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EHS The Magazine
UT SIS MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO: A Strong Mind in a Strong Body
Stewart Gym opened in 1913 and has supported EHS students’ growth and well-being, serving over the last 100 years a multitude of purposes for the school community.
Launcelot Blackford, Principal from 1870 to 1913 in an early advocate for school athletics, lobbied the Board of Trustees for the construction of the School's first gymnasium, the predecessor to Stewart Gym, in 1877. Blackford advocated for the gymnasium not just as a home for indoor athletics but also for the well-being of the students and the community.
Blackford implored the trustees, “even if by the strong arm of authority, the boys are kept quiet, how unnatural, even cruel, such a constraint the whole 24 hours through, and so it must be in bad weather. Would not their health suffer too? If there was a room to romp in, all disorder in the schoolroom out of study hours could be, as it ought to be, effectually repressed; Otherwise, it cannot.”
The community eventually outgrew the original 1877 gymnasium but the same commitment to mind and body motivated the construction of its successor, Stewart Gym. The gym was a gift from Mrs. George W. Peterkin (Marion), wife of the Bishop of West Virginia, who attended Episcopal from 1856 to 1858, and two of her sisters. The building was named in honor of their uncle, Daniel Stewart, and their father, John Stewart.
Stewart Gym has been home to basketball, wrestling, fencing, and boxing. Faculty member Mike Miller remembers wrestling in Stewart Gym in the 1960s as a Woodberry student. “The entire student body would gather to stand in the balcony and scream down at the wrestlers. It was deafening and very intimidating. I do not remember the score of my match or even who won, but I remember the noise.”
Ironically, during the early years of Stewart Gym, a room in the basement was known as “Egypt,” home to the School's smoking club. Also located in the basement of Stewart Gym was the predecessor to the school store, the “Mish,” operated by the Missionary Society to support their activities. One of the greatest successes of the “Mish” was introducing the School community to Eskimo pies.
No longer an active gymnasium, Stewart Gym has met a wide range of student needs over the years. Prior to the construction of Ainslie Art Center, the Arts Department (including theater and dance) made a home of Stewart Gym. Stewart Gym even served as a dorm during a renovation of Dalrymple Dormitory. Stewart Gym is also remembered by many as the home of the School's Mass Meetings.
One of the more spirited uses of Stewart Gym in recent history was the student dodge ball tournaments organized between 2002 and 2006. Director of Residential Life Jeff Hoisington recalls, “students would cheer from the track of peer it was not unusual to have 100 spectators watching the dodgeball gladiators below, most of whom were male, but there also were a handful of adventurous girls who played.”
As Episcopal’s student center, historic Stewart Gym will continue to nurture the entire student, mind and body.
