Anderson High School Wigwam, Anderson Indiana

The Anderson High School Wigwam represents the culmination of a sports phenomenon epitomized by Indiana, a passion for high school basketball that dominated communities across the state and gave rise to the term "Hoosier Hysteria." The 1959-61 Anderson High School Athletic and Education Building (Wigwam) represented the hopes of the Anderson community for additional state championships in the Indiana High School Athletic Association annual tournaments and for community pride. The Anderson Wigwam was one of a select group of high school gymnasiums in the state and the nation; its 8996-seat capacity was second in the nation and second in Indiana. It was also a versatile facility that distinguished Anderson's athletic center from most others in the state at the time: a 60-foot stage for dramatic and musical programs, a swimming pool meeting National Collegiate Athletic Association standards, five industrial arts shops for vocational education, a cafeteria serving 1500 meals per day, and a student recreation room. It also afforded space for five basketball playing floors for physical education facilities. Architecturally, the Wigwam represented the latest design innovations in gymnasium design, nine 200-foot high tensile steel beams with rigid frames supported the roof structure to permit clear views of the playing floor, and aluminum curtain wall panels were used to cover the exterior walls for lightness of weight. Today, the Anderson High School Wigwam continues to be the second-largest high school gymnasium in the nation and in Indiana.

The game of basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. A short three years later, the game had migrated to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and within twenty years, it was becoming a consuming spectacle for every Indiana town. In 1911, the first statewide high school basketball tourney was held, and by the 1920s, even small towns were constructing basketball gymnasiums for their hometown fans. The regular season, played between the beginning of November and early March, dominated the lives not only of high school students and teachers but of everyone in the surrounding community. The culminating moment of each school year came in March, when every town and city held out hope of winning the state championship. Those who advanced through the sectionals, regionals, semi-state, and to the Final Four of the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) tourneys became dizzy with excitement and anticipation. The home towns of winners in the sectional and regional tournaments celebrated with parades and banquets, and state champion teams were feted at home with an intensity and joy that was only seen at the end of World War I and World War II. Anderson High School, the sole high school for the medium-sized industrial city of Anderson, had been to the state championship three times by 1921, and in 1924, the community built a gymnasium designed for basketball. Known as the Wigwam, probably because the basketball team had adopted the name of Anderson Indians, the new structure seated 4800 spectators. It was located immediately west of the 1910 Anderson High School classroom building at 14^th and Lincoln Streets. In 1935 and 1937, the Indians became state champions, and Anderson became known as one of the top teams to beat in Indiana. When Look Magazine did an article on what was becoming known as Hoosier Hysteria in 1944, they featured photos of the Anderson team playing in the Wigwam. Two years later, the Indians again triumphed in the 1946 Indiana High School Athletic Association tournament, defeating Fort Wayne Central High School.

After World War II, big city teams began to dominate high school basketball. The so-called "Miracle of Milan," in which tiny Milan, Indiana, defeated Muncie Central in the 1954 IHSAA tournament, kept alive the hopes of small towns for the state title. Anderson, with a record of having advanced 15 times to the final eight in the state tournament, was considered a formidable opponent. The Indians continue to pack fans into their over-crowded Wigwam with its 4800 seats.

In November 1958, the Wigwam was gutted by fire, and the Anderson Board of School Trustees began to plan for a replacement facility. Although there was some discussion in the community initially about building a 10,000-seat civic coliseum, the school corporation eventually decided to build a new multi-purpose facility to serve the needs of the growing high school student body. By January 1959, the school system's architect, Arthur Henning, had accompanied the school board on a tour of new high school gymnasiums in the state, including the Elkhart High School gym. Later that month, Mayor Ralph Ferguson, School Superintendent G.E. Ebbertt, School Board President Wilbur Roby, Board member William Hovermale, and architect Henning made a second tour, visiting again the 1953-54 gymnasium at Elkhart High School. The Elkhart facility had been completed as the largest gym in the state, with 8200 seats. Its design afforded unobstructed sight lines from every part of the bleachers, unlike the former Wigwam, in which steel columns blocked views. The Elkhart gymnasium was also a multi-purpose facility, combining varsity basketball, physical education, and industrial arts shops. By March 1959, Henning was developing his preliminary drawings based on the Elkhart facility. By July 1959, the architect's drawings were in nearly-final form, and the school board approved issuing school bonds for part of the cost. By the time that ground was broken for the new building in December 1959, the final design had grown to include a gymnasium with over 8000 seat capacity; a stage for musical production, dramas, and community events; a swimming pool; cafeteria capable of seating 500 students, and a large vocational department. As the plans took shape, the school board and the community were undoubtedly aware that nearby New Castle had just completed the largest high school gymnasium in the nation, with 9325 seats.

