The West Gymnasium, 1913

Judd Gymnasia was the first building erected on the new land purchased for the YMCA Training School, now Springfield College, along Massasoit Lake in Springfield, Massachusetts. Morrissey and Shea’s Corporation completed construction on the building in September of 1894 and it was formally opened on October 26, 1894. The original gymnasium, known today as East Gymnasium, was where James Naismith taught classes and coached the school’s basketball team however it is not the gymnasium where basketball was invented. In 1910, trustees authorized the addition of a second gymnasium and swimming pool. The new gymnasium, completed in February of 1912, was designed by architect Edward Lippincott Tilton and known as West Gymnasium. Through the years it has undergone several name changes. The gymnasium was known as west gymnasium until 1953, when the trustees voted that it be named “The Judd Gymnasium”. In 1998 the Gymnasium was renamed the Ruth Evans Gymnasium and in 2010, the Gymnasium received its current name as the Student Union West.

Is page 85 of the 1913 Massasoit Yearbook

An image of the brand new West Gymnasium taken from the entrance at the north end underneath the running track. The image, which can be found in the 1913 Massasoit Yearbook, features several pieces of gymnastics equipment set up as well as basketball hoops hanging from the track balcony.