Northfield University
The birthplace of time travel.
Official Seal
- Founded
- 1905
- Motto
- “Knowledge Through Discovery”
- Location
- Benton, Nebraska (fictional)
- Type
- Public research university
- Enrollment
- Approximately 9,500 students
- Faculty
- ~317 (30:1 student-to-faculty ratio)
- Acceptance Rate
- 75%
- Academic Colleges
- College of Engineering • Department of Physics (home to the Temporal Mechanics research track)
- Library
- Caldwell Library
- Student Newspaper
- The Hawkette
- Athletics
- NCAA Division II — the Hawks • Prairie Athletic Conference (PAC)
- Football Stadium
- Walter P. Riley Memorial Stadium
- School Colors
- Red and Blue
Campus Overview
Northfield University is a respected regional public university serving Nebraska and the surrounding Midwest. While known for strong undergraduate education, it also supports graduate research in science, engineering, and the humanities.
The campus has a traditional Midwestern feel with red-brick academic buildings, mature trees, open lawns, and a central student commons. Although not nationally famous, it has an excellent reputation throughout Nebraska—the kind of place where an eccentric physics professor could spend years working in a basement lab without attracting much national attention.
Campus Map
- 1Library
- 2Administration Building
- 3Student Services
- 4Residence Halls
- 5Football Stadium
- 6Engineering Building
- 7The Science Building (active Book 1, abandoned Book 2 onward)
- 8The Northfield Historical Archive
Important Campus Locations
Science Building
The university's primary science facility during Book 1. Located beneath it is a basement laboratory unofficially nicknamed “The Frankenlair” (officially Room B12: Experimental Temporal Mechanics)—Professor Everett Frankwyler's research space and the birthplace of the original Time Displacement Unit.
By Book 2, the building sits abandoned. After Everett's disappearance and the quiet collapse of the temporal mechanics program, the university stopped maintaining it—another overlooked corner of campus, not unlike the warehouse Megan and Marco later find outside Benton.
Northfield Commons
The central campus quad. A large grassy open space with a fountain and a bell tower, used for club fairs, graduation ceremonies, and outdoor concerts—the heart of everyday student life on campus.
The Den
A popular student hangout near campus—part coffee shop, part bar—where students, faculty, and graduate assistants frequently gather.
Campus Character
Northfield is intentionally designed to feel like a believable Midwestern university rather than an Ivy League institution. Students know many professors by name. Research exists but isn't flashy. The campus feels lived in rather than glamorous.
Role in the Series
Northfield University serves as the birthplace of time travel. It is where Professor Everett Frankwyler teaches, where the original Time Displacement Unit is invented, and where Oliver, Megan, Marco, Lucy, Beth, and Hana ultimately become connected through Everett's work. Although later books expand beyond the university, Northfield remains the historical heart of the series—the origin point for everything that eventually leads to Chronotours and the wider Five Seconds universe.