ARMORY

The earliest reference to an Armory was found in the May 1871 minutes of the Board of Trustees when a motion was carried to ask for $500 for the erection of an armory. What was in the minds of the Board members then cannot be learned. But in the Biennial Report for 1886-87 the use was expressed in detail in the “pressing needs of the College”:

An armory, to be used also as a gymnasium, and on commencements, junior exhibitions and similar occasions as an assembly room, instead of our chapel in the main building, small and overcrowded. Military tactics and drill are by law required in this College as a part of our courese of study. To make the instruction most valuable mentally, and the drill most effective physically, daily practice is needed, which is impossible in severe and stormy weather without a suitable armory. This building can be utilized as above indicated for other valuable purposes…A building 60 x 100 feet, of brick, with self-supporting roof and asphalt or cement floor, and sufficient for our needs, can be built for about ten thousand dollars. I can see no good reason why the State should not provide one, since it is essential to giving properly the instruction required of us by our organic law both State and Nation.

Although similar requests were repeated in each subsequent Biennial Report (with higher cost figures recorded) it was not until 1917, that progress toward obtaining a building was actually undertaken. On March 8 of that year the Iowa State Student reported that the armory was to be built east of the gymnasium. A month later a decision had been reached to locate the armory “directly west of the Chemistry Bldg., the long axis being north and south.”¹ The architect was asked in June to prepare plans for armories at Iowa State and at the State University, “the buildings to be alike and the dimensions of each to be 150 ft. by 300 ft.” ² In September all activity on the two armories was postponed because of escalating materials costs, especially steel, resulting in inadequate appropriations for the buildings.³

It was 1919 before further steps were taken to obtain the armory. On July 23 of that year the Board Minutes show that the architect was asked to

prepare plans for an armory at the I.S.C.; said armory to consist of a drill shed and steel arches which are to be built after the most economical design for a clear span of 150 feet, the length of the drill shed to depend upon the money available ($125,000) which amount shall include space for offices, shooting galleries, recitation rooms, storage space, etc., and care for all heating, plumbing, lighting and tunnels necessary to complete the building for use.

Bids for the steel trusses were taken and a contract was awarded on September 19, 1919 to McClintic Marshall Co. of Pittsburgh, on the basis of their low bid of four received. The bid assumed a building 150 feet wide and 210 feet deep.⁴ No general contract was awarded. Supt. of Grounds, Thomas Sloss, was appointed to take charge of construction and to receive bids for and purchase all necessary materials. Excavation started about the first of February in 1920, and construction was completed in the fall of 1921.

The night of December 16, 1922, the Armory was gutted by a major fire. In addition to the building loss more than $150,000 of army equipment was destroyed by the blaze. A charge of arson was filed but lack of evidence resulted in no sentencing on that charge. Actual cause of the fire was never conclusively determined.

Rebuilding started as soon as spring weather conditions permitted, and after the State Legislature appropriated $125,000 for the purpose⁵ Work was completed in the spring of 1924.

Between 1925 and 1930 several schemes were proposed for building an addition to the west side of the building to balance the extension on the east, but none of those suggestions materialized until 1941 when, with funds from the Works Progress Administration, an addition was constructed along the full west side of the building at a cost of $47,000.⁶

Home basketball games were transferred from State Gymnasium to the Armory in the 1946-47 season, allowing for much greater spectator space.⁷ Fifteen hundred seats were added the following season to raise the capacity to 7500. A new hardwood floor was installed in the fall of 1948.⁸

In May, 1955, an appropriation of $150,000 was made for remodeling the Armory. The architect was appointed in June and construction contracts were awarded in October. Structural steel work was accepted in May and the other contracts in September of 1956. That work increased the seating capacity to 8500 and improved the main and subsidiary exits; the ventilating system was improved and roof repairs made. Final cost of this work came to $202,500. Further improvements were made in 1960-62, especially on the heating and ventilating systems and for roof repairs.