James Madison University was founded in 1908 as a women's normal school and today enrolls around 22,000 students, making it the dominant institution and largest employer in Harrisonburg. The original campus — known as the Bluestone district — is built from locally quarried bluestone limestone, giving it a distinctive blue-grey appearance unusual among American university campuses.
The Forbes Center for the Performing Arts (2010) is the most architecturally significant building on campus and hosts a full programme of theatre, dance, and classical music that is open to the public, with performances by both students and visiting artists. The Marching Royal Dukes — reportedly the largest collegiate marching band in the country, with over 500 members — are a spectacle at home football games in the fall.
story: > James Madison University's Marching Royal Dukes perform at every home football game and major university event. Founded in 1972, they have grown to over 540 members, making them reportedly the largest collegiate marching band in the United States. Their pregame and halftime shows are precisely choreographed and genuinely impressive.