Rockland Community College : Campus

Located on the crest of a sloping rise in a former farm community known as Mechanicsville, renamed Viola when a post office was established in 1882, the property included:

-A wooden barn which was renovated into a theater and assembly room in the second semester.
-Fields leased to local farmers that yielded tomatoes and cabbage. The college later acquired 150 acres (0.6 km2) of farmland—100 to the south from the Hurschle Brothers Farm, and 50 to the west from the Springsteen Farm—for its current 175-acre (0.7 km2) campus.
-A "potter’s field" cemetery, the burial grounds for many of the Almshouse residents. Shortly after the college was founded, the county deeded a tract of land in the northern section for establishing a veterans cemetery, which remains today.
-A small square building with barred windows that served as the first Rockland County jail, later the Ramapo town police headquarters, and still later a police radio station. It was converted into offices and men’s locker rooms for the physical education program in the second semester.
-A narrow, tree-lined country lane known as Almshouse Road, which became an interior access road when the current College Road was built.

Of course, the centerpiece of the complex was the three-story, colonial design Almshouse. In front of the Almshouse is a wooden gazebo that still stands.

Enrollments

1959 The first year three programs were in place for students transferring to four-year colleges after graduation: liberal arts and sciences, business administration, and business administration with accounting major. Completion of these led to the Associate in Arts degree.

139 students enrolled during the day: 87 men and 52 women, 119 full-time and 20 part-time. Students in the evening sessions, who earned part-time credit, outnumbered those in the day sessions for the first five years. In 1959, 162 students—94 men, 68 women—enrolled in the evening versus 139 during the day. By 1963, the numbers had grown to 783 evening and 674 day.

Most, but not all, lived in Rockland. Several came from northern New Jersey, which had no community college at that time.

Commencements

On June 11, 1961, the college’s first commencement exercises honored 39 graduates—22 men, 17 women—who had finished the journey begun by 139 full-time students two years before.

As college enrollment grew, so too did its graduate base. From 39 in 1961, the number rose to 60 in 1962 and 115 in 1963, including the first 24 from the school’s nurse education program.

The Barn

If the old Almshouse was the heart of the early campus, the Barn was assuredly its soul.

All manner of events took place under its sturdy wooden roof: school registration, physical education classes, sports team practices, large classes and final exams, dance classes, student-faculty talent shows, worship services, films, guest lecture series, concert series, even war protest rallies.

But the program most closely identified with the Barn was the College Barn Theater and its Drama Club student performers, the College Barn Players.

The Barn burned down in January 1979, but the student actors continued to perform, shifting to the Cultural Arts Center, built in 1983.

Sports

-Baseball games were played at the Village of Suffern ball field
-Basketball - The School used court time in gymnasiums at Suffern, Haverstraw, and Spring Valley high schools and a few junior highs.
-Bowling at Hi tor lanes in Haverstraw.
-Calisthenics, jogging, archery, soccer, and golf were held in the fields surrounding the small, peaked-roof building of the former Ramapo police station which housed the physical education office.
-Fencing, gymnastics and varsity wrestling practice were held at the Barn.
-Swimming and lifesaving were taught at the Bader’s Hotel outdoor pool in Spring Valley.
-Deer Kill Day Camp in Suffern was rented to teach lifetime skill sports like tennis, handball, and one wall paddleball as well as softball and basketball.
The Eugene Levy athletic facility, known as the “Fieldhouse” was not completed until 1972.

Wikipedia:Rockland Community College : Campus