Gaston (500?) Built 1923
April 22, 2026
I started the Fading Gyms section of my blog almost two years ago. It was Christmas break 2024, and I was sitting at my in-laws' house late at night with nothing to do. Over the last couple of years I had taken a few exterior shots of gyms that I hadn't gone inside for one reason or another. I believe the first ever was Brighton up in LaGrange County. It had been a church and currently was a private residence. I felt weird asking for someone to let me into their domicile to take pictures, so I didn't pursue that one very far. I wanted to do something with the photos, so I decided to start a page dedicated to gyms that I deemed to be "fading." This means they are either seemingly completely inaccessible, remodeled so extensively that they are unrecognizable, or abandoned and falling apart to the point that they don't resemble the gyms they once were anymore. I think I started with maybe 5 old gyms that fell under this category. It has grown to over 100, which I never imagined in my wildest dreams. I'm glad I started it though, it's motivated me to make it to all of these before they're gone forever. Three of them on the page have already been torn down: Oxford, Jonesboro, and Jefferson in Clinton County. I've also dreamed of being able to get inside one that seemed completely inaccessible and pull it off the list and write a proper blog about it. I didn't think it would ever happen though. I only put them on the list in the first place if I'm almost positive they're a lost cause. It took me a long time, and a lot of perseverance in asking around, but I finally got it done. I would've traveled anywhere in the state to make it happen, but ironically my wish came true just a few miles from my own house.
Gaston, Indiana lies in the northwest corner of Delaware County. It's a neat rural community that had its own high school and basketball team until 1966 when it consolidated with Harrison Township to form Wes-Del. The Gaston Bulldogs played in a quaint little gym for over 40 years leading up to consolidation. They never won a sectional, but had some fine teams over the years. The gym used to be attached to the high school, and was left standing when the school was torn down years ago. After the high school closed, the gym continued to serve the town as a community center. That is, until a few years ago. Water damage and a potentially shaky foundation caused the floor of the gym to begin to buckle, and the community center was shuttered. This was the beginning of what will probably be the end of the Gaston gym. It's also the reason why I put the gym on the Fading Gyms list. I tried without much luck for a couple years to contact someone around town who let me pop in and take a few pictures. Eventually, one last ditch effort on Facebook put me in touch with Mrs. Traci Pittenger who connected me with Officer Carl Barber of the Gaston Police Department. They were both kind enough to let me and my good friend and local historian Ted Shideler in to see the gym one day in April. It wasn't as easy as just turning a key either. Officer Barber had to pry the wood off the entrance that was boarded up to let us inside. I am beyond grateful to both Mrs. Pittenger and Officer Barber, because what we found once we stepped through the door was well worth the wait.
Even though the gym has been shuttered and essentially unused for almost a decade, the lights miraculously still work. This allowed us to get some quality pictures. I was told the gym was pretty small, and that certainly was not an exaggeration. It's probably 20 feet short of regulation size from baseline to baseline, and the three-point lines that were added years later only make it to the free throw line-extended before running into the out of bounds lines, which are just inches from the bottom of the sideline bleachers. If you were sitting in the front row, your feet were probably resting right on the line. The playing surface was covered in a nice layer of dust, but we could still make out the green areas inside the foul lanes and yellow spaces inside the top of the key semicircles. At center-court is a nice little painting of the Bulldog mascot. "Bulldogs" is also written right underneath the baskets inside the foul lanes running across the baselines. You can see where the floor is starting to buckle ever so slightly, mostly in the middle of the court. Ironically some of the worst sections are in a spot where it's written on the court: "Gym Restored Sept. 2002 By The Town Of Gaston." A place that was almost lost 20 years ago was saved by the hard work and dedication of a group of community members that recognized its importance. Unfortunately it seems that even the most civic-minded citizens won't be able to rescue it this time.
Around the perimeter of the court are three sections of permanent wooden bleachers. Along one sideline and baseline they go up 4 rows. These two sides are connected in one corner. The sideline section here also has the original scorer's table intact which was cool to see. The other sideline section goes up 6 rows. This side isn't connected to the others as there is an exit in one corner and steps in another leading to the bathrooms. On the fourth end of the gym is a modest stage. It isn't framed by any sort of elaborate brick, but its upper curved edges give it a little bit of character. There are doors on either side of it that lead to the area behind the stage. There are also steps that lead down to a level below the stage that had standing water in it, which again shows why the whole structure has been having some of its issues. In two corners of the gym are little platforms built over the entrances. In Kyle Neddenriep's Historic Hoosier Gyms, he mentions there used to be a couple of "crow's nests" in the gym. I wonder if those were in these corners. They're merely storage spaces now. A wonderful old scoreboard also resides up in one of them.
The upper sideline wall that would have been the exterior wall of the gym used to have big windows that were filled in a long time ago. The opposite sideline wall would have been connected to the old school, and now features an enclosed staircase that is reached from the top row of the bleachers. It takes you up to a level that actually sits above the gym. Ted and I gingerly walked up the old stairs and found a big assembly hall and a couple of classrooms that were in much worse shape than the gym below. Historic Hoosier Gyms mentions that one of the rooms up here used to be the principal's office. Right before we left, we noticed that the basket in front of the stage was actually fastened and bolted to the the stage via long metal arms. I had never seen a hoop attached like that and thought it was odd. Then Ted noticed an old winch off to the side, implying that at one time the basket was retractable. That made a lot more sense.
The one aspect of the Gaston gym that always stuck out to me the most was actually outside of the gym. The whole gym is covered in wooden slats that are similar to what my 100+ year old barn back at home is made out of. I've never seen anything like it on a gym. Thanks to Ted, I later came to find out that the gym was covered in this wood in the 80s for some reason. Underneath all that wood is the original stucco material the gym was made out of (You can read a much more extensive history of the old school and gym on Ted's site HERE). If you're ever in the area, it's worth driving by just to see the unique exterior. If you're going to though, you should probably do it soon. There's no demolition date or anything like that set for the gym, but its days are certainly numbered. The damage is significant enough that the money required to fix it up at this point would be astronomical. For a small town like Gaston, it just isn't in the cards. As excited as I was to see the interior, and as grateful as I am to those who helped make it happen, I find myself feeling very somber as I write this four months later. The Gaston gym is a treasure. There are features to it that simply are not found anywhere else (the closest comparison I can come up with for the structure is Michigantown). Once it's gone, it's gone. All we'll have left are pictures like the ones found here and the memories that live in the hearts of those who loved this place way before I ever stumbled across it. Those memories are important, I just wish we could keep the physical reminder of them as well. The gym is fading for now, but eventually it will be lost, and there's a real finality in that.