During 1960, over 4 million pounds of concrete were poured for the foundations, the floor of the main gymnasium, and for the mezzanine level. The 9 steel beams supporting the roof were hoisted and riveted into place. Dedication occurred on November 21^st, 1961, with a basketball game against hometown rival Anderson Madison Heights. The permanent seat capacity for what became known as the new Wigwam was 8189. Within a year after completion, with the addition of bleachers at the rear of the stage, the capacity rose to 8996. During the three years after dedication, Anderson basketball teams played to sell-out crowds of local fans and boosters. The promise of the multipurpose facility was met almost immediately, as the combined stage and large seating capacity brought to Anderson popular singer Ray Charles in 1961 and famed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in 1962. Later in the 1960s, presidential candidates Richard Nixon and Robert Kennedy spoke to crowds in the Wigwam, and the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team played there.

The swimming pool pavilion, containing a regulation-length pool and bleachers for spectators, was a response to the popularity of competitive high school swimming in Indiana and around the nation. Swimming was introduced as a means of physical fitness and as a competitive sport at the end of the 19^th Century. The University of Chicago hosted the first intercollegiate swimming contest in the Midwest after opening its swimming pool in 1904. In 1913, New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, constructed the first indoor high school pool in the United States. Other high schools in Illinois followed the New Trier example. In 1932, the Illinois High School Association began an Illinois state high-school swim meet. In Indiana, Butler University set a precedent for comprehensive athletic facilities like the Wigwam by including an indoor competition swimming pool and athletic training rooms in its Butler Fieldhouse of 1928. The Indianapolis Athletic Club, working with the Amateur Athletic Union, co-sponsored swimming events and competitions in the 1920s and 1930s. Some swimmers from Indiana swim teams went on to the U.S. Olympic Games in 1940 and during the 1950s. Indiana and Purdue Universities fielded successful swim teams in the 1940s and 1950s, heightening interest.

It appears that the Indiana High School Athletic Association, founded in 1903, hosted an Indiana high school statewide swim championship meet by the 1940s. In 1951, Hammond High School won the state swimming championship and returned in 1952 to defend its title. Also in 1952, Tom Lord, a sophomore at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, was rated as one of the nation's top high school swimmers. In 1956, Frank McKinney, Jr. of Indianapolis won a bronze medal in the Melbourne, Australia Olympics. With intense interest in swimming competitions at the international, collegiate, and high school levels, it was natural for the Anderson School Board to include a pool suitable for competitive swimming in the design for the Wigwam.

The challenges of designing roofs and supporting systems for a gymnasium that did not obstruct patron views of the playing floor had been solved as early as the 1920s in traditional masonry-clad buildings such as Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University (Butler Fieldhouse). There arched steel trusses ran between columns embedded in the exterior walls and afforded the desired views. By the early 1950s, the designers of such high school facilities as the Elkhart High School gymnasium were building gymnasiums with arched trusses supported by exterior steel columns. The design of the 1959-60 New Castle gymnasium, the largest in the nation, employed a different approach: Arched steel trusses were used, but they were anchored at grade, and the basketball floor and bleachers were constructed below ground level.

Arthur Henning, designer of the Anderson High School Wigwam, was born in the early 20^th century and graduated with a B.S. in architecture from the University of Illinois. He was trained in the Beaux Art method of design in the 1920s at Illinois and won a medal from the Beaux Art Institute of Design. Sometime after 1928, Henning moved to Anderson and went to work for local architect Erwin F. Miller. In 1946, Miller and Henning became partners, and in 1955, Henning bought the practice. The office then took the name Arthur B. Henning, AIA. Henning became architect to the Anderson School Board in the late 1950s and was alert to contemporary trends in high school facilities. When the school system decided to rebuild the Wigwam, Henning studied carefully the Elkhart and other recent high school gymnasiums in Indiana. He chose an engineering design unlike those at either Elkhart or New Castle. For the 133,700 square foot building, Henning employed nine colossal steel beams spanning 200 feet to support the immense gable roof of the gymnasium. The beams were riveted to 7-foot-wide steel columns, which narrowed in size closer to the ground and were, in turn, embedded below grade in substantial concrete footings.

For the exterior design, Henning drew on two movements in Modern architecture that gained popularity during the 1950s: the New Formalism and Neo-Expressionism. New Formalism was an effort by such architects as Philip Johnson, Edward Durrell Stone, and Minoru Yamaski to provide some of the aesthetic appeal of Classicism through use of symmetry, monumental scale, columns, and simple detailing in concrete or brick. Henning gave the gymnasium portion of the Wigwam monumental scale through the large scale of the south brick facade and the immense gable roof behind. He used symmetry to balance all the features east and west of a line through the center of the south facade. In the southwest vestibule to the gymnasium, the architect cantilevered out the roof and supported it with sculpted concrete columns. Originally, an identical vestibule with matching columns provided entrance and egress at the southeast corner of the Wigwam. Finally, the architect employed simple projecting banding in the courses of the south brick facade to suggest traditional masonry treatments. Similar banding appears on the proscenium lateral walls for the stage in the gymnasium inside.

