Post Author: dollinca
Picture found in JMU historical photograph collections with the caption “Apts. on Route 11 – off campus housing.” Showalter Apartments were located on Pleasant Hill Road, off Route 11 South.
JMU Historic Photographs Online. http://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/SCPix/bresh/bresh003.jpg
By the mid-70s, over 300 Madison College students, mostly seniors, resided in Showalter Apartments on Pleasant Hill Road off of Route 11 south of Harrisonburg. For the women of Madison in particular, this served to be a great transition from the structured environment set forth with the ideals of “in loco parentis” that they experienced as freshmen. While the administration was continuing to re-structure the regulations of dorm life, Showalter Apartments was relatively on its own, free from restrictions. Showalter was newly built and completed by the Spring semester of 1973 to house 140 students. By the following year, the Showalter complex had doubled in size and in residents, housing 300 students.(Showalter Expands, The Breeze)
In order to live at Showalter, students were to be upperclassmen, maintain at least a 2.0 GPA, and have a reliable source of transportation to get to and from campus. However this changed in the fall semester of 1974 when Madison College extended its bus service to include Showalter Apartments. Students living in this complex shared much of the same complaints as students on campus, citing loud noise and long waits to be granted a room as the top two gripes.(Scott) However students at Showalter enjoyed the lack of restrictions experienced living on-campus. But since the apartments were owned by the university, students need not worry about bills such as rent, utilities, or heat. Students were not tied to a monthly lease and thus paid a semester rate, just like those living in dorms.(Scott)
Alumnus Susanne Myers spent her senior year at Showalter after spending her first three on campus. Myers re-iterated that Showalter was attractive to students because of its lack of regulations. Dorms were often subject to strict hours of visitation amongst other regulations enforced by residential advisors. When reminiscing of her time living on campus and the regulations that came with it, she continued with referring to these restrictions as being “thrown out the window” at Showalter. She enjoyed the independence of Showalter, placing value on such small things as buying her own groceries, which to her was “special.” Although she revealed that she never had parties at her apartment, their were apartments that were known for their wild parties, particularly the guys that lived below her. Thus simply because students were moving off-campus to be more independent, they were still students and still acted like so. However unlike in dorms, there were no special alcohol regulations outside of the laws of the land.(Myers)
Beginning with the popularity of Showalter Apartments, a general trend began to take shape at Madison College. As the school continued to grow, upperclassmen desired to move into less structured, more independent environments. Other apartment complexes such as Holly Court on Revervoir Street began taking students by 1974.(Hoschar) This freedom and independence will be what drew future students into the community and out of the bubble that Madison College created. When these students begin to spill into adjacent communities, the friction burns hot.
Works Cited
Hoschar, Darlene “Commuter Problems Expressed.” The Breeze. September 24, 1974. Page 1.
Myers, Susanne, “Class Lecture,” History 337 Local History, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
Scott, Mary Anne, “Alternative to Dorms,” The Breeze. October 12, 1973. Page 1.
“Showalter Expands,” The Breeze. April 10, 1973. page 8.
“Shuttle Service Expanded,” The Breeze, Sept. 3, 1974, page 4.