The YMCA is first listed as a student organization in the 1878-1879 Davidson College catalog. A decade later, a fund-raising campaign was underway to construct a YMCA building and gymnasium. The cornerstone was laid in 1890 and the building completed in 1891. [Original cornerstone is housed in the College Archives.] The YMCA held freshman receptions in the late 1880s and gradually assumed responsibility for orientation activities including the publication of a student handbook in 1896. Regular publication of the Davidson Handbook, renamed the Wildcat Handbook in 1926, began in 1902 and continued until 1961, when the Publications Board assumed responsibility. Copies of the handbook after 1961 are housed in the Davidsoniana Room.