Date of Construction: 1931
Architect/Designer: Louis Jallade
Current Function: Department of Theatre
Hartshorn Hall, originally known as the Women's Gymnasium, was constructed over a two-year period from 1929 to 1931. It was funded by the last two state building appropriations before the Depression. Architect Louis Jallade designed the building in three sections so that it appears to have been enlarged over time. The northwest section, five bays wide and two-and-one-half stories tall, contains the elaborate main entry, located at the top of a semicircular, double staircase. Ionic pilasters and a broken pediment surround the double doors. This section of the building also has an unusual double gable on the western end. The seven-bay, two-and-one-half-story northeast section has dramatic, triple-hung windows at the main level. It originally contained an indoor swimming pool. The southeast section, originally the gymnasium, has a curved roof following the line of the bowstring trusses, and oversized, double-hung windows on the south and east walls. The two-story lobby on the southwest corner was added in 1990. The building utilizes Georgian details such as brick laid in a Flemish bond, keystones over windows, gabled dormers, and false chimneys.
Built in the days before coeducation, this structure housed women's athletic facilities until coeducational facilities became the norm in the 1970s. The name "Hartshorn Gymnasium" was chosen in 1974 as a memorial to Beatrice Hartshorn, director of women's athletics from 1925 to 1962.
The theater department gradually acquired space in the building beginning in 1971 and occupied all of it by 1990. An extensive renovation at that time resulted in conversion of the gymnasium to a theater and of the pool area to dance studios.
