The historic Amphitheater was dear to the heart of the late ETSU President Charles C. Sherrod who supervised workers and mules used in the excavation and construction of the federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) endeavor. According to a copy of the Nov. 15, 1935 Chalk Line, announcing the planned facility, the Amphitheater was billed as an outdoor playhouse that "will enable the college to carry on a valuable program of pageants and plays such as no other school in East Tennessee can."