History of Current Facilities
Madison Central High School has been in a unique situation for as long as anyone can remember. MHS has never had its own gymnasium. When the high school was located in downtown Madison (this location is now Heritage High Apartments), the school used the city auditorium as its gym. Eventually a new high school was built in the mid 1960’s, but the gym was built without any seating. High school athletics then played its home games at the Dakota State University Fieldhouse, which was (and is still) a National Guard Armory. Because of the addition of women’s athletics programs and other athletics options, it became very difficult for the high school and college to share one facility.
High School athletic events eventually moved into the new Middle School in the early 1990’s. This facility was built on a small scale to accommodate middle school uses. So the high school continues on without a home, in a facility too small to meet their needs and without control over its own scheduling and use.
A grassroots group of community members from the Madison school district have proposed building a new gymnasium for MHS. This group has carefully researched and assessed the district’s needs for a facility, which would be similar in size to other communities with Madison’s enrollment. The group then privately paid for architectural drawings for a facility that would “Give Madison Pride a Home” for the first time in its history. This new gymnasium would meet the needs of the district’s high school activities, ALL activities, for years to come.
