The first campus gymnasium, built in 1859 where Witherspoon Hall now stands, was a wooden barn-like structure that was set on fire in the summer of 1865 by townspeople who heard that a vagrant with yellow fever had slept there. Shortly after newly-arrived President James McCosh expressed his support of organized athletics in 1868, construction began on a new center for physical education and improvement. Upon its completion in 1870, the Bonner-Marquand Gymnasium (with measurements slightly smaller than a modern basketball court) was considered the finest facility in the country and served the College for nearly forty years.

Princeton’s first instructor in physical education and director of the gymnasium was George Goldie.

Bonner-Marquand Gym in Evolution of the Campus

(More information on Bonner-Marquand Gym)

Text: https://www.princeton.edu/frist/iconography/p6.shtml

Photo: Princeton University Archives, Mudd Library, Grounds & Buildings, Box 38