The Gym Cottage

The Gym Cottage has long been the home of people who keep things moving. It started off as the home for head coachman Elis Clark. It is currently home to Eastern's Conferences and Special Events Department. In the interim, it served as home to many students, including social advocate and Eastern alumni, Shane Claiborne.

The Gym Cottage is one of the original buildings of the Walton Estate. It was built in 1914 for ex-slave Elis Clark and his family. Clark was the head coachman for the Walton's. While cars where gaining popularity, they could still be fickle, and it could take hours to do something as simple as change a tire. The Walton family often depended on Clark to provide reliable transportation or rescue in the event of an automotive issue.

At the time, the Waltons owned a Maxwell and two Italian Simplexes in addition to a pair of horses and several carriages, all of which were stored across campus at the garage and stable (now Andrews Hall). The materials left over from Andrews Hall's construction allowed the Gym Cottage to maintain the Spanish Mission theme shown throughout the rest of the property, and a courtyard was added to the outside of this small property that stood at the edge of the boat lake (now McGraw Lake).

There is a bit of a legend, or unsubstantiated rumor, that when the Walton Property was purchased, Eastern allowed the occupants of the Gym Cottage to stay until they were too elderly to continue living alone.

Through the years, the gym cottage has been used for student housing, particularly honors students. The most notable former resident is Shane Claiborne, '97 alumnus and founder of The Simple Way in Philadelphia.

With a total square footage of 1,075, this one level building converted the one-time bedrooms into offices for the Conference and Special Events in 2001. As Eastern has grown, so has this team's need for a dedicated space. This team has taken on University Wide Scheduling, Day to Day Event Logistics, and most recently Strategic Space Management.

Baird, J. (1984). Great House.

Eastern University Advancement Office.

Radnor Historical Society.