Pattee and Paterno Libraries - The Heart of Study

A stop on Penn State University Park Campus Walk, a free self-guided tour.

The building at the head of the elm mall is Pattee Library, finished in 1940 as a federal public works project. It opened holding 150,000 books, three times what it had been designed for. In 1950 it was named for Fred Lewis Pattee, the first person anywhere to hold the title of professor of American literature.

Attached behind it is Paterno Library, opened in 2000 after an expansion and named for Joe and Sue Paterno, who co-chaired the fundraising campaign that built it. Together the two buildings form the main library at University Park, with reading rooms, special collections and long hours that students rely on, especially around finals.

Joe Paterno's name is complicated here. His long football career and his fundraising for academics are part of campus history, as is his dismissal in 2011, covered at the stadium stop. If the doors are open, walk in to see the grand old reading rooms, then come back out to the steps and look down the mall.

Getting here: Walk back east from the Shrine, about 4 minutes, to the front steps of Pattee Library at the top of the mall.

Did you know?: Pattee Library was built between 1937 and 1940 as part of a Public Works Administration project during the Depression.

Photo op: From the library steps, frame the long view back down Pattee Mall under the elms toward Old Main.

More on Wikipedia: Pennsylvania State University Libraries · Fred Lewis Pattee · Joe Paterno

Pattee and Paterno Libraries - The Heart of Study

Stops on this tour