The Hickory Flat (Benton County) gymnasium was constructed c. 1948 according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Historic Resources Inventory. During the 1930s,
…rural schools grew into small villages composed of several buildings dedicated to specialized purposes, most commonly teachers’ houses, vocational buildings, gymnasiums, and cafeterias (p. 43). (Jennifer V. Opager Baughn, 2012, A Modern School Plant: Rural Consolidated Schools in Mississippi, 1910-1955. Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, 19(1), 43-72)
The state’s practice of providing free standardized plans using ‘best practices’ in regard to lighting, directional orientation, and ventilation helped ensure that the efforts to build better rural schools also resulted in buildings that were designed to enhance educational environments. Some 300 gymnasiums were built between the years of 1920 and 1955. Only 12 of those were built at rural schools for black children, and most of those were constructed after the 1953 Equalization laws.
Hickory Flat’s concrete block building was a later incarnation of the early wood-frame gymnasiums first constructed, with a standardized plan that included windows high on the exterior walls (Baughn, 2012). By the end of the 1940s, the State Department of Education’s School Building Service provided “eleven or more” standardized plans, and
…more ambitious gymnasiums, which became numerous in the post-war era, were brick veneered, often with a steel truss roof system to shelter a large, high space (Baughn, p. 66).
One example of the early wood-frame gymnasiums is the Zama Consolidated School’s 1938 gymnasium in Attala County.
The gymnasium from the Thyatira complex, designed 1940-1941 by Emmett J. Hull and Eugene Drummond for rural Tate County, is the only remaining structure of that school system.
Another late 40s era gymnasium was the 1947 Lynville gymnasium in rural Kemper County.
Does your rural county still have an extant gymnasium from the 1930s and 1940s? They may not be as architecturally appealing as some of the other buildings in your community, but they represent an amazing goal of the Mississippi Department of Education: standardizing consolidated school buildings to improve rural education facilities (Baughn, p. 49).
Categories: Historic Preservation, Schools
Preservation in Mississippi 
E.L., what is the story on the gym at Bentonia?
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It was a 1949 addition to the classroom building, which was built in 1929. When they tore down the main building, they left the gym standing and at least at that time (c.2010), I think it was in use for maybe a boys and girls club or something like that.
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I love this post! Such interesting wood gymnasiums.
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The Zama Consolidated School’s 1938 gymnasium in Attala County looks like the Lawhon School (formerly East Tupelo Consolidated School which included a high school until the late 1940s) gymnasium in East Tupelo.
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I think the shed wing with the windows shown in this view was extended along the length of it some time ago.
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And the game clock scoreboard had an analog dial face game clock!
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The Zama and Lawhon gyms are two examples of the most common standardized state plan I’ve found, called “GM-7.” The bleachers, with locker rooms below, took up the shed wings and the playing floor is under the high gable roof. You will often see small windows in that upper wall above the sheds to bring more light in. Nice catch!
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I don’t know when the Lawhon gym was built but it was there when my mother and father attended East Tupelo Consolidated School.
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Your article was really interesting! I confess to not having thought much about gymnasiums, other than trying to track down ones built under the New Deal administration, but I have a new appreciation now for the role they served in communities.
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The c.1946 Picayune Colored Gymnasium was a 2007 MHT 10 most endangered structure. I believe it was demolished in 2012.
https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/prop.aspx?id=101746&view=facts&y=984
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So this would have been one of the few constructed prior to the 1953 Equalization law?
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Yes but I don’t think it would qualify as rural.
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I must not know much about Picayune then–thought it was pretty far off the beaten path, based on my post-Katrina work. :)
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I’ve always had the impression that Picayune has grown a lot since Katrina, but looking at the census records Picayune has had about 10,000 residence since 1970. Its the largest town in the county.
I agree it seems off the beaten path. There no good way to get there from the Coast.
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I don’t think that PIcayune Gym was actually a public school gym. For some reason, it sticks in my head that it was built with private funds or maybe as a business?
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G W Carver High School did play games there in the 1940s but I think you’re correct that it was not owned by the school system.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080820053147/http://www.picayuneitem.com/archivesearch/local_story_122122937.html
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There is one in White Oak that I was told was built in tge early 1930’s.
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I found White Oak in Tunica County and in Smith County. Where was this White Oak?
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The White Oak in Smith County. There was also a White Oak school there that has been torn down and replaced by White Oak Baptist Church, but the gym was saved and it is used for numerous community events including White Oak school reunions. The gym sits off the road behind the White Oak Baptist Church south of the intersection of hwy 18 and 541.
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Thank you for the follow up! I looked on maps but could not seem to figure it out–now I will know where to search!
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Suzassippi’s posts are always interesting. Thanks!
H
Harry Connolly
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And thank you, Mr. Connolly!
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Does anyone remember the gym at Central High School in Jackson? It had spiral stairs at the southeast and northwest corners (I think) leading down into the locker rooms. Just a railing to prevent the players from flipping into whatever was down there. Two questions: Has anyone ever seen that arrangement anywhere else and how was the CHS gym repurposed after the state acquired the building?
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Boy do I remember those spiral stairs. The north stairs went to the boys dressing room and the south one to the girls. I have been to the CHS building a number of times since the State took over, but not sure how they handled the gym area.
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One of my favorite wooden gyms in the state, another GM7 plan, is the one at the old Lena School. The inside walls are covered with beautiful painted advertising signs that are signed by John Ladd of Harperville and dated 1950. John Ladd, Jr. restored the signs in 2010 and also signed his name. It’s the most amazing gym interior I’ve ever encountered.
See pictures at https://www.apps.mdah.ms.gov/Public/prop.aspx?id=2145894673&view=facts&y=1160
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An example of the importance of these gymnasiums to their community.
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Too bad about those doors. They really detract from the ambiance.
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As a child, I was told that when the rural schools consolidated, each community could choose to keep 1 building, but the rest would be destroyed. The old Barnes School in Leake County close to the Attala County border chose to keep the “Main Building” which had the principal’s office and home economics room. I believe that building is still standing and in use as a community center.
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Not sure of its date of construction but i believe this is the Pachuta Consolidated – Gymnasium
http://www.mdah.ms.gov/arrec/digital_archives/series/schoolphotographs/detail/160714
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The MDAH HRI dates this gym in Stonewall to 1948.
http://www.mdah.ms.gov/arrec/digital_archives/series/schoolphotographs/detail/160739
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Looked like the one at Thyatira before they apparently took off that extending ell visible in the historic photograph link.
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The roofs are different but the one story vestibule with entry appears on each structure. Is that one story portion of the Thyatira on the front or the rear elevation of the gymnasium?
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That is hard to say, as the rest of the complex was demolished. My guess is that it is on the front, based on where the highway faced, but that is just a guess. I guess I am just going to have to go back out there and look.
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Either Google or Stonewall has misspelled “cemetery”
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Ha it looks like google did. The street signs are the correct spelling. Interestingly enough Apple maps has Cemetery Loop labeled as 4th Street.
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This looks like it could be a gymnasium outside Columbia.
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