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Tours

1. JMU Quad History Tour

   Reflect on the Quad as an evolving, inclusive commemorative landscape

   Stops

   1. Welcome to JMU’s Quad History Tour

      This tour is presented by and reflects the ongoing research of JMU's Campus History Committee.
      
      Established in 1908 by the Virginia legislature as the segregated State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, our school first opened its doors in 1909. Simultaneously progressive and conservative, it offered new opportunities at a time when women were denied equal access to education. Many people thought that too much education or the wrong kind of education would make young women unfit as wives and mothers, so the programs offered here were limited in scope. Additionally, the campus location on the outskirts of a small town in a rural community reassured white parents that their daughters would be safe.

      The Quad symbolized a self-contained living-learning community. Its design and placement of buildings mimicked the Lawn at the University of Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson adapted from European colleges like Oxford that had quadrangles, or four-sided, enclosed yards. Jefferson left one side open as a symbol of access to education in the democratic U.S. society. Look around and see that our Quad is organized the same way, with the newer Forbes Center for Performing Arts (built 2010) across Main Street on the open side.

      The campus is located on what was once the Henry D. Newman family’s farm, one of many farms that dotted the Shenandoah Valley. This valley has a deep, rich history. It is the ancestral homeland of the Monacan Indian Nation, Manahoac Tribe, and Page and Keyser Culture peoples, who stewarded the land and waterways for thousands of years before Europeans colonized it in the 1700s. Harrisonburg, incorporated as a town by 1780, was a popular stop for travelers using the old Great Valley Road (now Route 11 and Main Street), and became the seat of Rockingham County. Descendants of native Americans, European colonists, and those who were brought against their will as enslaved people continue to live in the area around what is now James Madison University.
      
      The Quad History Tour is the first of what we hope will be many history tours of campus. We recognize that JMU has an expansive past that informs our present and future, and this tour does not capture the whole complex, fascinating story. To share your thoughts about this tour, please email the Campus History Committee.
      

   2. Gabbin Hall

      The oldest academic space at JMU, Gabbin Hall first opened in 1909 as Science Hall, one of two buildings that have been here since the beginning. In that first year, 110 white women students attended, and 15 white faculty members provided their education, including first President Julian Ashby Burruss. 

      Notice the cornerstone at the base of the porch, which was laid in 1909 by the local Masonic order with a large crowd in attendance (see photos 2 & 3).

      The library, President’s office, and state-of-the-art sewing labs, cooking and chemistry labs, classrooms, and a gym were inside. Be sure to look up to the windows on the second floor, where mandatory calisthenics and assemblies were held. Students then could only complete a high school diploma or pursue a certificate in a professional program like teaching or food science. Four-year bachelor’s degrees came later.

      In 1917, the administration approved naming this building Maury Science Hall to memorialize Matthew Fontaine Maury, a noted oceanographer and admiral, as part of Virginia’s “Lost Cause” mythologizing of the Confederacy. The JMU Board of Visitors removed Maury’s name in 2020 and called it Mountain Hall while  the university community considered something new.

      Still home to administrative offices and classrooms, the building’s name today recognizes the contributions of Drs. Joanne and Alexander Gabbin (see photos 4 & 5), who were honored when it was rededicated as Gabbin Hall in 2021. Faculty members and administrators who are known nationally and locally, the married couple came to JMU in 1985, a time when JMU was still actively desegregating all levels of the institution.

      Joanne V. Gabbin taught in the English department until her retirement in 2022. She also served as director of the Honors Program (now Honors College) for 19 years. In 2005, she became the founder and executive director of the nation’s first academic center devoted to Black poetry, the Furious Flower Poetry Center at JMU. 

      Alexander Gabbin is an accounting professor and academic unit head in the College of Business. He co-founded the National Black MBA Association, which advances equity in business programs and mentors young professionals. At JMU, he was the first Black director of the School of Accounting.

   3. Darcus Johnson Hall

      Opened in 1909 as Dormitory No. 1, this modern building had electricity and steam heat in each room and needle-spray showers in the communal bathrooms! Because of enrollment demand, women were assigned to doubles and triples, and there was not enough room for everyone. Many students rented rooms in Harrisonburg and walked to campus every day. This building’s basement also housed the first dining room and kitchen. It was a busy place because everyone ate three meals a day here (see photos 2 & 3).
      

      In 1913, the administration changed this building’s name to Burruss Hall for President Julian Ashby Burruss, but it changed again in 1918 to Jackson Hall for Confederate General Stonewall Jackson as part of the “Lost Cause” movement. The JMU Board of Visitors removed that name in 2020 and called it Justice Hall while the university community considered something new.

      It remained a dormitory for freshmen until the 1970s, when JMU converted it to house the History Department (see photo 4) and classrooms. Today, it is home to the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence and the Department of Justice Studies. 

      In 2021, JMU rededicated the building to honor Dr. Sheary Darcus Johnson (see photos 5 and 6), the school’s first Black alumna, who enrolled here—Madison College at the time—in 1966 and graduated in 1970. She grew up in Harrisonburg under Jim Crow and was one of the Black teenagers who desegregated Harrisonburg High School in 1964. (The HHS school building was acquired by JMU and is now known as Memorial Hall, where the College of Education is housed.) She returned to Madison for her master’s degree and later earned her doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University. She lives in Richmond, where she is also a minister and author.

