This story appears in the June 2024 GēDUNK
When Pine Grove Normal Academy needed space to grow in 1879, the community rallied to the cause and together raised Recitation Hall, the first building on what would become the campus of Grove City College. Some gave cash, others contributed bricks and lumber, and others put their back into it – literally – with their labor.
Recitation Hall served the Academy and then the College for nearly 80 years on Lower Campus. After it was demolished in 1959, a monument was erected to mark the spot. The marker will likely be moved in the near term to make way for the next big Impact 150 building project, a multi-use fieldhouse, athletic center, and plaza planned for the site adjacent to Thorn Field and Colonial Hall Apartments. It is one of several campaign priorities to improve facilities for sports and student fitness.
In the last decade, the College has invested in personnel like coaches and strength and conditioning trainers to benefit Wolverine athletics with fantastic results. But beyond rebuilding the Walters-Zbell Tennis Courts and installing turf and lights at Don Lyle Soccer Field, work on the College’s sports infrastructure hasn’t kept pace.
While serviceable, many of the current facilities can’t sufficiently meet the needs and expectations of current and prospective students. They can’t accommodate the growing percentage of the student body that plays a growing number of varsity sports and the spaces that are shared with the entire campus community – IM Room, practice fields, fitness rooms and the like – are strained, leading to 11 p.m. intramural basketball games and very early workouts.
Forty-four-year-old Phillips Fieldhouse serves as home for three teams, but there’s barely locker room and meeting space for one of them. The Physical Learning Center has been headquarters for Wolverine Athletics since the 1950s – and it looks like it. (A 1983 addition and renovation added new spaces but did little to improve the structure’s Spartan character.) The sloping and soggy baseball field is notoriously bad, and sometimes, after periods of spring showers, unusable, forcing the team to play away.
The $26 million Lower Campus Fieldhouse will match the excellence of Grove City College, its athletic programs, and most of all, its incredible student-athletes. The multi-use facility will serve as headquarters for Wolverine football, men’s lacrosse, and tennis teams; a training center for competitors; meeting and office space for coaches and staff; and a modern showplace for Grove City College athletics. Its footprint will link Thorn Field and the Walters-Zbell Tennis Courts and a pedestrian plaza and arched entryway will enhance the game day experience for collegiate sports fans and the curb appeal for Lower Campus’ athletics.
Plans for the two-story structure include: spaces for student-athletes, including dedicated locker rooms for men’s and women’s tennis, men’s lacrosse, and football, weight and training rooms, and a large versatile space for meetings and going over film; coaches’ offices and conference space; and public spaces that include a welcoming Hall of Fame lobby and a second-floor lounge and outdoor patio that will command a view of Thorn Field for an elevated game day experience.
In addition to raising money for the Lower Campus Fieldhouse, the College is planning to build a new baseball facility, perhaps off campus, and erect an air-supported structure, basically a dome, on the practice field between Lyle Field and Campus Drive. The first will provide one of the College’s top athletic programs with a field to match its performance and Division III competitors – who are vying as much for students as they are for points against Grove City College. The dome would be a permanent, but unusual, structure. Plans call for resurfacing the field and raising the inflatable roof over it, releasing pressure on the PLC for indoor space for practice and fitness.
Just as the community’s help was critical to the success of Grove City College’s first building project, it is needed again to complete the improvements ahead. Please consider supporting the effort by contributing to Impact 150: The Anniversary Campaign for Grove City College at gcc.edu/impact150.