Back in time with NAU

Back in time with NAU
Mother Hanley
Photo courtesy of Northern Arizona University, Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives. (NAU. .ARC.1950-3-7b).

Let Inside NAU take you back in time this summer with tidbits of university history.

Mother’s cooking

Known to generations of students as “Mother” Hanley, Margret Hanley, pictured center, moved from Colorado in 1912 at age 40 to run the Northern Arizona Normal School’s (now NAU) first dining hall. She kept the job for 41 years, until her retirement in 1953.

The dining hall later became the science building, then a men’s dormitory, which was named in her honor.

Due to construction of the new Science Lab building in 2005, Hanley Hall was razed, but NAU used sandstone from the hall in the new building as a tribute to Hanley’s history.