Petersburg (2,040) Built 1957
May 21, 2025
May 21, 2025
Dim. It's a pretty innocuous word, yet it's one that I've often found myself thinking of over the years for a variety of reasons. I think I first realized what the word truly meant when I was focusing on the lyrics to one of my favorite hymns, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus," right after my grandpa died while I was in college. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. I just remember driving home from seeing my grandpa in the hospital for the last time and listening to this song over and over. It made me realize that when something dims, it's not always that it gets darker, but that its importance seems to shrink. The most important example of this is outlined in the song. Ultimately, the things we stress out about in our every day lives really seem to fade away when faced with the magnitude of the love Jesus has for us and and the truly important things He calls us to do. This hit me like a train that night as I was mourning the passing of a man who always seemed content, regardless of his circumstances, because he knew he was simply called to love God and love others, and that's what he did. All the other noise of the world around him always seemed to be dim. It's something I try to live out in a similar way, but in my relatively young adulthood, I seem to fail most of the time.
I also think of things being dim when it comes to memories. There are parts and pieces of my life that I remember so vividly that it's like I can watch a full length movie of them in my mind. Then there are fragments of moments in time that are hazy and feel like I can only watch them through opaque glass. They feel like they become more and more dim as time goes on. In this case, the more they fade, the more important they actually feel to me. I start to panic a little as they slip away and I feel I may lose them forever. This is a different kind of dim. Finally, there's the more literal sense of something being dim when the light seems to slowly fade away from it. I've encountered this a few times when I've visited old gyms that for one reason or another didn't have any interior lights on. While it gives them an eerie feeling that seems to drum up some ghosts of Indiana basketball past, it can also make it hard to appreciate some of the more nuanced features of the gyms. Natural light shining through the windows looks cool in person, but it doesn't exactly make it easy on this amateur photographer who is just trying to take some decent pictures (the exceptions for this are my visits to Dupont and Lebanon. I have no clue how those pictures turned out so good). When the lights are dim, I don't really know how to manipulate the little light that is there to capture the beauty of the gym through photographs. I just do my best. My recent visit to Petersburg was another example of this, and also why it's important to draw attention to these gyms that seem to have dimmed over time.
This particular trip to southern Indiana started in Winslow and ended at the Adams Coliseum in Vincennes. These are two of the most heralded old gyms anywhere south of Martinsville. They were two of the first ones on my list when I started this journey. While researching some of the other well-preserved gems in Pike County, someone on Facebook told me I needed to check out the old Petersburg gym. I was taken aback because I had no clue Petersburg had an old gym that was still standing. Which kind of seems ridiculous because Petersburg is the county seat. You would think I'd have looked into it a little bit more, but that just shows my own ignorance and the fact that the old Petersburg gym just hasn't gotten the same publicity that others in the area have over the years. I couldn't even find a single picture of it online once I started looking into it. Maybe it's because it was built a little later than the others. Maybe it's because the Petersburg Indians never managed to get over the hump and win a sectional. I'm not 100% sure why. What I do know is that I am so glad I was able to schedule a visit in-between the other two more well-known gyms on this trip. When I was finally able to walk into the old Petersburg gym, the lighting was dim, but the views were immaculate.
Not only did Petersburg never win a sectional, but they never hosted one. This only sticks out to me because my first thought upon entering the gym was "This place would be an incredible sectional site." It just feels big and important. Now, Petersbug typically was driving to Vincennes, Huntingburg, or Washington for sectional games which are top-tier venues themselves so I understand why they didn't ever get to host, but man it would they have created a memorable environment here if they ever would've been given a chance. There's a modern-looking capacity size posted on the wall that says 2,040, but I wonder if that's the current capacity and not the original, becuase it feels like it could hold well over 3,000 if the fire marshall would lighten up a little. The gym features a bi-level setup that was a few years ahead of its time in that the two upper levels connect with walkways over the baselines. This became super popular during the multipurpose gym boom of the consolidation era 60s, but was not normal when this gym was built in the 50s. The lower level features 8 rows of retractable wooden bleachers along one side, and I'm sure the other side originally had a matching set as well, but they were taken out at some point. Saying these bleachers are weathered is putting it nicely. I got a splinter in my rear just looking at them. The upper sideline levels both feature 11 rows of permanent wooden bleachers that span from wall to wall. These seats are painted a crimson red and set in concrete. The corners in these upper levels are worth noting as each one has a staircase coming up from the lower levels. The bleachers continue above them in each corner with a railing with wide openings as the only safety net from falling to the stairs below (I probably only noticed this because I've taken toddlers with me to too many basketball games).
It seems that the gym today looks pretty similar in a lot of ways to what it probably did 70 years ago except for the upper baseline walkways that connect the second level seats. Big batting cages line the entirety of one end, and classrooms have actually been built into the other. The old gym's primary function these days is housing Pike Central's alternative school which uses the makeshift classroom areas. Down below you will find a court that features what appears to be a classic golden hardwood (again, the lighting was not my friend here). A simple "PC" logo sits in the halfcourt circle with the maroon/red background that matches the bleachers. The lower baseline walls feature padding in the same color. The walls all across the gym are bare and a little drab. I'm guessing they had a lot more spirit when the gym served as the home of the Indians until 1974. A nice wooden scorer's table sits at midcourt. Wooden practice hoops with the old school curved tops hang high up near the rafters. The only place with lights I could turn on was the original locker rooms that had a retro wall-mounted green strategy chalkboard for drawing up plays at halftime. There isn't a lot of overall pizzazz in the gym these days, but I'm telling you there is just something about this place that impresses me. The only person I knew that had been in the gym was my Montgomery friend Nate Raber who had coached Barr-Reeve's middle school team in it a few times, and he had told me it was going to be worth my time. He wasn't kidding.
As I walked through the outer hallway of the gym on my way out, you could tell the place had seen better days. Just like the lower bleachers, everything feels a little worn. The same is true for the exterior of the building. Pike Central still owns it, and besides housing some alternative school classes, it is also open to the community during the week for people to walk around the court, and it also hosts some middle school and junior high games. All of this is just enough to keep the spark inside it burning. The vibrant flame of the high school basketball games it used to host may be dimming, maybe even along with the memories of the people who got to experience them firsthand, but that doesn't mean they're gone. Not yet. Just like the gym, they're still here. Everything may just be a little less clear than it used to. My hope is that this blog brings a little more light to the Petersburg gym, and the traditions and memories that it represents, because these stories deserve to be remembered. The legacy of an old gym may seem frivolous or silly to some, but not to the people of the school that it served. To the people of Petersburg, this place provided a community hub where they could rally around a common goal and cheer on the Indians on a cold Indiana night. The spirit of those nights is one that I hope never fully dims to darkness, no matter how hard Father Time tries to enshroud it.
