Marvel Gymnasium was a 3,000-seat multipurpose gymnasium in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

. It was home to the

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

Bears basketball team as well as other teams. The gymnasium included a basketball court and seating, a second-floor running track, squash and handball courts, a wrestling room, a boxing room, and a fencing room.

Description

The building was located at Aldrich Field, located on Elmgrove Avenue across from

Brown Stadium Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium is a football stadium located in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the home of Brown University's football and outdoor track teams. The athletic teams at Brown University, known as the Bears, compete in the Iv ...

. The land for Aldrich Field was a gift to the University from brothers Charles and Henry Aldrich, both alumni of Brown. The façade's clock face read "A-L-D-R-I-C-H-F-I-E-L-D" instead of the regular numbers, with the "R" being in place of the 12. The bronze statue of "Bruno," the Brown bear mascot, was located just to the south of the main entrance on a pedestal containing a piece of

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

said to have been from the spot where Roger Williams landed in what would become Providence in 1636. After Marvel Gym was closed, the statue was moved to the College Green, where it originally stood. Marvel Gymnasium Tickets sign in Pizzitola

Marvel Gymnasium Tickets sign in Pizzitola

On October 7, 1938, the building was rededicated to the memory of Frederick W. "Doc" Marvel, class of 1896, a longtime athletic director. The building was in use until 1989, when the Pizzitola Sports Center opened at the Brown Athletic Conference. It was then closed and stood dormant until 2002, when it was demolished, well past its usefulness and becoming dangerously dilapidated. There are now practice fields on the site. The building's cupola, mounted above a replica of the Aldrich Field clock, is now part of Brown's Nelson Fitness Center, which opened in May 2012.

References

External links

Mavel Gymnasium
entry in ''

Encyclopedia Brunoniana ''Encyclopedia Brunoniana'' is an American reference work by Martha Mitchell covering Brown University. Published in 1993 by the Brown University Library, the encyclopedia has 629 pages. A digital version can be read free of charge on the Internet ...

'' Brown Bears men's basketball Brown University buildings Defunct indoor arenas in the United States Indoor arenas in Rhode Island College wrestling venues in the United States Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Sports venues in Rhode Island 1927 establishments in Rhode Island Sports venues completed in 1927 1989 disestablishments in Rhode Island Sports venues demolished in 2002 Basketball venues in Rhode Island Squash venues in the United States Fencing venues Demolished sports venues in the United States {{ProvidenceRI-struct-stub