Gymnasium
In May 1883, a petition was received by the trustees from the students who asked that steps be taken by the board to provide a suitable gymnasium for their use. The subject was again agitated later in the year, and in 1884 a lot on the south side of Broadway, at the foot of the property containing the Main Building, was purchased by the trustees. Upon this site a gymnasium of brick, trimmed with stone and terra-cotta, eighty feet long by forty-four feet wide, and two stories in height, was erected. It was opened March 11, 1887. About half the money expended in its construction was contributed by alumni, trustees, students and residents of Troy, and the remainder was appropriated from the funds of the Institute. The first story contain[ed] a reception room, a dressing room, showers and bowling alleys, and [on] the second [story] the main hall, which is about thirty feet high and fitted with the best patterns of gymnastic apparatus. There is a running track around this hall and at one end a gallery for spectators.Ricketts, Palmer C. History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1824-1934. New York, J. Wiley, London, Chapman & Hall, 1934, p.120.
The building was used as a gymnasium until 1912 when all recreational operations moved to the 1887 Gymnasium. It was used for various purposes until 1929 when the RPI Players took it over and it became known as the RPI Playhouse. The building, referred to as a Troy landmark, was torn down in 1966.