Neo-Expressionism began as a movement in the work of such pre-World War II European architects as Erich Mendelsohn of Germany. One of the principal objectives of the Neo-Expressionists was to evoke emotion from viewers. Often, their architectural forms were sculptural and involved use of other artistic media. The movement grew in strength in the 1950s in the work of such American masters as Eero Saarinen. At the Wigwam, Arthur Henning invoked Neo-Expressionism by stacking the rectangular forms of the original five pavilions along the south facade: the central pavilion containing the Wigwam stage, the two flanking pavilions containing the wings of the stage and practice rooms, and the entry vestibule structures. He also used art effectively to arouse the emotions of students and fans. At the center of the south facade was the ceramic image of an American Indian chief, symbolizing the name of the school's athletic teams. On either side of the south and north facades of the gymnasium pavilion were the limestone bas-relief sculptures of athletes performing in all of the school's competitive sports.

For the north and south gables of the Wigwam and for the side elevations of the structure above the first floor, Henning used lightweight aluminum as a curtain wall, or "skin" covering the structural framework. Aluminum was increasingly favored in the 1950s as a rust-resistant exterior cladding material, and the silver color chosen at the Wigwam contrasted effectively with the cherry red color of the brick veneer on the facade and in the subordinate wings, such as the swimming pavilion and the industrial arts shop structure.

Anderson History

The site of Anderson was once occupied by a chief of the Delaware Nation of Native Americans, Anderson, or Kikthawenund. After the 1818 Treaty of St. Mary's, William Conner acquired the location and sold it to John Berry, who platted a town site on the tract in 1823. Berry was able to secure transfer of the Madison County seat to his little settlement in 1827. Growth was slow at Andersontown, the original name of the village, until a brief growth spurt occurred in response to the Internal Improvement Act and the canal-building boom it spawned during the 1830s and early 1840s. After construction ceased in the 1840s on the Indiana Central Canal, which was to pass through Andersontown, the community shrank in size. Finally, in 1853, after the advent of railroads in the State, the town of Anderson was incorporated. After growth during the Civil War, Robert N. Williams led in 1865 a successful effort to incorporate the community as a city.

Following the Civil War, Anderson grew gradually as a rail center in which wood and agricultural products were shipped to outside markets. It experienced explosive growth during the natural gas boom of east central Indiana, which began in 1887 and led to a threefold increase in the population of the city of Anderson between 1887 and 1890. Business leaders formed a chamber of commerce to lure factory-owners from western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio to relocate in Anderson, where cash bonuses, free land, and unlimited natural gas awaited them. Among the top business leaders of the city who became "boomers," or salesmen for Anderson, were Neal McCullough, Major Charles T. Doxey, and Charles Henry. McCullough piped gas from an immense well on the White River to form a flambeau (torch) that brought crowds of the curious to Anderson. Doxey erected an elegant opera house for traveling theatrical productions and vaudeville. Charles Henry built one of the first interurban lines for electric train service between Anderson and Alexandria. The result of all of the booming was impressive: Anderson by 1891 boasted a brick factory, several glass factories, a quartz mill, a wire and nail manufacturer, a strawboard factory, a glass flask concern, and a butter dish factory. The downtown and neighborhoods of Anderson both saw constant construction of new retail and office buildings, new homes for managers, and workers' cottages for the thousands of new factory workers. Multiple Romanesque-style grade schools and, in 1898, the first high school, located at 12^th and Lincoln Streets, were constructed.

After its population had reached 20,178 in 1900, Anderson saw its fortunes sag as natural gas ran out for industrial use. Fortunately, it was able to experience another rebirth as one of the chief centers of automobile manufacture during the rest of the 20^th Century. Anderson's trained industrial working force and the presence of machine shops that had been formed during the Gas Boom both made the city a logical incubator of first, independent automobile manufacturers, and later the logical location for the large Delco Remy and Guide Lamp divisions of General Motors Corporation. During the first three decades of the 20^th Century, 22 brands of automobiles were made in Anderson, including the notable Lambert, Nyberg, and De Tamble.

The Gospel Trumpet Co., a religious publishing house affiliated with the Church of God, began operations in Anderson in 1905. In 1917 the General Ministerial Assembly of the Church of God established the Anderson Bible Training School, now Anderson University, on the north side of the city.

By 1948, after World War II, Anderson had grown to a population of over 61,500. The city now possessed 142 industries, producing 175 distinct articles and employing a workforce of 22,000 people. General Motors' Delco Remy and Guide Lamp Divisions accounted for 17,000 of the manufacturing jobs, making the city heavily dependent on the fortunes of the automobile industry.

