There can be a lot of appeal living near a college of university (as long as your neighborhood is not over-run by student rentals, parking issues etc). But in some places, especially the Boulder CO I’m familiar, homes can be very pricey. When we moved to the area, Boulder homes were ruled out quickly due to budget constraints.
1 Like
The reason I started this thread is because I may end up living in a college town again and one of the potential locations happens to be Middletown. Would you recommend the area for 50ish empty nesters? The food scene and proximity to big cities looks good but it sounds like it doesn’t have a real college town feel, which isn’t necessary, but a welcoming local community would be a bonus.
I live college town adjacent (very small town that shares the public schools with the actual college town next door). Love it. Kids seem to as well. The college isn’t huge like Michigan so sports aren’t a major part of the vibe. But the college itself is an amazing campus and it may be the nicest college town I have visited in terms of the shopping/restaurant district across the street from campus. Plus the whole place is colored by the concentration of academic families and businesses that grew up in proximity to the college. The town has no reputation for the students creating mayhem or problems and most students live on campus. We get all the benefits of the above and still a tiny historic community with tons of preserved farmlands and colonial-era houses.
2 Likes
I’m calling out @Bill_Marsh who knows the area better than anyone.
My take is that Central Connecticut is where the development of Hartford to the north and New Haven to the south petered out in the early part of the last century. Huge parts of it are given over to state ownership. The combination of slow growth and then steep decline in manufacturing in the 1970s have kept home prices low. With just under 50,000 townspeople, Middletown covers about 40 square miles of territory. Once you leave the downtown area, the landscape takes on a more rural feel.
Middletown’s central location continues to attract shoppers to its downtown business district and there has been a noticeable rebound over the space of the last twenty years. It’s known for its restaurant variety and quirky old-fashioned establishments like Amato’s Toy Store and O’Rourke’s Diner give it a certain character that mall shopping lacks. Wesleyan has also stepped up its presence with a RJ Julia outlet that doubles as its bookstore. I find it very friendly in a New England sort of way; that is to say, people will say “good morning” once you make eye contact with them (the trick is making eye contact.) And it goes without saying that the merchants and sales people are very friendly.
In summary, Middletown is a small city that covers a lot of territory. Parts of Main Street are quite suburban and have that college feel. But if you confine yourself to just that, you are missing out on some of the quirkier parts as well as some of the outdoorsy, hiking and recreational parts. About 3% of Middletown’s total area is water!
2 Likes
Only place I’d retire to other than where I am is a college town. Kids keep you young.
4 Likes
I go to Middletown on occasion. I view it more as a town with a college located in it than a college town.
4 Likes
Good point. Perhaps a a true “college town” might be when the school population is a very significant portion of the community - Blacksburg, Gainesville, College Station, State College, etc.
I do think living in a town where a college or more than one is located can provide some wonderful access to a variety of forms of entertainment. Be it arts or sports, or speakers…so much to offer.
4 Likes
We live adjacent to grad housing and a few doors up from students renting a house. Our town pretty strictly enforced max occupancy codes and parking restrictions.
1 Like
Perhaps it really means a place where the college and those associated with it have a significant impact on life in the community (good or bad or both). A college can be quite large, but which can be largely ignored by those who are not students or employees, does not make the town a college town. For example, I live near a large community college. But its presence can largely be ignored by most people who are not students or employees, so the town is not a college town.
In contrast, the city of Berkeley (or at least part of it) can be considered a college town, since local businesses cater to students, and NIMBYs complain and file lawsuits based on rowdy students living in nearby housing.
1 Like
I think it’s partly psychological. If you just consider the area contiguous to downtown as “the town”, then Middletown’s school population seems higher. Maybe not Blacksburg level, but more like Northampton, especially, if you don’t forget to include the men and women of nearby Middlesex Community College (MXCC.)
1 Like
We visited Middletown when my daughter did an overnight at Wesleyan.
I found the town to have something of an abandoned, working class feel.
So on a “college town” scale where I’d give Northampton, MA a 10, I’d probably give Middletown a 6.
This was about 10 years ago, so things may have changed.
1 Like
My 99-unit apartment building would not have existed; the intra-city bus system would not have existed; the bookstore would not have existed. I will say this, Middletown is awfully quiet for a small city. My neighbor and I were just talking about this the other day; from our roof deck, we could hear a couple talking animatedly with each other on the street corner seven stories below. That’s how far sound carries and this was in the middle of a warm, mid-week afternoon.
