Original Gym Building - 1925

At a meeting of the Board of Directors of RPI on June 6, 1924, it was recommended that the Board acquire as a “permanent home of the school” the former Saunders-Willard house, on the southeast corner of Franklin and Shafer Streets.  The property consisted of a large three-story mansion numbered 827 West Franklin Street, a small vacant lot on the East side and a stable at the rear numbered 221 Shafer Street.

Possession of 827 West Franklin Street (now Founders Hall) and of the brick stable in the
rear was obtained on June 1, 1925.  Both buildings were remodeled during the summer at a cost of about $16,000.  The old stable in the rear of Number 827 was an unusually fine brick structure of one and one-half stories with a gable roof and dormer windows.  There were two rooms
on the first floor, the front one for the carriages and buggies and the rear one for the horse stalls.  The upper floor contained coachman’s quarters in the rear and a hay loft in front.  In remodeling this stable all the partitions and the entire upper floor were removed and the whole stable made into one large room about 40 x 60 feet.  A new maple floor was laid.  This made a small
gymnasium, with a high ceiling. (note?)