During the 1950s, when the Anderson School Board was making decisions on constructing a new, expanded Wigwam Gymnasium and classroom building, the population continued to expand, as the United States enjoyed one of the largest economic booms in its history. With an ambitious annexation program, the population of Anderson increased to 71,000 in 1962.

Property Description

The Anderson High School Wigwam property consists of two connected buildings constructed approximately 18 years apart. The principal structure is the Anderson Wigwam, formally known as the Anderson High School Athletic and Education Building, constructed between 1959 and 1961. Connected to the Wigwam is an addition completed in 1979, consisting of an academic (classroom) wing and an auditorium wing. The Wigwam, as originally designed, combined a basketball gymnasium with facilities for industrial/vocational training, a swimming pool, a school cafeteria, and a full-scale stage for multiple school and community events. It also exemplified innovative engineering and architectural concepts, with the structure for the gymnasium consisting of large, self-supporting steel beams and columns, so that views of basketball games would be unobstructed by interior columns. The exterior curtain wall and roof were constructed of lightweight and non-rusting aluminum. The facade (south elevation) of the Wigwam, as originally designed, was almost completely symmetrical, and its focal point is an impressive colossal ceramic portrait of an Indian chief. The 1979 addition represents architectural trends of the late 1970s, with its economic use of windows and an exposed pebble aggregate surface for its second story. The red brick lower story was an effort to tie it visually to the original building.

The 1959-61 Wigwam structure, roughly rectangular in shape, with two rectangular adjoining wings, occupies a 210 by 296-foot site in the northwest portion of the property. The 1979 additions consist of two sections, an academic wing extending to the south of the eastern portion of the Wigwam's facade and the rectangular auditorium wing extending to the east of the Wigwam. The academic wing has a rectangular shape on its west side and a saw tooth shape on its south and east sides. To the southeast of the 1979 classroom addition is a depressed open site where the 1910-37 Anderson High School building stood until 2000. To the south of the Wigwam structure is an asphalt surface parking lot. An additional, smaller lot is located west of the swimming pool pavilion of the Wigwam. A rail line runs along the west side of the property, immediately east of John Street. A small rectangular granite memorial with a bronze plaque dedicated to 6 alumni who lost their lives in World War I is situated facing Lincoln Street, at the northeast corner of what originally was the 1910 Anderson High School lawn.

The facade (south elevation) of the 1959-61 Wigwam building now consists of two rectangular brick pavilions, flanked at the west end by a rectangular entry vestibule constructed of glass and steel. The 60-foot-high central pavilion, corresponding to the stage structure for the gymnasium inside is the dominant structure of the facade, and its focal point is a large ceramic portrait of an American Indian chief, composed of 82,000 rectangular pieces of colored tile. The west subordinate brick pavilion corresponds to storage and stairway functions inside. Originally, there was also a brick east pavilion, which is now covered by the 1979 additions. An east entry vestibule was removed at the same time. The upper portion of the basement story for the 1959-61 facade is exposed west of the 1979 academic wing and is constructed of concrete with a series of rectangular windows filled with glass block. Rectangular sections of the brick veneer on the facade and the two side pavilions are laid in a variation of English garden wall bond (5 courses of stretchers, followed by one course of headers). The west subordinate pavilion brickwork has the added decorative element of regular projecting courses of stretcher bricks. The west entry pavilion consists of a covered vestibule section with two banks of glass windows contained in steel frameworks; a cantilevered concrete roof extends out to the south and west, supported by steel columns encased in concrete shells with a uniform sculpted shape. Visible behind the central brick pavilion and west side pavilions is the south aluminum curtain wall of the gymnasium proper. The wall is silver-colored. There are channeled aluminum covers for columns and recessed aluminum panels.

At the west end of the south gymnasium facade is a rectangular limestone tablet, above the west entry pavilion. At the center of the tablet is a bas relief sculpture of a student diver, one of four sculptures of athletes practicing different sports designed by Steve Henning, son of the architect for the building.? Larger channeled sheets of aluminum at the west edge of the gymnasium facade cover the steel exterior column supporting the south edge of the gymnasium roof. Viewed from the top of the academic wing roof, the eastern section of the south aluminum curtain wall for the gymnasium is visible, as is the upper section of a second limestone tablet, containing part of the bas relief sculpture of a student basketball player.

The first story of the east elevation of the 1959-61 Wigwam structure is covered by the eastern portion of the 1979 academic wing and the enclosed 1979 Commons concourse corridor. The upper section of the east side of the gymnasium structure is not covered but is visible only from the roofs of the academic wing and the concourse. Like the west elevation of the gymnasium, the east elevation consists on its upper section of silver-colored aluminum panels covering the nine steel columns supporting the roof structure of the gymnasium. There are now five colossal rectangular recessions between each column in the east elevation; green colored aluminum sheets in steel frameworks cover the inner wall within the recessions. The southernmost recession was covered in 1979.

