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A line in winter forms just prior to an all-female workout in the Lyman F. Rhoads Gymnasium, located in the newly constructed Jacob Sleeper Hall, at 688 Boylston St. The Jacob Sleeper Hall complex, which was dedicated on March 5, 1908, included this state-of-the-times gymnasium, which, according to Arthur W. Weysee, who was then a BU professor of biology, replaced the former "cavernous, dungeon-like, subterranean chamber" located in BU's Somerset Street campus. The new gymnasium measured 60 feet long by 34 feet wide, with a 25-foot-high ceiling. There was a running track of 28 laps to the mile in the gallery, a swimming tank that measured 31 feet by 15 feet, and men's and women's locker rooms. Rhoads, a Boston leather merchant, left instructions for his executors to divide $100,000 of his estate among educational and benevolent institutions; $20,000 was given to BU, and the University used it in large part for the gymnasium because physical education was required of all first-year students. BU Photo Services

19 January 2001
Boston University
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