Anna Beth Hirshfeld
Reporter
Merry MacLellan
Photographer
The Old Pohl Gym stands, unusable, in the center of North campus at the Mississippi University for Women.
This building was most previously utilized by the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science as a recreation building. Built in 1927, it was used until the year 2002, when the building was decommissioned after it sustained damage from a tornado.
Now, Old Pohl Gym has been put on the docket of buildings being renovated and brought back to life on The W campus. In a statement given to The Commercial Dispatch, former President Nora Miller said the building will be converted into offices, lab spaces and classrooms. The Commercial Dispatch reported that the The W was set to receive an $11.5 million appropriation from the State of Mississippi for repairs and renovations, though The Spectator reporters have been unable to confirm this with publicly accessible budget summaries.
In a 2024 construction update made by the Tyler Wheat, Communications Director at The W, pre-planning was scheduled to begin in fall of 2024. This renovation will include replacing the roof, completely renovating the exterior and interior, and reconfiguring some interior spaces. Renovations will include the removal of all asbestos, ensuring that the building is ADA compliant, all with up-to-date mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
Because of the building’s status as a Mississippi landmark, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History will be a coordinator in this project. Wheat also stated that since its construction in 1927, this building has not seen significant improvements or modifications. No further information about the Old Pohl Gym renovations has been released.
Spectator reporters were allowed to walk through the decommissioned building, accompanied by campus maintenance, and found the building still full of items from before the building’s closure in 2002.
Now a home to the campus groundhogs, this building was previously bustling with club and intramural sport activities. Pool and foosball tables lie unused and rotting away into the ground and long-forgotten sports equipment resides in dark, damp closets. Rooms that would have been used for club meetings now house stacks of old mattresses.
The three-story building still houses the large tiled pool, which in 1927 would have been where all students took their mandatory swimming test. There is also a large wooden gym that showcases murals of social club seals, including still active social clubs. Now, the floors are littered with crumbled plaster and ceiling tiles from the building’s slow decline to time.
