PORTLAND (AP) – The YWCA of Greater Portland announced last week that it will close in three to six months, a victim of protracted financial problems.

Founded 137 years ago, it stands to become only the second YWCA in New England, along with the chapter in Nashua, N.H., to close in the last three decades.

Given its size and history, the demise of the Greater Portland landmark has been widely lamented.

“Nothing is coming to mind of any place that is as old and well-regarded as Portland,” said Suzanne Durham, chair of the national coordinating board of the YWCA.

But knowledgeable observers suggest the Portland closing will be an isolated event and that three other YWCAs in Lewiston, Bangor and on Mount Desert Island, which are independently operated, will be unaffected.

“At a time when such a large, established organization is lost, you don’t want it seen as the crack in the armor,” said Martha Breunig, resource and planning coordinator of YWCA New England Regional Council. “This is an exception at this time, especially in New England.”

Stuck with an outdated building, the Greater Portland organization struggled to support a broad range of programs, offering services for young mothers, at-risk teenagers and even toddlers learning to swim.

Reducing shelter beds for homeless women several years ago drove away disillusioned staff members and did little to ease financial pressures.

In recent years, the chapter has operated with a six-figure deficit while serving 7,000 annually.

Leaders at the YWCAs around the state, which hold quarterly meetings, are coming to grips with the inevitable.

“I feel as if part of the family is going to be missing,” said Anne Craigs, executive director of the YWCA of Central Maine in Lewiston.

In April, the YWCA voted to allow men to help direct its operations for the first time in its 148-year history, creating exceptions to a policy that allowed only women to serve as leaders of its nearly 300 local affiliates.

Founded in 1858 as the Young Women’s Christian Association, the YWCA’s women-only membership policy was implemented to prove women were capable administrators.

The organization, which has assets of nearly $1 billion, is funded by government grants, public donations, membership and program service fees, according to its Web site.

Throughout the world, the YWCA works in 122 countries, serving 25 million women and their families, according to the group’s Web site.

The U.S. chapters employee about 14,000 people and have 2.6 million members. They serve more than 5 million women and children through domestic violence programs and shelters, and provide child care for nearly 350,000 children.

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-08-06-06 1200EDT