The north elevation of the 1959-61 Wigwam building has been modified at its northeast corner. The 1979 Commons concourse now emerges at two northeast entrances created in 1979. The industrial arts pavilion retains its 1961 exterior character: the five shop room spaces were built at different levels on a slope. The one-story exterior consists of glass and steel window panels fronting each of the eastern three shops, enframed by brick. The former auto mechanic shop at the west end has only partial windows; the rest of its facade is brick with garage doors. The roof of the pavilion is flat. Above the pavilion, the expansive gable-roofed gymnasium rises. The central section, corresponding in width to the industrial arts pavilion, consists of the same kind of aluminum curtain wall visible at the south end, behind the brick facade pavilions. At the ends of the curtain walls are two more of the limestone tablets, with the east tablet bearing a bas relief sculpture of a football player, and the west tablet depicting a track athlete.

The original northwest entrance to the 1959-61 Wigwam exists at the north end of the Wigwam's west elevation. It consists of two banks of entry doors, separated by limestone wing walls, which support a projecting, cantilevered roof. The steel frameworks of the doorways are original, but the side panels and former transoms are now covered with opaque material.

The west elevation of the 1959-61 Wigwam building has had two modifications to its appearance. A new boiler building now occupies a site close to the northwest corner. Its brick rectangular shape covers the northwest entrance to the Wigwam. At the center of the west elevation, the original, one-story brick swimming pavilion adjoins the first story of the gymnasium proper. It has a concrete foundation, and its west elevation contains two large rectangular windows composed of glass in a steel framework; each opening is trimmed in limestone. A concrete block loading dock structure, also added in 1979, links the boiler building and the swimming pavilion.

Behind the swimming pavilion and towering above it, the monumental west elevation of the Wigwam gymnasium is articulated by the nine aluminum-encased columns, channeled curtain wall panels, and six bays of recessions identical to those on the east elevation.

The west facade of the 1979 academic wing consists of two stories: the first story is covered with red brick laid in running bond. There are two entrances-one at the north end of the wing, next to the 1959-61 Wigwam building, and the other about 8 feet from the east end of the facade. The entries are both bounded by projecting brick wing walls, which, together with shed roofs composed of standing seam metal, provide shelter from the weather. There are four pairs of entry doors with transoms in each of the two entrances. Between the two entries are four pairs of windows, evenly spaced. Each pair consists of two narrow rectangular openings; in each opening is a window made up of three lights in steel sashes. Three vertical rows of brick stretchers project from the surface of the wall to enframe the windows and continue to the ground. The second story of the west facade of the academic wing is covered with panels composed of an exposed pebble aggregate, identified in the 1979 drawings as "Gran-O-Struct panels." There are six rectangular windows in the middle of the second story: four are positioned directly above the first-floor windows, and the other two are above the two entries. The second-story windows are enframed in concrete and consist of two lights in steel sash.

The south elevation of the 1979 academic wing is saw-toothed in configuration, due to its being designed to adjoin the 1910 Anderson High School building that once stood to the south. There is a short section of the wing at the west end of the elevation that continues the design of the west facade: the first story is red brick, and the second is covered with the Gran-O-Struct panels. There are two pairs of windows, one in each story, with the second-story windows located directly above the first-story openings. There is no enframing brick treatment for the first-floor windows. The next four facets of the elevation are in a saw-tooth configuration. The former connections with the 1910 building have been covered with white sheet metal.

The design of the east elevation of the 1979 academic wing is similar to the west facade, with several differences. The first story is covered with red brick, and the second story with vertical panels of Gran-O-Struct. However, the second story projects approximately a foot from the first story. There are five pairs of windows in the first story; each has two lights in a steel sash. Four pairs of windows are located at regular intervals between the south end of the elevation and the large entrance structure near the north end. The first pair is located between the end of the east elevation and the entrance structure. All the windows have been covered. Each pair of windows is enframed by brick wing walls that project about ¾ of a foot from the facade. Four circular steel ventilators project from one upper sash in each of the four southern pairs of windows. There are three windows in the second story of the east elevation of the academic wing. They each consist of rectangular openings with two lights and are located at regular intervals directly above the blank wall sections of the first story. Approximately 9 feet from the north end of the east elevation is the principal student entrance after 1979 to the Wigwam gymnasium, the cafeteria, and the academic wing. The entry has two banks of five steel doors, facing south and north. Located about 9 feet from the building facade and acting as the outer wall for the entry vestibule is a large, concave brick wall consisting of five facets. The center three facets are in the same plane and parallel the building facade. The outer two facets project slightly outward. The two entrances are recessed below the entry roof, the outer fascias of which are covered with Gran-O-Struct panels.

