Duke Basketball Arenas: The Ark 1906 - 1923
Posted by: 
showbizkid
N 36° 00.431 W 078° 54.825
17S E 688024 N 3986758
Angier B. Duke Gymnasium or "The Ark" was the first home of Duke Basketball.
Waymark Code: WM5H0
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 01/01/2006
Views: 61
"The Ark" was built in 1898 with a donation from Benjamin N. Duke. It is officially named the Angier B. Duke Gymnasium in honor of Benjamin Duke's son. It is probably the first college gymnasium in North Carolina.
The first intercollegiate game was played here on March 2, 1906 with Wake Forest beating Duke 24 to 10. The Ark was such a tight fit for basketball that only about 100 spectators could watch a game - standing up and with their feet touching the sidelines.
With construction of the Alumni Memorial Gymnasium in 1923, The Ark became the men's cafeteri and later the campus laundry. When West Campus opened and the original campus became exclusively for women, The Ark was renovated as a social center for relaxation and dancing.
Today the building is still in use by the Duke Dance Program and the American Dance Festival.
The building's nickname came from its original long narrow bridge-like walkway which forced people to enter "two by two" like the animals entering Noah's Ark.
To log your visit to this waymark, post your own photo of the waymark as it appears today and leave some brief comments. Logs without photos will be archived. Thanks.
"The Ark" circa 1900:
"The Ark" in 2006:
1912 Trinity College Yearbook photo of what is probably a basketball scrimmage:
