Dartmouth College Alumni Gymnasium

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Dartmouth College's Alumni Gymnasium is the center of Dartmouth athletic life and hosts venues for many of Dartmouth’s 34 varsity sports. After its completion in 1910 it was considered to be one of the most complete athletic facilities in the Eastern United States. The Gymnasium contains two swimming pools, intramural basketball courts, championship basketball courts, two weight rooms, squash courts, 1/13 of a mile jogging track, two saunas, fencing lanes, and a row training room.

Alumni Gymnasium was designed by Charles Rich and Fredrick Mathesius. Construction began in 1909 under College President Ernest Fox Nichols. The corner stone of the gymnasium contains several historical objects, including a file of the "New Gymnasium News," copies of the student newspaper The Dartmouth, the Dartmouth literary magazine the Jack o' Lantern and the year book, the Aegis. The building cost approximately $190,000. In 1939, engineers from the Thayer School constructed a springy board track of Canadian spruce around the inside of the gym which was used by Glenn Cunningham to break the American mile record that year. During World War I, the gymnasium was converted into barracks, and during World War II, was used as an armory and lounge. In 1962-1963 the gym was extensively remodeled to include a new basketball court and added to the Dartmouth College Aquatic Facilities with the addition of the Karl B. Michael Pool. In 1972, the year the College went coed, a two-story women's locker room was added to the southeast corner. Alumni Gymnasium completed a $12 million renovation in the spring of 2006.