The south elevation of the 1979 auditorium wing, which adjoins the academic wing at its northeast corner, is a simply detailed version of the east elevation of the academic wing. The first floor is covered with red brick, with four trios of projecting brick wing walls, regularly spaced. The first and third wing walls from the west each contain a single window. The second and third wing walls each contain a single steel exit door. The second story, like the east elevation of the academic wing, projects from the facade of the first story and is clad in Gran-O-Struct panels, without windows.

The facade of the auditorium wing (east elevation) is a symmetrical composition. There is a central entrance replicating the design of the main entrance in the east elevation of the academic wing. On either side of the entry in the red brick first story are three trios of projecting brick wing walls. Enframed by each trio are two windows with steel sashes. The second story continues the projection of the south elevation of the auditorium wing, is faced with Gran-O-Struct, and contains no windows. From the street, one can glimpse the aluminum raking roof over the stage structure of the auditorium.

The north elevation of the auditorium wing continues the design of the south elevation of the same structure. There are four trios of projecting brick wing walls evenly spaced on the first story. There is a single window located within each wing wall trio. Immediately west of the second trio from the east is a steel door. The second story is the same as that of the south elevation. At the west end of the auditorium wing is the first of two new entrances constructed in 1979 to give access to the Wigwam gymnasium and its main floor. The first entrance consists in part of two red brick wing walls projecting about 6 feet from the facade of the auditorium wing. Above the wing walls are panels of Gran-O-Struct, forming a roof structure. The entry doors are sheltered by this open-air vestibule. Within the vestibule are four pairs of steel doors. Adjacent to the first entrance to the west is a second entry to the Commons concourse created in 1979. A brick wall projects beyond the eastern entrance and, together with a roof fronted by a mansard panel of sheet metal, forms an open-air vestibule for the recessed entrance.

On the northwest corner of the Wigwam property stands a smaller brick and concrete structure constructed in 1979 for an expanded boiler system. The building is rectangular in shape and runs parallel to the west facade of the 1959-61 Wigwam structure. The north and south elevations are plain, without entries; the west elevation contains four vehicular doors. The east elevation adjoins the Wigwam structure near its northeast entrance and contains a pedestrian door.

The 1959-61 Wigwam building was designed to be an athletic and educational facility, and its interior character today continues to reflect the original conception. The principal space and its chief character-defining feature is the gymnasium, which seats 8,996 people for sports events and occupies most of the space in the central structure. Originally, there were four pairs of entrances to the building at each of the four corners. One entrance at each corner led to the gymnasium floor and the other to stairways leading up to the mezzanine level bleachers. Two of those original pairs of entrances are extant at the southwest and northwest corners of the Wigwam building. In 1979, the existing academic and auditorium wings were constructed adjacent to the eastern portion of the Wigwam facade and to the first floor of the Wigwam's east elevation. The circulation pattern was changed. The primary access for students to the 1959-61 section from Anderson High School became, in 1979, a new Commons concourse created along the south and east sides of the Wigwam. Students would reach the concourse either through the 1979 academic wing or through a new major entrance to the Commons created in the east facade of the academic wing.

Today, if one enters the concourse from the northern entrance in the west facade of the academic wing, one proceeds down a 1979 corridor with greenish terrazzo floor and lime green ceramic tile walls. There is now a dry wall partition wall with doors closing that corridor near its west end, installed in 2017. At the east end of the corridor is a stairway with rounded steps leading down from the east entrance to the Wigwam and the upper story of the academic wing. The Commons concourse continues from the stairway north along the former east side of the Wigwam structure and west of the 1979 auditorium wing. There are fire-rated dry wall partitions installed in 2017 that close off the north-south portion of the concourse from the stairway entry area. The concourse also leads to the southeast entrance to the Wigwam gymnasium. Drywall partitions currently seal off the access corridor to the southeast entrance from the concourse.

Along the west side of the concourse is the former cafeteria, constructed in 1959-61 as part of the Wigwam and expanded in 1979. The cafeteria area is contained between the east wall of the gymnasium's main floor and the west wall of the concourse. At the north end is the kitchen with some of its built-in equipment still present. South of it was the serving area, now vacant, followed by the former main dining room, now divided into several sections by partitions. There are several projecting ceramic clay block wall panels from 1959-61 in the dining areas that contain stylized thunderbirds in different colors, set against fields of contrasting colors. The walls are cream ceramic clay block with occasional dark colored blocks for accents. The floor is terrazzo. Here, as in all of the public spaces of the 1959-61 building, there are dark green terrazzo "baseboard" zones that begin as strips on the floor and continue up the base of the walls.

