Patten Gymnasium is the name of two multi-purpose gymnasiums (one past and one present) in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, Downtown Chicago, ...

, United States, on the campus of

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...

. The original building, designed by George Washington Maher, opened in 1910 and was home to the Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team until 1940, when it was demolished to make room for the construction of the

Technological Institute The Technological Institute, more commonly known as "Tech", is a landmark building at Northwestern University built from 1940 to 1942. It is the main building for students and faculty in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applie ...

. The current Patten Gymnasium opened in 1940 and hosted the men's basketball team for 12 years before Welsh-Ryan Arena opened in 1952. The ivy-lined building has the doors and statues from the old gym. It currently is the home to the women's

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

team, intramural sports program and also has offices and locker rooms for the women's lacrosse,

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shootin ...

, and men's and women's soccer teams. It is named for

James A. Patten James A. Patten (1852–1928) was an Americans, American commodities speculator, financier, and politician. The mayor of Evanston, Illinois, Evanston from 1901 to 1905, Patten is best remembered as a leading financier of the Gilded Age. Biogra ...

, former Evanston mayor, philanthropist, commodities broker and NU board of trustees president. In 1999, the swimming pool area, which had been unused since 1987, was renovated and transformed into the Gleacher Golf Center. At the time that it opened, the Gleacher Center was the only facility of its kind in collegiate golf, featuring a pitching and putting green with an adjacent sand trap.

The original Patten Gymnasium, which had seating for 1,000 people, hosted the first

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

game in 1939. The sculptures "Physical Development" and "Intellectual Development" by the artist Hermon Atkins MacNeil (1866–1947), affectionately nicknamed "Pat and Jim" (contractions of "Patten" and "gymnasium") and also known as "The Athlete and the Scholar", which had been exhibited in front of the original Patten Gymnasium starting in 1916, are now placed as sentinels at the sides of the successor gymnasium's front entrance.

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Patten Gymnasium
Basketball venues in Illinois Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Indoor arenas in Illinois Northwestern University campus Northwestern Wildcats basketball Swimming venues in Illinois Buildings and structures in Evanston, Illinois Sports venues in Cook County, Illinois 1940 establishments in Illinois Sports venues completed in 1940 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four venues {{Illinois-sports-venue-stub