MMI breaks ground on $10M dining hall at Marion campus

Marion Military Institute officially broke ground on a new dining hall with a ceremony packed with dignitaries on Sept. 7. 

The dining hall, being built at the front of campus on Washington Street, is the first new construction at MMI in 30 years. 

Many dignitaries attended including Rep. Prince Chestnut and Marion Mayor Dexter Hinton, and Alabama Community College System Chancellor Jimmy Baker. 

MMI President Col. David Mollahan said we cannot develop tomorrow’s leaders with yesterday’s facilities, explaining this is going to be a state of the art dining hall that will seat the up to 500, which means all cadets can dine at the same time instead of in shifts as it is now. There will be smaller dining halls to the sides of the main hall. 

Mollahan says the main room will be large enough for special events as well. The new dining hall is being built where the tennis courts were and new tennis courts are being built at the back of the campus. 

MMI opened in 1887 after its predecessor, Howard College, moved to Birmingham and became Samford University. Currently 325 cadets are enrolled at MMI.