Emerging from the south end of the cafeteria, and turning right, one enters the Wigwam gymnasium. The 61-foot high space is rectangular and has a main floor and mezzanine level. The space is defined in its upper zone by the nine colossal steel columns and high tensile beams that rise along the west and east sides and support the steel roof structure. All of the roof structure, ceiling panels, upper sections of the exterior curtain wall, and ventilators are painted a light mustard color. The structural system affords excellent sight lines from every part of the gymnasium. The mezzanine level, constructed of concrete slabs, bounds the central gymnasium space on three sides. It supports multiple banks of varnished wooden bleachers that can be retracted to reveal three hardwood basketball playing floors. These floors, plus a secondary floor on the main varsity floor, were used for physical education classes. On the main floor is a regulation varsity hardwood floor. At the center of the floor is painted the head of an American Indian Chief. There are retractable bleachers also on the main floor, seating about 2,000 people. Together with the approximately 6,000 seats in the mezzanine bleachers, a total of 8,189 could be seated in the three sides of the gymnasium. The fourth side of the gymnasium is occupied by a 60-foot-wide proscenium and stage equipped for Broadway-style shows. The proscenium is red brick with projecting stretcher header courses for accents on either side. The upper section of the proscenium consists of varnished wooden panels. The floor of the stage is also hardwood. Additional wooden bleachers at the back of the stage can bring the seating capacity of the house up to 8,996. The south wall of the gymnasium is red brick on either side of the stage and cream plaster above.

At the north ends of the east and west walls of the gymnasium's main floor are exposed concrete block sections. The one on the west side contains a door to the Anderson coach's office. On the mezzanine level, directly above, are sections at the northwest and northeast corners containing restrooms. Access to the mezzanine level is via stairways from the four entrances from each of the four corners of the Wigwam. On the main level, the entrances lead through corridors to the gymnasium. At the southeast corner, the corridor contains trophy cases and has greenish terrazzo floor and lime green tile walls. The corridor from the northwest is likewise appointed and has a steel, built-in ticket window. A concession stand was also located along the northwest corridor.

The center of athletics in the 1959-61 Wigwam was the suite of locker-rooms and coaching offices located west of the main floor, below the mezzanine level. If one exits the main floor at the southwest entry corridor and turns right, one enters a narrow north-south corridor that offers access to the suites. The corridor has the characteristic 1959-61 greenish terrazzo floor, deep green terrazzo strip along the floor perimeter and along the baseboard section of the walls, and lime green tile walls, with occasional contrasting red tiles. To the east, along the corridor at the center, is the former varsity locker room for the Anderson, Indiana basketball team. The locker room suite retains its original lockers mounted on terrazzo bases, terrazzo floors, original fixed benches, tan-colored ceramic tile walls, and most of the original fixtures. Adjoining the locker room is a shower room with original fixtures and tile walls, and down the interior corridor from the locker room is the former equipment and training rooms. Going back to the main corridor, one proceeds north to the former coach's office on the right, which has had a partition wall inserted since 1961. On the west side of the corridor are four former physical education locker rooms. Two on the south end of the corridor were for boys, and two on the north end were for girls. Much of the lockers, fixtures, and shower rooms are extant. South of the locker room complex, past the first of the two southwest entrances to the Wigwam, are an athletic office and a steel ticket window.

There is a basement beneath the main locker room area. Adjacent to the Wigwam basement along its west side is the pool pavilion, which is accessed via a stairway located along the east-west corridor adjacent to the Industrial Arts wing. The platform around the pool is at the same level as the Wigwam basement. The pool pavilion is a two-story high space, with the lower level excavated below grade. The pool proper is rectangular, lined with tile, and contains 5 lanes. The main tile is cream colored, with ruby-colored tile used for the lanes and the perimeter of the pool. Along the east side of the pool room are built-in bleachers, located above the swimming pool locker rooms. The bleacher structure is reinforced concrete, and the seats are wood. The steel transverse beams and longitudinal beams supporting the pavilion roof are exposed and painted. Along the east, north, and west sides of the pool, lime green ceramic tile covers the lower 6 feet of the walls. The platform has green tile with tan accents. An office constructed of drywall has been added to the north wall of the pool pavilion, possibly in 1979.

The swimming pool locker rooms are located beneath the pool bleachers and are accessed from a wide corridor that runs north and south, below the main floor of the gymnasium. There is a boys' locker room suite at the north end of the locker room complex, and a girls' locker room suite to the south end. Each suite contains original lockers on original concrete bases, concrete floors, original shower rooms, and some of the original fixtures. Some of the south locker room suite has been remodeled for storage. One of the shower rooms retains its original tan colored tile walls and ceramic floors. Originally, the boys accessed the pool at the north end through a foot bath, and the girls at the south end. The wide corridor running to the east of the swimming locker rooms was originally an athletic training area.

