Pattee Mall

The mall takes its name from Pattee Library, which stands at the mall’s upper end. Hard to imagine, but until the library’s construction in 1940, the mall was a busy street leading from downtown State College through the heart of campus. At Pattee Mall’s lower end are the Allen Street gates, which symbolically mark the boundary between town and campus. The oldest buildings along the mall include Schwab Auditorium, built in 1902 with a gift from steel king Charles Schwab; and Carnegie Building, whose construction was made possible by a gift from Schwab’s fellow industrialist, Andrew Carnegie. Both men served on Penn State’s Board of Trustees. The stately elms lining the mall date back to the 1890s. Of the campus’ original elms, more than half have been claimed by either Dutch elm disease or elm yellows disease. Wood from removed elm trees has been used to create the Penn State Elms Collection, with a portion of the proceeds going toward planting replacement trees.