WELLSTON, Mo. — There may be no more unique place to watch basketball in the St. Louis area than Viking Hall.
The oval-shaped combined gymnasium and performing arts venue has multi-color stage lights hanging above the court with dim, theater-lit seats placed in a curve high above each side. Behind the baselines—or in the wings of the stage—sit collapsable bleachers, locker rooms and drinking fountains.
It’s not your typical gym.
Completed in March 1969 at a cost of $1,131,220, the 3,000-seat Viking Hall became a cornerstone of the already-historic Normandy High campus at the intersection of St. Charles Rock and Lucas and Hunt Roads.
One side of seating features permanent stadium seating while the other is bench-style. Collapsable bleachers sit in the wings of the stage or court area. Moveable basketball hoops, similar to those found in many college arenas, are used.
A thick curtain is available to divde the venue for performing arts or lectures, according to an April 29, 1969, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.
The building was designed by William B. Ittner Inc. architects and constructed by G.T. Lawler Construction of St. Louis, per the Post-Dispatch.
Famed architect William B. Ittner, who passed away in 1936 but whose company designed Viking Hall, architected the old gym and the main portion of Normandy High, per a Sept. 1, 1985, Post-Dispatch article. Ittner set the standard around the turn of the 20th century in school design, drawing people to St. Louis to see how his innovative architecture added light and ventilation into schools.
Normandy long hosted an annual holiday tournament, the Christmas theme accented by the school’s red and green colors.
It’s one of the oldest high school basketball tournaments in the country, dating to 1929, per a Dec. 23, 1982, Post-Dispatch article by Steve Wade. At one point the tournament played host to 32 teams before a 1978 MSHSAA rule change restricted field side, said a Dec 26, 1992, Post-Dispatch article.
The old, nameless 1920s Ittner-designed Normandy gym held a cramped 900 people, and the floor wasn’t regulation size, the article said.
