Rock Gym

Location: 7501 Summerfield Road

Marker installed: Fall 2020 

The Summerfield Rock Gym was part of the Works Project Administration (WPA). The “Rustic Revival” style building was built of locally quarried granite rubblestone from the Robert Gamble farm on Pleasant Ridge Road. Building the gym was a community effort. Locals transported the rock and helped with construction and school-aged children helped with fundraising efforts by selling flowers and even tobacco. The school made it a competition on which class could raise the most money. The building was complete in September 1939 and dedicated on September 29. Over 1,000 people came together to celebrate with music, dance, and food.

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

The first high school building was erected in 1911 (not extant), then in 1924 the consolidated Summerfield High School building and campus historically associated with the gymnasium was located near this site. The high school closed in 1962 and then became home to Summerfield Elementary School. The school buildings were demolished in 1983 and a new Summerfield Elementary School was built and then remodeled and expanded in 2011. The Rock Gym is still used by the elementary school today.