   4. Harrison Hall

      Originally called the Students Building when constructed in 1915, this place offered a big new library on the ground floor plus the registrar’s office and cashier. Note the row of enormous arched windows on the second story (see photo 1). They originally provided additional light for a large combination dining room and assembly hall that occupied the entire upper floor. Student clubs and organizations had rooms in the basement. Today, Harrison Hall houses the School of Communications and the School of Media Arts and Design.

      Named in 1917 for Gessner Harrison, who grew up in Harrisonburg and served as professor of Classics and head of the faculty at the University of Virginia in the 1830s, this building was the heart of student life for decades. A statue of Joan of Arc, donated in 1917, graced the lobby (see photo 2). (That statue is now in Carrier Library.) Students also used the lobby to share notices about club activities and deadlines on public bulletin boards (see photo 5).  

      In the 1930s, seven women from Puerto Rico enrolled. One of them, Ana Violeta Haddock y Navarro (see photo 3), wrote an article in The Breeze in 1936 describing her first impressions. She noted how much she liked the look of campus, but admitted she felt homesick, didn’t like the local food, and thought it was very cold. Though bilingual, she had a hard time understanding her professors and others and vice versa. The other Puerto Rican women probably had the same experience. 

      She and others persevered and found ways to belong. Haddock helped establish the Newman Club, for example, the first club for Catholic students on this largely Protestant campus. Another Puertoriqueña, Iris Ruiz (see photo 4), helped establish the Spanish Club in 1940. Today, Latinx students are the fastest growing population at JMU, and the university has multiple Latinx clubs as well as a Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies minor.

      
      

   5. Harper Allen­–Lee Hall

      Built in 1911 as Dormitory No. 2, this residence hall has been in continuous use as student housing for more than a century. 

      See how the ground slopes down in front revealing the basement level? A testing center is located there today. The windows below the porch provided light for a covered passageway built to connect the basement of this building to the basement of Harrison Hall and that of Dormitory No. 1. Students were sometimes allowed to use the passage, but it was mainly for maintenance and custodial workers. Later, legends arose about “the tunnels,” but they aren’t true.

      In 1917, the administration named this building Ashby Hall for a cavalry officer who died near here in 1862. This name reflected the “Lost Cause” mythologizing of the Confederacy in Virginia. The JMU Board of Visitors removed that name in 2020 and called it Valley Hall while the university community proposed something new. Now, this site recognizes the contributions to the institution of many Black staff members, who have been present on campus since it opened in 1909. In 2021 JMU leadership renamed this building for Doris Harper Allen and Robert Walker Lee.

      Lee (ca. 1888-1929) is probably the first Black person hired here (see photo 2). Labeled a janitor, from 1909 to 1928 he was responsible for essential building maintenance services and likely supervised other Black men employed at the school. An educated man, he was known for leaving “intriguing” messages on chalkboards as well as for a remarkable ability to remember everyone’s names. He lived on campus during the week and returned to his wife and children in nearby Bridgewater on weekends. There, he was a leader in his community, in his fraternal organization, the Masons, and at his church. His obituary appeared in the white newspaper and his funeral drew several hundred people, both African American and white, as a testament to his contributions. His descendants still live in Bridgewater and honor his memory.

      Harper Allen (1927-2021) grew up in Harrisonburg and attended the segregated Lucy Simms school (see photo 3). After graduation in the 1950s, she worked as a cook in the college president’s home, Hillcrest House. She cooked, planned menus, and organized special catered events. She wanted to be a teacher but was prohibited from attending Madison College, which was still segregated. Eventually, she attended West Virginia University and returned to Harrisonburg, where she became an educator, activist, and local historian. JMU awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2019. She died in 2021, just a few months after she learned that this building would be renamed in her honor.

      
      

   6. Wampler Hall

      Close to Main Street are two modern structures: Wampler Hall, built as a dormitory in 1994, and an academic building built for the Music Department in 1989. Neither was part of the Quad’s original 1909 plan and suggest how the physical plant has continued to grow and develop over time.
      

      Wampler Hall was the first dormitory on the Quad with rooms designed to accommodate students with special housing requirements. There was a designated “handicapped accessible” single on each floor. The building was named for Charles W. Wampler, Jr., a prominent businessman, local representative to the Virginia House of Delegates, and former rector of the JMU Board of Visitors who helped establish the university’s arboretum. Innovations made by the Wampler family of Rockingham County, Virginia, transformed the American poultry industry in the early twentieth century and made the Shenandoah Valley the “Turkey Capital of the nation.”

   7. The Music Building

      The Music Building had specially designed classrooms for vocal performance and instrument practice. Acoustical properties throughout the Music Building were designed and engineered by Gerald Marshall of Klepper, Marshall & King in New York. That includes 44 practice rooms, 35 faculty studios, and the four rehearsal areas: the band/orchestra room, the choral/lecture room, the Madisonian/opera room, and the jazz/recording studio room.

