Philadelphia served as a measuring rod … even for a famed basketball arena at Duke

Photo of The Palestra, home to the University of Pennsylvania’s basketball teams, courtesy of Matthew Marcucci at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Duke University’s Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina, is a prime example of a Philly connection.  

When the building was opened in 1940, it was proudly billed as the East Coast’s largest indoor stadium south of the Palestra in Philadelphia.

But that’s not the only relationship between Duke, Cameron and Philly.

When I attended an MBA graduation at Duke a few years back inside Cameron, I was amazed at how much the building reminded me of the Palestra. Later, I learned why.

Julian Abele, the first Black graduate of what is now the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, designed some 30 buildings at Duke for the Philadelphia firm of Horace Trumbauer, including Cameron.

And it seems very likely Abele was familiar with The Palestra, which opened in 1927. He certainly seemed to have incorporated elements of the Palestra’s extraordinary closeness to the basketball court and incredible noise levels in his design for Cameron, home of the “Cameron Crazies.”

The Palestra itself is frequently referred to as “the Cathedral of College Basketball” or “the Mecca of College Basketball.”