4 PAST TENSE From Ugly Duckling to Beautiful Swan he recent photo at right of Lincoln Hall’s Music Recital Hall in the School of Fine and Performing Arts is a far cry from what room 75 was like at the beginnings of Portland State University. Room 75 served as the Lincoln High School gymnasium until Portland State occupied the building in 1952. It became the Portland State gym from then until 1966, when the new gymnasium was erected. By far the worst gym in all the Portland high schools, it was dubbed “The Black Hole of Calcutta” for its darkness, low ceiling, and lack of fresh air. The slight stench of old gym socks prevailed. The gym was suitable only for exercise classes and wrestling matches, although it was also used for basketball games. It’s tough playing basketball or volleyball in a one-story sweaty dark room, as you can see from the photo below right. When the Music Department began expanding into the basement of what was then Old Main (now Lincoln Hall), I was the first to move my office (to room 30). This small room was once the men’s locker and shower room. The remodeling was minimal -- there were still pipes and valves coming out of the walls. The even smaller room next to mine became the late Bill Tuttle’s office; it had been the women’s locker and shower room. While men students had only to walk to the east end of the basement floor to attend gym classes, the women had to go outside, cross Market Street, and jog two blocks north to SW Park and Clay Streets to attend classes in an old abandoned Jewish synagogue -- mercifully torn down after the new gymnasium was built (see page 59 of Portland State: A History in Pictures). Today, Room 37 is the Instrumental Rehearsal room -- but at one time it was the only science laboratory on campus. After the first remodeling of Lincoln Hall, I taught many classes and conducted bands, orchestras and chamber music groups until my retirement. But I also remember being a physics lab instructor there for a short period of time when I was first hired. In the early days we had to wear many hats. --Gordon Solie 75 Lincoln Hall, The School of Fine and Performing Art’s Music Recital Hall, after its 2009-10 renovation. Low ceilings and light fixtures are just two of many challenges facing Portland State students shooting hoops in the old gymnasium, Room 75 Old Main (now Lincoln Hall). PAST TENSE features glimpses into Portland State’s history. To submit a story (or an idea for one), email the RAPS History Preservation Committee at raps@pdx.edu. T
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