Newport (350?) Built 1925
July 25, 2024
July 25, 2024
Basketball history, old buildings, and books. That pretty much completes the trifecta of my own introverted interests. I managed to check off all three of those boxes in rural Vermillion County when I visited the old Newport gym. It sits in the former high school that has since been converted to the county library. It's a grand brick building that has been standing since 1925, and the gym dates to that time as well. Unlike many gyms that were added on to older high schools in the 30s and 40s, the Newport gym was built in conjunction with the school. Once you visit it, you quickly realize how evident this fact is. That's because the the gym doesn't sit attached to the school or even within it, it's actually underneath it. Reading about many old Indiana gyms, there are a lot of examples of the very earliest gyms being built in the basements of schools. This is the first that I've visited in which this is the case. Because it's in a basement, it's definitely not going to knock you out in terms of seating or incredible aesthetics, but it's completely unique in it's own right. Just like a good book, I had a hard time pulling myself away from it.
The Newport gym held high school games until 1964 when the inevitable consolidation struck, long past any other basement gym that I'm aware of (though with 700+ different gyms operating at the time it probably wasn't the only one). The basketball teams were never able to capture that elusive sectional title, though they still managed to create many memories along the way. When I walked down the steps to the playing floor, I could only imagine what it must have been like to cram into the place for a rivalry game. People hanging off the balcony, squeezing into every corner, and even crowding behind the team benches up on the stage. It seems like an environment ripe for hostility with so many people on top of each other and so close to the action, but what an environment it must have been! I could not find an official seating capacity number listed anywhere in my research, and that's probably because there doesn't seem to have been any consistent permanent seating. Above one baseline is a long balcony that stretches the entire length of the court. There is no seating, but spectators would watch along the railing and stand a few rows deep to catch a glimpse of the action below. Underneath the balcony is about 15 feet of open floor space that currently has some small sections of temporary bleachers set up. Similar seating was used in this space when it was used for high school games. The baseline walls are just a few feet from the out of bounds lines, so I can't imagine anyone was able to watch from those ends. The gym also has the rare sideline stage. It's probably 35 feet long and covered with a heavy red curtain. It's said that the scorer's table and team benches were located up on the stage and this was really the only other place people could have spectated from. I've heard of cracker box gyms before, but this place is more like a tiny Saltine tin.
While there may not be any permanent seating to speak of, that doesn't mean that this would be a bad place to watch a game. This is the first gym I've visited with a true sideline balcony that sits right up against the action. It's a heck of a vantage point. I would love to watch a live game from this view. It also gives you a great picture of the rest of the gym. The walls all the way around the perimeter of the gym are plain white above a brown section of wooden trim. It's pretty dull, but again, this is a basement. There isn't really anything adorning the walls except for an old wooden practice hoop with no net hanging on the sideline wall by the stage. It looks like it was taken right off the side of someone's barn. You can find the USA and Indiana flags on this wall as well. The playing surface is a light brown and has no three point lines painted on it. It's definitely a few feet short of regulation length which isn't uncommon for gyms from this era. At center court is a nice tiger logo painted red. "Newport Tigers" is written above and below the center circle in big block letters. You don't see that often in the middle of the hardwood.
I lingered in the gym for awhile. I was thinking of my own childhood library in Shipshewana that was housed in an old schoolhouse as well, albeit a much smaller one. I loved going to that place and hearing the floor creak with every step. It was always so incredibly quiet. That same silence permeated through the Newport gym. There aren't any throwback games being played here like at other old gyms. I don't think it would be feasible even if they wanted to. It's going to continue to be used for community events of all sorts and teenages who want to come in and shoot around with their friends. It's a quieter existence than the raucous crowds that used to pack every square inch of the place. As the introvert in me knows all too well, quiet isn't always a bad thing.