At the south end of the basement corridor is the 1959-61 student recreation room, which was later the wrestling room. This room originally occupied the space below the gymnasium stage. It has since been subdivided by dry wall partitions and is currently used for storage. Returning to the main floor of the gymnasium, if one proceeds to the corridor leading to the northwest entrance, one finds an east-west corridor running behind the north wall of the gymnasium. Originally, in 1961, there were 5 Industrial Arts shop rooms located along the north side of this corridor in the Industrial Arts wing. Beginning at the west end, the shops included (a) the Auto Mechanic's Shop, (b) the Pattern-Making Shop, (c) the Machine Shop, (d) the Product Design Shop, and (e) the Drafting Room for Product Design. Substantial remodeling has changed the character of the shop spaces. The industrial and design equipment and machinery have been removed, and it appears that some of the rooms have been reconfigured. The differing levels of each shop remain, as do the steel trusses overhead supporting the roofs. There are also some secondary spaces remaining between the shops proper and the corridor to the south.

The principal structure added to Anderson High School in 1979 was the auditorium wing, adjoining the 1959-61 Wigwam to the east. The academic wing provided additional classrooms for the high school and served as a connecting structure between the 1910 high school and the Wigwam and auditorium wing.

If one enters the auditorium wing through its main, east entrance, one finds oneself in the lobby of the auditorium. The lobby is defined chiefly by the shape of the rear of the auditorium, the side walls of which taper and narrow at the rear. The lobby, therefore, is narrow opposite the entrance and gradually expands on either side. The walls are drywall, and the ceilings are suspended. The auditorium is accessed through six doors from the lobby. It was designed to serve both as an auditorium for public assemblies, musical performances, and theater, but also as a facility for large group instruction. The rear section, narrower than the forward section of the auditorium, can be divided by movable panels into three instructional rooms, while the forward section serves as a large instructional space. At the front of the auditorium, a rectangular proscenium 44 feet wide enframes the stage. The stage extends approximately 2 feet beyond the proscenium and is varnished wood. The walls of the forward section of the auditorium extend diagonally out from the proscenium and then straighten. The walls are decorated with a grid of 8-inch concrete blocks, projecting from the wall surfaces. The rear section of the auditorium has a lower ceiling, and its side walls taper inward. There are cushioned, fixed theater seats from 1979 in the auditorium. The floor of the auditorium is raked and is covered with linoleum.

On either side of the auditorium are musical instruction facilities. On the south side is a suite of rooms designed for the high school choirs. Off an east-west corridor south of the auditorium is the choir room, a rectangular space with semi-circular steps for risers. At the west end of the room are five practice rooms. There is a wooden framework resembling coffering attached to the ceiling overhead. West of the choir room originally was a music classroom and stage shop. On the opposite side of the auditorium wing is the former band room, occupying a space opposite the auditorium stage and forward section. The rectangular band room also has semi-circular riser-steps, and there are six practice rooms on the west side. The band room, like the choir room, has a coffer-style ceiling framework. The rest of the northern side of the auditorium wing is occupied by the former instrument and store rooms.

The two-story academic wing was intended to house math and science classes on the second floor and business education and driver's education on the first floor. If one enters the academic wing through the south entrance in its west facade, originally, there was a north-south corridor running along the west side of the first floor and an east-west corridor running toward to the former juncture with the 1910 Anderson High School. A third corridor runs from the end of the east-west corridor north to the entrance for the Commons concourse and Wigwam. In 2017, the north-south corridor along the west side of the wing was divided into offices, a smaller corridor, and a waiting room for a Jane Pauley Health Center. The corridor before 2017 had a terrazzo floor, white tile on the walls and built-in steel lockers on the west side. The tile wall along the east side of the corridor was removed or covered with drywall in 2017, and the lockers have been removed or covered with drywall in this corridor. The terrazzo floor remains in at least the southern section of the corridor. The second corridor has terrazzo floors and white tile walls, as does the third corridor, running west to the Commons. The classrooms and offices on the west side of the first floor in the Academic Wing have been remodeled to serve as offices and clinic consultation rooms.

On the second floor of the academic wing, a doughnut plan is evident, in which four corridors provide access to classrooms in the inner classrooms of the floor and the north classrooms. The east-west corridors have lockers on both sides, and the north-south corridors have lockers on one side. Originally, there were chemistry, biology, and physics classrooms on the north side of the second floor and five math and two biology classrooms, plus a general science classroom, in the inner core area on the floor. On the first floor, there is no information on the location of the business education and driver's education classrooms. The 1979 classrooms in the academic wing have been largely dismantled since the high school closed in 1999.

Integrity: There is a very high degree of integrity in the gymnasium of the 1959-61 Wigwam building. There have been almost no alterations in the main space, the bleachers, or the stage. There is also a high degree of integrity in the locker room suites on the main floor, where the varsity teams trained and had their lockers, and where the physical education classes were based. Likewise, the swimming pool pavilion has a high degree of integrity; few alterations are evident since 1961. The swimming pool locker rooms have had some remodeling but retain several areas with original features. The 1959-61 cafeteria retains most of its essential character and decorative motifs, although its equipment has been removed. There is less integrity in the former Industrial Arts shop rooms, although their basic configuration is still evident.