Alumni Gymnasium

Alumni Gymnasium

Irritated by the state’s flat refusal to fund a gymnasium for Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, Tom Bragg, the president of the Auburn Alumni Association, solicited funds from Auburn graduates all over the country. In February 1916, noted local architect Frank Lockwood finished the new fa...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Taylor McGaughy
Format: Electronic
Published: Auburn University Libraries
Subjects:
Cultural resources
Online Access:https://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/9
format Electronic
collection Alabama Cultural Resource Survey Collection
building Auburn University
publisher Auburn University Libraries
topic Cultural resources
spellingShingle Cultural resources
Alumni Gymnasium
Taylor McGaughy
fulltopic Cultural resources
Education; Lee County, AL; Auburn University; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College; Bragg, Tom; Alumni Gymnasium; Lockwood, Frank; Rogers, Will; Griffith, D.W.; The Birth of a Nation; Toomer's Corner; Donahue, Mike; James E. Foy Hall; Auburn, AL
description Irritated by the state’s flat refusal to fund a gymnasium for Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, Tom Bragg, the president of the Auburn Alumni Association, solicited funds from Auburn graduates all over the country. In February 1916, noted local architect Frank Lockwood finished the new facility, which contained a basketball court that occasionally doubled as a dance hall. Any entertainment booked by the college, including homecoming dance bands, performed in Alumni Gymnasium. The building hosted some of the most noteworthy entertainers and performing artists of the first half of the twentieth century, including Will Rogers. After a screening of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation, a race riot almost broke out as agitated male college students gathered at Toomer’s Corner to harass local African Americans. Mike Donahue, Auburn’s football coach, calmed the angry mob and convinced them to disband, diffusing the potentially disastrous situation. In 1972, the college demolished Alumni Hall to make way for the expansion of the Student Union Building (Foy Hall). James E. Foy Hall occupies the site where Alumni Gymnasium formerly resided at 282 West Thach Avenue, Auburn University.
spelling Alumni GymnasiumTaylor McGaughyEducation; Lee County, AL; Auburn University; Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College; Bragg, Tom; Alumni Gymnasium; Lockwood, Frank; Rogers, Will; Griffith, D.W.; The Birth of a Nation; Toomer's Corner; Donahue, Mike; James E. Foy Hall; Auburn, ALIrritated by the state’s flat refusal to fund a gymnasium for Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College, Tom Bragg, the president of the Auburn Alumni Association, solicited funds from Auburn graduates all over the country. In February 1916, noted local architect Frank Lockwood finished the new facility, which contained a basketball court that occasionally doubled as a dance hall. Any entertainment booked by the college, including homecoming dance bands, performed in Alumni Gymnasium. The building hosted some of the most noteworthy entertainers and performing artists of the first half of the twentieth century, including Will Rogers. After a screening of D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent film, The Birth of a Nation, a race riot almost broke out as agitated male college students gathered at Toomer’s Corner to harass local African Americans. Mike Donahue, Auburn’s football coach, calmed the angry mob and convinced them to disband, diffusing the potentially disastrous situation. In 1972, the college demolished Alumni Hall to make way for the expansion of the Student Union Building (Foy Hall). James E. Foy Hall occupies the site where Alumni Gymnasium formerly resided at 282 West Thach Avenue, Auburn University.Alabama Cultural Resource StudyTaylor McGaughy2014-11-26Still Image and TextJPEG and Texthttps://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/9Image Sources: http://diglib.auburn.edu/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0loguesms--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=loguesms&cl=CL1.3&d=HASH015735d8cd342a37772edc22 Text Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes, and Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village Remembered in Period Photographs (Montgomery: NewSouth Books, 2012), 29-30.English
title Alumni Gymnasium
titleStr Alumni Gymnasium
author Taylor McGaughy
author_facet Taylor McGaughy
id AUcultural9
url https://omeka.lib.auburn.edu/items/show/9
_version_ 1788802433769537536

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