A piece of history saved

Tariq Malik

For Shirley Worthy, it was the marching she remembers most about the

old Huntington Beach Elementary School Gymnasium and Plunge.

“It was 1938, and I was in fourth grade,” said Worthy, now 71, with a

smile. “We had this P.E. teacher who beat a drum to set the pace as we

walked around the inside of the gym. She got faster and faster, and by

the time we were finished we were sprinting.”

The memory of a drum-toting teacher and many others was rekindled for

Worthy when city officials rededicated the center, now called the City

Gym and Pool, on Oct. 12 before a crowd of more than 400 people that

spilled onto Palm Street, which was closed to car traffic.

The ceremony culminated a year of construction, renovation and

closures to the public for the gym, which totaled about $2.5 million and

brought the structure at 1600 Palm St. up to code -- and then some.

“This building has been in a state of deterioration for the last 30

years, and nothing has really been done to fix it since then,” said Ron

Hagan, the city’s community services director. “We had to replace the

plumbing and electrical system, and restore a lot of historical

architecture, which has been plastered over during past renovations.”

The gym was built in 1931 as an addition to Huntington Beach

Elementary School to be used for physical education courses, as well as

swimming and basketball competitions. The building was built using 19th

and 20th Century Revival, Classical Revival and Neoclassical Revival

architectural styles, featuring marble-lined restrooms and wood truss

ceilings over the gym and pool.

In 1967, the Huntington Beach City School District donated the gym to

the city, which renamed it the City Gym and Pool and launched its career

as a community recreation center. Although originally planned to be

spaced out over a period of 10 years to save money, the renovation

project was done all at once to cause as little inconvenience as possible

to the public, city officials said.

Revamping the gym also brought it up to today’s earthquake standards.

The 1933 Long Beach earthquake, which leveled Huntington Beach

Elementary, where Dwyer Middle School stands today, left the gym

standing, but boards were placed over the pool for two years, making room

for six classrooms until new classrooms could be built.

“My husband vividly remembers dropping pencils through the boards they

put over the pool,” said resident Arlene Howard, who used to swim at the

gym.

The gym, which has been renovated to reflect the original design, is

airy and it’s refreshing to see the importance the community has put on

the building, she added.

“I just wish this could have happened sooner,” said Barbara Milkovich,

the architecture historian who put the gym on the National Register of

Historic Places. “This building is the community’s heritage, not just a

gym. It’s something that says, ‘I am this city.”’

Student Sabrina Murnane, 12, said the beauty of the gym stands out

because it isn’t generic or sterile -- it has a character.

Those who turned out for the rededication ceremony received a block of

wood, a small piece of the original gym floor stamped with the date and

center name, as a souvenir of the day. Community sports, cooking and

swimming classes are set to begin Oct. 30.

“We’re really excited about all this,” said Kimberly Ross, who is

expanding her ballet class at the center. “We get wood floors, a

beautiful room to dance, it’s a gorgeous place.”