Page:A history of the Michigan state normal school (now Normal college) at Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1849-1899 (IA historyofmichiga00putniala).pdf/44



The New Gymnasium.

The interest in physical development and training during the early history-of the school has been indicated in the account of the old gymnasium. After the destruction of that building occasional efforts were made, with some success, to introduce such exercises as could be carried on in the study halls and in the larger class rooms. These efforts, however, were intermittent and very little of a systematic character could be accomplished. After the last additions to the central building a room was fitted up in the basement of the south wing, some apparatus was procured, and considerable voluntary work was done, enough to attract the attention of the visiting committees of the Legislature and to engage their interest in the effort to secure an appropriation for the erection of a regular gymnasium.

In his report for 1892 Principal Sill said:

“We are still in need of suitable means for exercise and for instruction in physical training. The demand for teachers skilled in this department of education grows more and more urgent as its claims for recognition and attention become better known. We need a special instructor in physical training and we also need more play and exercise grounds and a suitable gymnasium. ‘The meeting of these wants is urged upon purely pedagogical grounds. No education can be deemed complete whose course of training has neglected the body and concerned itself only with the mental and moral development of the pupil. If the Michigan State normal school is to hold its place in the front rank of institutions of its kind it cannot longer neglect this most important side of a symmetrical training.”

He urged the appointment of a suitable teacher in physical culture, the providing of additional grounds, and the erection, at the earliest possible time, of a gymnasium building. The Board of visitors for the same year said, in their report:

“It would seem to your committee that the great need of the State normal school of the great educational State of Michigan, is a physical training department. Too tong has our State sent her children to her normal school without providing them with the necessary facilities for physical deyelopment.”

These persistent efforts were finally crowned with success. The Legislature of 1893 appropriated $20,000 for the erection of a building for physical culture. The problem of locating the building was a perplexing one. The original grounds were