Previous |
Next |
March 19, 2008, 09:59 AM ET
Looking for Clues, Stanford U. Excavates Site of Gym Ruined in 1906 Quake
The Men’s Gymnasium before the earthquake
The gym following the quake (Images courtesy of Stanford University Archives)
As Stanford University prepares to build a new concert hall near the main entrance to its campus, the university’s archaeologist and a team of students and volunteers are conducting an excavation at the site, where the university’s vast Men’s Gymnasium stood until the 1906 earthquake.
According to the Stanford News Service, the 130,000-square-foot, neo-Classical structure was unfinished at the time of the quake. Designed by Charles Hodges, the university architect, it was constructed to house a gym, a swimming pool, handball courts, and bowling alleys, as well as a ballroom and a banquet hall. What remained of the building was pulled down in 1910. Some of the wreckage was buried on the site, filling up the swimming pool, but other material was carted away to be dumped elsewhere.
Laura Jones, the university archaeologist, says students in the archaeology-field-methods course she is teaching at the excavation site are looking not just for artifacts but also for clues that would help explain the building’s collapse. “The steel framing that we see in some of the photos was not anchored to the concrete,” Ms. Jones told the news service. “It’s a very early experiment in concrete and steel, and they didn’t get it right.”
The excavation will probably continue into next year, Ms. Jones says, and visitors are welcome when class is in session—currently Wednesday mornings from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Construction of the concert hall is expected to begin in late 2009.
The gym wasn’t the only campus building brought down by the quake. Among other structures ruined were a triumphal arch marking the entrance to the main quadrangle, a library, and the Memorial Church.
Add Your Comment
Commenting is closed.