Venue: University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium
Address: 716 Langdon Street
Town: Madison, US

The University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium, also called the Red Gym, is a building on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was originally used as a combination gymnasium and armory beginning in 1894. Designed in the Romanesque Revival style, it resembles a red brick castle. It is situated on the shores of Lake Mendota, overlooking Library Mall and adjacent to Memorial Union. The 1904 Wisconsin Republican Party convention was held in the Red Gym, where Robert La Follette and the Progressive Republicans took control of the state party from the Stalwarts. The Progressives secured a majority in the state legislature, making way for reforms in Wisconsin like the direct primary, which was later adopted by other states. In the early years after the UW was established in 1848, its students were given intermittent military training. But after the Civil War, analysts felt that the Confederacy had been helped in the war by the South's tradition of stronger military training. When the UW became a land-grant university in 1866, it was required to include military tactics in its curriculum for all male students. For that purpose and for gymnastic exercises, a small building was constructed northwest of Bascom Hall around 1870. But many students did not want military training, and after 1870 it was required only of first and second-year students. Despite that, the UW outgrew the old gym and in 1881 the Regents asked the legislature to fund a new gym. Through the following decade UW Presidents John Bascom and Thomas Chamberlin pressed for a new gymnasium and armory. Around that time, labor riots had occurred in a number of cities in the United States, including the Haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886. Leaders in many cities saw the need for local armories to be prepared for worker strikes and uprisings. Thus, when funding the building, the Wisconsin legislature clearly saw its use by local militia. When the legislature approved the project in 1891, a delegation was