   8. Spotswood Hall

      This building opened in 1917 as Dormitory #3. It had 18 doubles and a parlor on each floor. Although there were two big, common bathrooms on each floor, each bedroom had its own sink. There was also a parlor and bedroom for the matron who lived on site to watch over the students. Notice that it is practically identical to Harper Allen-Lee Hall, its twin across the Quad. The symmetry of buildings on the Quad was intentional and adds to the beauty of the space.

      Soon after it opened in 1917, the administration voted to name this building Spotswood Hall for Alexander Spotswood, who served as lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1710 until 1722 and is credited with opening the Shenandoah Valley to English settlement. Spotswood Hall remains a freshman dormitory to this day.

      
      

   9. Sheldon Hall

      Women’s demand for education continued to rise steadily. By 1922, almost 400 women were enrolled here, and the school needed more beds. The east wing of Sheldon—which added the needed dormitory space—was completed first. The second half of the building with auditorium and classrooms was added in 1927. On the outside, Sheldon is identical to its twin across the Quad, Harrison Hall.

      Named for Edward Austin Sheldon, a New Yorker responsible for developing the idea of the normal school, this dormitory was one of two residence halls for sophomores.

      Yuri Nemoto (see photo 3), a Japanese American from Los Angeles, came to Madison College as a sophomore in 1943. Her family was incarcerated in the federal internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas, and her story is remarkable for its demonstration of both resistance and resilience. She gave public talks on campus about the circumstances in the camps and quickly became a student leader, winning election as president of the International Relations Club, the YWCA cabinet, and the Student Government Association. A Foods and Nutrition major, Nemoto returned to Los Angeles and had a long career in dietetics.

      In the 1970s, Sheldon was converted to house offices, including the first counseling center, where staff offered the first disability services and support services for LGBTQIA+ students. The School of Education was also in this building. Dr. Lillian Jennings, who served as the school’s associate dean for many years starting in 1974, was the institution’s first Black administrator (see photo 4).

   10. Alumnae Hall

       If you look closely, you’ll see the words Alumnae Hall carved into the stone above the entrance. That’s because this 1922 building was initially designed as a place where the school’s graduates could stay when coming back to campus to visit. With guest rooms upstairs and a reception area downstairs, the building also had offices, including one for the dean of women, who managed students’ conduct, approved their requests to leave campus, and monitored them as they signed out and back in again. Today, the building houses the university’s top administrators, but echoes of the first alumnae sound in Women for Madison’s current efforts to raise money for scholarships at JMU.
       

       This building recognizes the institution’s first donors: women graduates, mostly of modest means, who had successfully completed their studies at the State Normal and Industrial School. These early alumnae raised money for this building to supplement state funding, which was limited and already in high demand for other projects. They formed a committee to leverage the power of their networks to raise $12,550 (the equivalent of more than $220,000 today) toward this capital project at the school that meant so much to them.

   11. Keezell Hall

       Like Sheldon and Alumnae, this structure was built in the 1920s as the institution continued to grow. Although the exterior looks the same as Science Hall, the interior was very different. It had a two-story natatorium (pool) on the lower level and two-story gymnasium above that. Locker rooms, classrooms, and offices for the Physical Education Department wrapped around this four-story core. 

       The building was originally named for Walter Reed, who spent much of his childhood in Harrisonburg and grew up to be a noted U.S. medical authority. In 1959 it was renamed for state senator George Keezell, who represented this region and co-wrote the legislation establishing the State Normal and Industrial School. Today, it houses the departments of English and Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

   12. Wilson Hall

       In 2019 Wilson was completely remodeled to house the History Department. Inside, you’ll find an exhibit that briefly traces the institution’s history with a focus on the Quad as a practical and symbolic space. 

       Originally built in 1931 (see photo 1), the building is named for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who was born in nearby Staunton, Virginia, and eventually became president of Princeton University, where James Madison studied in 1770, before entering politics. This is the last built of the nine buildings originally designed for the Quad in 1908. It served as the administrative center with the new school president’s office inside, along with the bursar’s office, where students paid bills, as well as the post office, where students received packages and letters (see photo 2). The elegant Wilson auditorium remains an important site for campus-wide events ranging from new student orientation to music performances and public lectures. 

       Wilson Hall’s architecture was intended to be impressive, inspiring, and a bit intimidating. The largest structure by far, it still dominates the Quad and crowns the hill. Compare its mass and the size of its columns and pediment to that of other buildings nearby. 

       Throughout the years, Wilson Hall has been a site of student protest. In 1970, for example, a multiracial, co-educational group of student activists occupied the foyer (see photo 3). The Vietnam war was raging, there was a massive gas shortage, and a recession as well as ongoing social justice movements underway. Specifically, Madison College students were protesting the firing of several professors who were against the Vietnam war, but they also sought to affect campus life more broadly. Student protests weren’t new, however. A group of Madison College women protested here during World War II. More recently, students assembled here in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. "Being  the Change" has been a part of campus culture since the beginning.