Henry Clay Cameron to James Hugh Moffatt

Some of the students rooming in East and West Colleges had poles or cross bars placed in their bedrooms on which they and their friends were accustomed to take exercise. Some of them became quite skillful in their feats.

were in those days strictly enforced. It stood a few years. The first Gymnasium was an extempore affair. Some of the members of the Class of 1839 in the earlier part of their course purchased some apparatus in Philadelphia and had it erected in the old Academy building which stood on Washington Street just east of Marquand Chapel. Here they took their exercise secretly because they did not know how the Faculty would view the matter. When the authorities discovered the meetings it was at first supposed that they were those of a Secret Society or fraternity. But the matter was subsequently properly arranged. The first regular Gymnasium was a frame building erected on ground just in front of the site of Alexander Hall about 1858. Mr. James W. Alexander, then a student, was, according, to my recollection, one of its most active promoters, and can readily give its history. It was set on fire after a time and greatly injured, if not ruined. At the inauguration of Dr. McCosh in 1868 great enthusiasm was excited by the gift of $10,000 each by Mr. Robert Bonner and Mr. Henry Marquand of New York, for the erection of a Gymnasium. When finished the next year it was one of the largest and finest in the country. It cost nearly $40,000 and these gentlemen generously bore the entire expense. Now it is too straitened for the number of students. When the walls were about half constructed I had the pleasure of escorting Mr. Bonner to see the progress of the handsome gift. With the history of this Gymnasium you are familiar and do not need my assistance. I am still more strongly convinced of the wisdom of not "opening" Faculty Minutes. With best wishes Yours Truly Henry Clay Cameron