The Old Gymnasium

The old gymnasium was built in the fall of 1871 in order to support the Trinity Boat Club's need for training space and indoor calisthenics ¹⁾. The “large barn-like structure” ²⁾ was moved to the Summit Street campus North of Jarvis Hall in 1878, where it stood until it burned down on May 13, 1896, nearly 10 years after Alumni Hall was completed.

Wooden building near Summit Street ca. 1885, possibly the old gymnasium. Photo credit: Trinity College Archives

Background

“The original plan for the College called for considerable outdoor activity” including farming, gardening, and military drill. ³⁾ However, Trinity's students were not exercise enthusiasts, leading to advice and criticisms from campus and faith leaders who believed that physical, mental, and moral health were intertwined. Nathaniel Wheaton observed undergraduates in England, who were very active and “in consequence much less frequently the victims of debility, and the train of ills, mental and bodily, which result from a too sedentary life.” Similar commentary came from traveling preachers such as the Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D.D., who spoke to students at Trinity in 1852, stating that “our educated men are sadly deficient in that healthy robustness.”

It was not until after the Civil War that athletic activity and exercise became part of undergraduate life. Exercise apparatus at an early date “was erected in the open to the west of Brownell Hall,” ⁴⁾ but the pieces of equipment (which included ladder, pommel horse, and parallel bars) were exposed to the elements, fell into disrepair, and disappeared. In May 1871, students advocated for a gymnasium utilizing the Trinity Tablet, which succeeded. The College agreed to build it, and the students cheered: “there is one thing which is most certainly essential to a college, and that is, a gymnasium. It is absolutely necessary that a person, who leads a sedentary life, should have physical exercise. If the mind must be trained in an intellectual gymnasium, so must the body be exercised in a physical one.” ⁵⁾

Construction began about September of 1871, and the excited students soon became dubious about the size and layout of the structure: “if the authorities would only be willing to take suggestions from students who have spent, we may almost say, years among the parallel bars and ladders, who, as the building is for their benefit, might be expected to know best what they need and wish, all might yet be well. As it is, however, the end will probably be very unsatisfactory to the majority of the college.” ⁶⁾

The gymnasium, located “a hundred feet west of the wing on Jarvis Hall” and “parallel to Capitol Avenue” ⁷⁾ was a popular spot on campus at the start and was dedicated with a formal dance. By 1872, however, though “heavy weights, Indian clubs, and a spirometer” were added, the gymnasium was “getting to be an old story” and students' “general interest in it had subsided.” A lack of heating in winter also contributed to its declining use, though the November 1871 Trinity Tablet explicitly describes that the building had gas, “a new feature in college gymnasiums, and one greatly to be desired.”

Students soon discovered that the gymnasium, with its large open oak wood floor, was an excellent space for social events, which were previously held in small and cluttered spaces such as the Cabinet. In subsequent years, “almost any occasion became the excuse for a dance,” including May 16. Some students and alumni wrote to the Trinty Tablet with complaints that the dances were “farcical” and asked if Trinity really wished to be known as the “Dancing College of America.” ⁸⁾

New Campus

Students stand on the ruins of the old gymnasium, 1896. Photo Credit: Trinity College Archives

The old gymnasium was the only building from the old campus that moved to the new Summit Street location. In December 1878, it was dismantled and re-erected “at the north end of the Campus, fronting Vernon Street, a little to the east of the line of the main buildings.” ⁹⁾

After Alumni Hall's construction, the old gym was used for varied purposes, namely as Estabrook waiters' living quarters, a student reading room for newspapers and magazines, as a classroom and office by the Professor of Modern Languages, and for instruction in mechanical drawing.

At about 2:30 a.m. on May 13, 1896, College students and faculty discovered the north end of the old gymnasium in flames; the fire department arrived too late to save the building. While watching it burn to the ground, students “gave vent to their appreciation of the sight by cheers and general rejoicing,” ¹⁰⁾ but by late morning were regretful at the loss of the “old landmark” that was also a substantial financial loss to the College due to a lack of insurance.

After the old gym burned down, an exact replica was built to the south of Seabury Hall and was called “Martin Hall” after French Professor Winifred R. Martin. In 1902, “Martin Hall” was replaced by a commons building that was called “Stickney Hall.”