Named by the trustees in honor of the late James Hyde Porter, a Wesleyan benefactor and longtime trustee, the Porter Gymnasium building houses a heated swimming pool, a weight room, and a basketball/volleyball court, as well as dance studio, classrooms, dressing rooms, showers, and offices. The arena seats 586.

As you leave the building, look back over the roof of the gym and notice the weathervane. The design, custom-crafted in 1928 in honor of athletics at the first women’s college, represents college women engaged in a game of basketball. The two-ton ball and spire blew down in a storm several years ago and was stored in the attic of the gym for some time. A fifty-foot crane and a crew of three men were required to hoist the weathervane back in place.