Martinsville (Old) (5,200) Built 1924
July 28, 2026
July 28, 2026
Halloween is right around the corner. I've found it to be much more exciting as an adult with young kids than it was when I was a child myself. This is probably because my parents weren't exactly big fans of it, and since we lived out in the middle of nowhere, there wasn't really anywhere to go trick or treating anyways. A couple of years I think they felt bad for us and let us dress up as Westview basketball players and we went to my grandparents house to get candy. One thing was clear though from a young age, we didn't believe in or mess with anything that was spooky in nature. We've pretty much kept that same sentiment with our own kids. They dress up in cute or silly costumes and we get candy, but that's it. We try to steer clear of anything that could give anyone nightmares. Because of my upbringing, I've never really believed in or entertained anything like ghosts or spirits in the traditional sense. I can't say I've ever encountered one, but I can also say I've never gone looking for one (which tends to be when people "find" them it seems, at least on those ridiculous shows). While I haven't ran into Casper or his friends yet, I can say I've felt something that some people might say is similar. When I visit old buildings that have a lot of history, I definitely can sense a presence in some of them. Of course you know I'm going to relate this to gyms, but I've also felt it when walking in my great-grandpa's century old barn, or when I stepped into Independence Hall in Philadelphia. When I stand in the middle of a room, and it's quiet, and I look all around, and I overlay the visions in my head of what it must have been like long ago with what my eyes are currently seeing, I can feel it. Sometimes it's just a quick flutter, other times it's an overwhelming flood that hits me right in the chest. I found the latter when I walked into the Glenn Curtis Gymnasium in Martinsville this summer.
There are two and a half gyms that were once absolute cathedrals of high school basketball that are still standing today, but are mere whisps of their former glory. One is Bedford, the half is Jeffersonville (the upper level being intact kind of saves it), and the other is this one. Martinsville built this behometh in 1924. According to Historic Hoosier Gyms by Kyle Neddenriep, at the time it was built, it was bigger than the gyms at Indiana and Purdue, and it held more people than were in the entire town of Martinsville. It was the biggest high school gym in the state at the time. It was a clear signal to the rest of Indiana that Martinsville was setting the standard for supporting the state's newest craze. Making a big statement with a gym this grand would have seemed silly if they didn't have the teams to back it up. Luckily, they did. While the format was slightly different in the earliest days of state tournament, consider this: they made the state finals weekend in the first SEVEN years of playing in this gym. During that span they won two state titles, and then tacked one more on for good measure a little later in 1933. The legendary coach Glenn Curtis coached all three of those state championship teams, which rightfully led to the gym being named after him. In the earliest days of the gym, he had a kid named John Wooden on his team. Mr. Wooden was a pretty good basketball player, and even went on to be a pretty decent coach himself. Maybe you've heard of him?
The old Martinsville gym served the Artesians well until 1976 when a new high school was built across town. At that time. the decision was made to built a new gym at the new high school. We're going to get into what the old gym looked like before this decision, and what it looks like now, and I don't want to spend this whole blog just killing the past administration at Martinsvlle, because given what they decided to do, they actually did a pretty good job. I'm just going to say this once here and move on: the decision to abandon this old gym in favor of a new modern one (and I actually like the "new" one!) was catastrophic. There's no reason this place couldn't have become what the Muncie Fieldhouse or Mishawaka Cave are to this day. They could've put the resources into preserving this place, kept playing varsity games here, and put some practice gyms over at the new high school. Unfortunately they went in another direction. In 1979 the gym underwent a massive renovation. All the permanent bleachers were torn out. There used to be two levels of wooden bleachers that went from floor to ceiling all the way around the court, fitting together seamlessly between the levels. Beautiful rectangular windows went all the way around the top of the gym. Massive support beams rose from floor to ceiling, providing some obstructed views that I'm sure no one cared about during big games (check out the old pictures here, they do a great job of showing what it used to look like). People were just happy to have a seat. In Historic Hoosier Gyms, it tells a story of a boy who strapped himself to the rafters with his belt just to get a view of the action. Now that's Hoosier Hysteria.
So what do you do when you gut one of the most classic gyms the state has ever seen? You can turn it into a humdrum middle school gym with a lot more empty space, or you can do your best to honor what the gym once was, while making it a beautiful and functional space for the students who still use it. Thankfully the current leadership at the school have done a wonderful job of accomplishing the latter. When all the permanent seating was taken out, there was obviously a lot of empty space. They decided to put a running track around the upper level which gets used often by the middle school students. Along one sideline, retractable wooden bleachers were installed on both levels, 10 rows on the bottom and 8 on the top. Along the opposite sideline, the upper level was actually built out further towards the court where the lower bleachers used to be. This allowed them to put practice hoops up on the second level on this side which is a neat idea and a good use of the space. This also means that along this side on the lower half is a very tall wall. They decided to use this entire wall to honor Glenn Curtis, John Wooden, and all the other great Artestians (like Jerry Sichting!) who used to call this gym home. There are old team pictures, pictures of the gym, the old high school, and so much more in a giant collage along the whole wall. It's incredible. A+, no notes.
The upper baseline walls are pretty bare except for a couple flags and some middle school conference team plaques. There is a lot of room behind the baselines, but it isn't too noticeable because the floor design is immaculate. It has a beautiful parquet court with mostly light gold hues and some darker ones inside the three-point lines. The court is trimmed in blue with "John R. Wooden" written across one baseline and "Artesians" across the other in red. Red "M's" are in all four corners of the court with "Artesians" written across them. The Artesian logo I love so much is at center court. There'a also a blue logo inside the sidelines that says "Glenn Curtis Gym" underneath a silhouette of the exterior of the gym. Did I just mention the exterior of the gym? I've waited to long to talk about it. While the interior looks vastly different than it did 100 years ago, the exterior has hardly been touched, if at all. I've mentioned some of the prettiest architectural designs I've found on the outside of gyms before, but none of them can hold a candle to the old one in Martinsville. It's truly the cream of the crop, the gold standard. My words aren't going to do it justice, you just have to look at the pictures. The castle edifice at the top, the beautiful windows, the semicircles above the doors, the classic wooden doors themselves, it's awe-inducing.
When I stopped by Glenn Curtis Gymnasium, I had my 5 year old with me for the day. If you've ever been around 5 year old boys, there aren't a lot of quiet moments to hold still and reflect. He's usually pretty good about chilling out when I'm talking to people or when we're in a place he knows he should be relaxed, but this time we were in a completely empty gym with a running track around the top. Regardless, I did stop, look around, and try to take it all in while the pattering of his feet filled the air as he raced around the track. Looking down at the old pictures on the big wall, then looking around the gym, I really could feel the weight of the history coming down like a fog. It felt heavy. I felt the deep pang in my chest that I often do for what has been lost, but it was hard to stay in that headspace when the brighness of the court design was staring back at me in front of the beautiful wall that pays homage to the legacy of the Artesians. They've done a great job of making the best out of an unfortunate situation here. I don't believe in ghosts, but if some specter of Glenn Curtis or John Wooden are hanging around the place, I think they would still be proud to call it home.
