Courtesy of WUSTL Archives

Francis Gymnasium has been home to athletic victories, guest lectures and presidential debates in the University's illustrious past. In 1918, it even served as a barracks for Vocational Unit, Section B, as World War I drew to a close. Francis Gym, completed in 1903, was one of the buildings used in the third modern Olympic Games in 1904, the first Olympics held in the Western Hemisphere. After the Games, the Olympic Games Committee turned the gym over to the University to be used as part of the athletics department. This three-story, multi-level building also contains Olympic-sized Millstone Pool, built in 1985. Francis Gymnasium and Francis Field are named for David Rowland Francis, an 1870 alumnus, governor of Missouri, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Co., U.S. ambassador to Russia and president of Merchants Exchange.

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Washington University is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2003-04.

Special programs and announcements will be made throughout the yearlong observance.