13th Street. The official name is The Charles T. Hyte Community Center Association of Terre Haute, Inc. The Hyte Center is very active in the community today. Currently there are still a few community activities in place. Two of the activies are the Community Soup Kitchen and the after school tutoring program. The tutoring program is run in conjunction with the Rose-Hulman Chapter of The National Society of Black Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. The tutoring program is also assisted by the Black Student Union of Indiana State University. The subjects covered are math, science, english and history. The Hyte Center is working ..ing people trying to take the G.E.D. test...... Today the Hyte Center has the United Way as one of their major sponsors. In the past the center has received contributions from other area businesses. Almost all of the work at the Hyte center is done by volunteers. The board members welcome community involvement. In the past the Charles T. Hyte Community Center held an annual banquet to acknowledge it's contributing organizations.

Charles T. Hyte Community Center Annual Banquet April 19, 2001 Awards were presented to Terre Haute First National Bank Minority Health Coalition Chuck Miles (speaker) Department of Redevelopment Wabash Valley Community Foundation United Way of the Wabash Valley Terre Haute Savings Bank VFW Post #972 Cinergy/PSI

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