BUY The Book
Renaissance
Another Chance for Ridge Gymnasium(NOTE: This piece was written prior to the announcement of a capital campaign)
By Darcy Gifford
The green scoreboard is still affixed to the south wall. A handful of its light bulbs are missing, and the color is worn to a lighter hue. The side baskets are also still intact. Dust envelops the backboards, and the rims are rusted brown. Yet these symbols endure, timeless reminders of days past.
Ridge Gymnasium is, after all, an old gym. A venerable snake pit during its heyday, its sunken playing surface and cramped quarters – with legions of frenzied fans leaning over a brick balcony less than three feet away from the action – made for a distinct homecourt advantage. Ridge was an intimidating sixth man for the Bulldogs, invoking opponents’ jitters and wobbly knees.
The scoreboard buzzer wailed for the last time on Dec. 20, 1990. The historic building, once dubbed a "Monument to the Depression," became a monument to progress, as the teams packed their gear and headed to the spacious Merillat Sport & Fitness Center.
Ridge has since served a myriad of functions, including a makeshift entertainment venue in the early 1990s, complete with visiting comedians and musicians. Then, saddled with a leaking roof and other functional inadequacies, Ridge closed its doors. The heat was turned off, and the wooden playing surface, which once hosted some of the most memorable moments in the College’s history, was littered with discarded furniture and bird excrement. Sadly, it had become a monument to neglect.
Fast forward to the present. Ridge is currently in the midst of yet another metamorphosis. With the roof repaired and electrical and heating issues addressed, it became the College’s temporary library in 1999 as Shipman Library underwent an incredible renovation. The old gym is now a student center, and today’s students go to Ridge to check their centrally located mailboxes or to use the 24-hour computer lab.
Still, Ridge, in its current state known simply as "phase one," is far from the comprehensive student center that this campus thirsts for. Steel grafting and half-formed walls give the interior an industrial and incomplete look, as if the construction workers went on a coffee break and forgot to come back. Its dark, eclectic colors and cavernous atmosphere seem more suitable for a warehouse rave than a dynamic campus hangout.
Thankfully, campus leaders have a vision for Ridge. And why not? Structurally sound and architecturally interesting, it is a fitting candidate for renovation. It has an enduring quality, and perhaps no other building on campus has a better story to tell. Ah, if those walls could talk. Like sitting at the knee of a grandparent and listening to stories of old, Ridge has seen it all. From a beginning marred by dismal economics, to its birth as a burgeoning mecca of small college athletics, Ridge has witnessed and withstood the test of time.
Close your eyes and envision the way it used to be. It’s 1929, and fanfare surrounds the campus as the cornerstone is laid in place. Or it’s 1939, and after 10 depression-riddled years, the building is finally completed. Maybe in your mind it’s the 1950s, and as an AC student you play a fierce game of handball with President John Dawson ’38. Can you remember the late 1970s, and hearing the roar of the crowd as the volleyball and women’s basketball teams made winning MIAA titles commonplace? Or maybe your point of reference is the late 1980s, when you’d venture in there at midnight to watch your buddies play floor hockey.
Everyone has a memory of Ridge. Commencements. Theatre productions. Athletic contests. Running laps on the concrete bleachers. Ridge is a common thread for AC alumni, a harmonious blend of nostalgia and durability. No building on campus is screaming louder for a makeover, and when the resurgence is complete, Ridge will retain its rightful place of pre-eminence. The interior architectural design calls for intersecting levels and a mixture of spaces, highlighted by an atrium and skyboxes modeled after suites at professional athletic stadiums. It is a vision that the stonemasons who laid the cornerstone in 1929 never would have imagined.
There’s tranquility about Ridge now; a grand building that has quietly waited its turn for a renaissance. In the coming months, we will be hearing more about the College’s elaborate plans to resurrect Ridge. Perhaps the plan will captivate and galvanize our alumni, transforming the building so that a future generation of Adrian students can add their own chapter to its storied history.
What better way to pay tribute to a building that has meant so much to so many of us?
Originally published in Contact, Adrian College alumni magazine, Winter 2002.
