Modifications were made to the plans when a new university president, Charles Adams, insisted that the second floor be capable of accommodating large assemblies.

[3] Over the next 30 years, the second floor assembly hall was the scene of speeches by William McKinley (1894), William Jennings Bryan (1912), Eugene Debs (1923), Upton Sinclair (who in 1922 had to promise not to be controversial), and the Republican state conventions of 1902 and 1904, which nominated Robert M. La Follette for governor.

The anti-military sentiment in Wisconsin that occurred after World War I resulted in the elimination of compulsory military training.

[3] The Red Gym was also no longer used for Big Ten basketball games following the construction of the university field house in 1930.

[3] When a new gym was constructed on the west end of campus in 1963, the building was again slated for demolition, and again received a reprieve.