of the Association is, officially, 1952. On January 30, 1929, a certificate of incorporation for the New York Chapter of The American Physiotherapy Association, Inc., was filed with the New York State Department of State. So why, then, are we celebrating our 50th anniversary now instead of our 70th anniversary three years ago?

In 1921, the American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association was founded at Keen's Chop House in New York City with New York being one of the charter members of the Association. By the end of 1925 there were five regular chapters: Chicago, Cleveland, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania. As evidenced by these designations, chapters were not necessarily representative of an entire state, which was true of New York, since it only represented the metropolitan New York area. Any new group of five or more members of the Association could form a chapter. All members of chapters had to be members of the Association and if members were in a geographic area that was not convenient to a chapter they were designated members-at-large. Chapter constitutions needed to conform to National's regarding membership and standards.

Western New York Chapter was formed in June of 1931, Central New York Chapter in October of 1933, and Eastern New York Chapter in 1940. During the early 1940s, the Association encouraged states with multiple chapters to join together to form state chapters with districts but New York continued to have its four separate chapters.

However, soon after, New York began proceedings that would have unified the four chapters into one representing the entire state. A constitution and bylaws were submitted to National and approved in July of 1941. Further modifications were being worked on until the Association Executive Committee met in October of 1943 and decided "it was quite generally the consensus of those present that any further attempt to complete state chapter organizations be postponed for the duration of the war."

Following the war, negotiations began once again between the four New York chapters culminating in a meeting on October 4, 1952, in Syracuse to form one state chapter and adopt bylaws. Each current chapter would continue to exist as a district and the presidents of the districts would serve as directors on the executive board of the chapter.

So what we are celebrating is the unification, 50 years ago, of the four chapters that were present in New York State. But note that, geographically, these four areas did not represent all areas of the state. That would come later with the formation of other districts...

The New York Physical Therapy Association (NYPTA) is a non-profit professional organization composed of approximately 5,000 licensed physical therapists (PTs), physical therapist assistants (PTAs) and PT/PTA students. The NYPTA is dedicated to serving the public's health interests, improving the standard of health for people of all ages, and advancing the interests of physical therapists in the State of New York.

Home | Districts | Find a PT | Join NYPTA | News | Reimbursement | Back