This one-story round gymnasium is located in the southwest corner of Yale. The building has a round footprint, roughly 77 feet in diameter and approximately 242 feet in circumference.A red Y is painted at center court inside the Yale Round Gym. Brandon Godwin is leading a restoration and renovation of the Yale Round Gym. The strength of the building’s design and materials have protected the building, constructed in 1932, from ruin and its largely-unaltered state make it a unique window to the past. Hosting events like graduation, basketball tournaments and school plays, the Yale gymnasium has served as a pillar of this small community.Inside the Yale Round Gym, a dome roof requires no supporting pillars, being supported by eight steel rafters. At some point a false ceiling hung from the steel beams but most of it has fallen away or been torn down.

Restoring the Round

By ASHLEY SCHABLE
For The Jefferson Herald

YALE — It’s 84 years old, and it needs some work.

During a special election held in Yale on Dec. 29, 1931, voters agreed to build a gymnasium. The vote passed 134 in favor and 23 against, with those in favor arguing that the school needed the improvements to become accredited. They agreed that the cost would not exceed $3,000, and that the money would come from the surplus funds on hand at the time.

By Jan. 7, 1932, a contract had been awarded to H.H. Thomas and Son, from Adel. Planned as a round building, it would be the only gymnasium of this form in the state of Iowa.

The Dexter Roundhouse, built 16 years prior, was for hosting social events and community gatherings, so at the time, Yale’s project would be the only round gymnasium. The New Providence School Gymnasium, built in 1936, is the only other round block gymnasium in Iowa.

Yale High School officials scheduled a dedication ceremony on March 24, 1932, with a doubleheader between the Yale and Panora boys and girls basketball teams. From that point on, the building hosted many community events, including school plays, band concerts, basketball games and tournaments, until Yale High School merged with the school in Jamaica in the mid-1950s.

It’s been a testament to the small town’s history, and one that needs preserving, locals say.

“I figure the worst thing that happens is you run into a brick wall and it halts and it sits here,” said Brandon Godwin, a 33-year-old Yale resident and city council member who is leading the charge on the restoration project of the historic Yale Round Gym.

While he’s admittedly no expert in architecture, Godwin, who works as a transportation assistant to the commercial transportation officer at Camp Dodge, has become Yale’s resident expert on the old gymnasium.

After all, it sits in his backyard.

Yale is the hometown of his wife, Amber. Godwin owns Yale Pallet Designs, a small side business based on his longtime interest in woodworking.

Godwin has single-handedly helped lead the push to get the gym on the Register of Historic Places, requesting an evaluation of the round block gymnasium building at 414 Lincoln St. in Yale in September 2015 to determine its eligibility.

A measure of eligibility would allow the city council and Godwin to begin preservation planning, including seeking financial incentives to undertake a future rehabilitation of the gym.

In September, Nate Buman prepared a Iowa Site Inventory under the Technical Advisory Network (TAN) program of the Historic Resource Development Program of the State Historical Society of Iowa.

This site form contains an evaluation of the current condition of the historic gymnasium, as much history and architecture of the gym as could be gathered and its eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Godwin learned in January the gym met the criteria to be placed on the National Register of Historical Places.

“We got the report pushed through, and it’s looking pretty positive,” he said. “This really opens things up for money and for grants.”

There are multiple reasons accounting for the building’s status on the register.

Foremost among them is the architecture.

The one-story round gymnasium is located in the southwest quarter of the city block in the small town of Yale in northeast Guthrie County.

The building has a round footprint, roughly 77 feet in diameter and approximately 242 feet in circumference. It includes a basement with concrete flooring and block walls, while the exterior of the building is constructed of clay block. The main, public entrance is on ground level on the northwest side of the building. It’s a simple industrial double-door entrance featuring a large piece of limestone that reads “19 Yale Gym 32.”

The entrance leads to the area where attendants would have sat on the north side of the basketball court. There is another entry point directly opposite, but it bears only a single, metal door and opens directly onto the southeast corner of the basketball court.

A third entrance into the building is located on the southeast side of the building. This single metal door opens onto a landing allowing visitors to go either down to the old locker room area or up onto the stage. A fourth door leads from the southwest side of the building directly onto the stage.

The ground floor holds the basketball court that measures 30 feet, 6 inches by 65 feet, 8 inches, with all four corners rounded off by the exterior block wall.

The stage rises at the southern edge of the basketball court, bounded by two brick chimneys with movable walls at the stage level.

The bleachers once sat on the northern side of the basketball court. Old photographs show the bleachers were very steep and rose from the basketball court all the way up the northern wall toward the rafters; the bleachers came right to the basketball court.

Six windows overlook the court from each of the west and east ends of the court. The stage features 10 windows.

The basement is a symmetrical space underneath the stage and served as the locker rooms for both the girls and boys teams. The basement contains miscellaneous items, from old shelving to chairs and a Yale High School scoreboard.

The last time the building was open to the public was 2009. Several photographs including former students and graduates, and memorabilia dating that reunion adorns a table in the middle of the row of chairs along the basketball court.

“Everything in here now is how it was then,” Godwin said of the 2009 opening.  “They opened it up and gave a brief history on it.”

The strength of the building’s design and materials have protected the building from ruin, and its largely-unaltered state make it a unique window to the past.

Now, Godwin, hoping to revive the building that has served as a pillar to this small community, is searching for ways to fund the restoration project.

“I can’t imagine what the price tag would be on it,” he said. “Or how long it will take.”

He has support, as many in Yale and surrounding communities agree the gym needs restoration, Godwin said.

“I have had nothing but support from the community,” he said. “I have had a lot of people wondering about the status on it and saying, ‘When can we get in there and work?’ ”

Godwin has help in applying for grants and ideas of what to do with the building.

“We don’t want to do all this work and then leave it sitting empty,” he said. “I would like to see it back to its original form and have it — not take away from the community building, but to have a community events center.”

He envisions musicals, plays, open gyms and basketball tournaments.

The gym has a colorful and storied history.

“It’s actually pretty awesome,” Godwin said.

Brandon Godwin has started a Facebook page — Yale Round Gym Restoration/Renovation Project — to keep Yale and surrounding communities informed on the progress of the Yale Round Gym Project.

He welcomes stories and photos from the historical gymnasium.

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