Browse Exhibits (3 total)

Boyle Exhibit

The full name of Boyle Hall is Francis H. Boyle hall.  The building began being built in 1915 and was fully built and dedicated in 1917.  The building was a gift of Mr. Henry Boyle and was named after his son, Francis, who was a student at St. Norbert College.  As stated in the book entitled St. Norbert College Centennial Edition, "The building included 13 classes, a recreation area on the first floor, a bookstore, cloak room, six dormitories, living quarters for supervisors, a large two-story study hall, a convocation center on the third floor, and on the fourth floor was an entire floor space."

The building had many renovations from 1928 to 1985 in many different areas.  The recreation space became the College Library in 1928.  In 1968 the language laboratory was installed on the second floor of Boyle for $30,000.  Also in 1968 a seminary and reading center was opened on the second floor.  In 1978 the education department was moved  from the St. Joseph Hall to the Boyle Hall third floor.  In 1983 because of the Krege Foundation of Tory, Michigan, the college was awarded a grant of $200,000 and the college was remodeled and rededicated.  The building was retained to its original form but classrooms were modernized, more office faculty space was given, air conditioning was updated, and ventilation systems were installed.  In 1985 three classrooms were added and improved, a three tiered studio was added, and a language laboratory with 27 classrooms was added.

The total cost of the Boyle Hall building renovations was $1.9 million.  Francis H. Boyle Hall still continues to be one of the principal classroom buildings on campus.  At this time the classes taught in the building are mainly General Education courses and Communications/Media Studies courses.

Work Cited
Pieters, Donald L. St. Norbert College Buildings. Centennial Edition ed. De Pere, WI: St. Norbert College, 1998. Print.

Cofrin Hall Exhibit

David Cofrin, the owner and son of the founder of the Fort Howard Corporation, donated $1.5 million to St. Norbert College in the company and his name in April 1988. This money was used for construction of a new academic building, which is named after his father, Austin E. Cofrin Hall. Later the same year, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee donated another $400,000 to help construction of the new academic building.

The Cofrin Hall was designed by the CPR architectural firm. The groundbreaking for the building was on May 21, 1991, it took around 15 months for the construction, and was dedicated on September 11, 1992. The entire construction of Cofrin Hall cost around $6 million. It is located among the Pennings Activity Center, Dr. John R. Minahan Science Hall, the Todd Wehr Library (called the Todd Hall now), and the F.K. Bemis International Center ( was not there until 1996). 

The new academic building, Austin E. Cofrin Hall, has three stories and a finished basement. It contains 10 classrooms and 30 faculty offices with 41,000 total square foot. The computer science, mathematics, business, economics, and accounting departments take place in the new building, as well as most computer labs and internet servers.

Work Cited
Pieters, Donald L. St. Norbert College Buildings. Centennial Edition ed. De Pere, WI: St. Norbert College, 1998. Print.

John R. Minahan Science Hall Exhibit

The John R. Minahan Science Hall was constructed from 1959 to 1967. The Green Bay attorney Victor McCormick donated a naming gift of $1,000,000 to the building and the college received another $931,153 through a federal grant from the Higher Education Facilities Act. The rest of the money was from more than 600 industrial, professional, alumini and individual gifts. The building is named after a prominent Green Bay physician and surgeon, Dr. John R. Minahan, who is the uncle of Victor McCormick.

Lately, in 1995, St. Norbert received a grant of $250,000 from the National Science Foundation, which was used to update the faculty research areas, develop a networked student computer room, renovate two research aquarium rooms, and create and upgrade an environmental measurements laboratory.

At the beginning of the buildings life, the Physics, Psychology, and English departments were located on the first floor; the mathematics department, the computer center, and the science library were located on the second floor, and the Biology Center was located on the third floor, which was made available because of all the college alumni gifts. Besides the Biology Center, the third floor also contained the zoology, biology, and botany laboratories, and the chemistry and geography departments were located on the fourth floor. The fifth floor had a green house for the biology department and the psychology department laboratories.

However, after the Todd Wehr and Cofrin buildings were built, there were a lot of changes made to the building. The science library was moved to the Todd Wehr Library in 1979. The media services office, business office, the copy center, and the registrar's offices were moved to the second floor of JMS. Then, the mathematics department and the computer center were moved to Cofrin Hall. Recently, after the new library was built, the business office and the registrar's offices were moved to the remodeled Todd Wehr Hall.

Work Cited
Pieters, Donald L. St. Norbert College Buildings. Centennial Edition ed. De Pere, WI: St. Norbert College, 1998. Print.