Every college needs people to clean its toilets, mop its floors and take out its trash; they just drive a little further to get to work in Northampton.
1 Like
I agree. In addition some colleges (particularly public schools) offer opportunities for seniors (usually 60 and up) to audit/take classes at free or very low tuition. I live in a major city which has a large public university a few miles from us and H and I are planning to look into that.
2 Likes
I completely agree that the Northampton area has working class people – Northampton is the exception rather than the rule for Hampshire County.
Just speaking of the “vibe” of the place, not the actual demographics.
1 Like
We’re 6 miles from Clemson’s campus; we’re close enough to enjoy all the activities, but we don’t have many students in our area, except those living with their family. I really enjoy living near a college. DH and I enjoy going to all the soccer matches and softball games. We can go out to trivia nights at the local bars with our friends; nothing like a table of 50-80 year old industry professionals and professors playing against the college kids 
The students are always happy to see us, and it keeps us feeling youthful. The town really interacts with the college, so there are a lot of joint community outreach events. Once I hit 60 I can audit classes and take Ollie enrichment classes for free. There are theatre, cultural and music events on campus and events like international fairs where we get to meet the students. I like living a bit away, so we don’t have to always interact if we don’t want to. We live by Keowee, which is a vacation destination, so it’s like 2 different worlds within a few miles of each other.
10 Likes
I am SO glad you brought up the bar scenes in college towns. I have never been happier to be over the age of 21 in my life! Do visit Eli Cannon’s over in the blue-collar section of Main Street, Middletown when you get a chance. A young crowd, mostly Red Sox and Patriots fans, if you can stand it. 
2 Likes
We lived in Boulder for nearly a decade and absolutely loved it. Boulder is a vibrant, artsy town with a thriving foodie and outdoor scene. We spent a lot of family time outdoors hiking, biking, skiing, or just wandering around Pearl Street. CU is a good neighbor and hosts a lot of cultural and sporting events that are open to the community. The university libraries are also open to the public and residents 55+ can audit classes at the university for a nominal fee. We only moved away because we were tired of renting and couldn’t afford to buy a house there.
2 Likes
Boulder, Bloomington, Palo Alto, Blacksburg: I have been fortunate to have lived all over the world, including a few ‘college towns’. Best thing I can say about Boulder is it must have been a nice college town in the 1980s. Actually, that’s what all the real locals told us. We lived there from 2007 - 2014 (my longest stint anywhere in my life), when it was past its prime. I was ready to leave by 2010. Nowadays Boulder is just a suburb of Denver rather than a college town, traffic got worse and worse, and traveling anywhere, including the I-70 ski resorts or the airport are a pain in the neck. Boulder just kept getting dirtier and dirtier, parking ticket police are as bad as Boston, and too many people are so faux. Many are the keepin’ up with the Joneses type in a passive, aggressive way, as if they are superior to others.
We moved from Boulder to Bloomington, IN in 2014. What a breath of fresh air! Bloomington is so much better than Boulder and is still a real college town. Pretty much is the definition of a college town to me. Bloomington is so under the radar too. Many people tell me Bloomington is what Boulder was in the 80s. Unfortunately, work took us away from Bloomington or we’d still be there and loving it. We about cried leaving.
We recently lived in Palo Alto. While we love everything about Stanford, Palo Alto has no soul. Just meh.
We live in Charleston, SC now, which is our favorite small city, but we are considering whether to move to a college town again. Actually, along with Bloomington, we have thought of Blacksburg. It is also a quintessential college town. If you get the right one, the quality of life in a true college town is almost unmatched.
6 Likes
We lived in Cambridge, MA for a number of years, first when I was a professor and then later. Not sure if Cambridge would still qualify as a university town. Early on, Cambridge was Harvard and MIT and East Cambridge was not fancy restaurants, some OK housing, and chop shops depending upon the neighborhood and West Cambridge was expensive residences and etc. Now East Cambridge has been filled with biotech companies (many are extensions of MIT/Harvard in some ways but now much bigger and corporate). We enjoyed living there quite a bit. Genuinely interesting smart people abound – lots of interesting dinner parties, for example. Decent ethnic restaurants (though Boston is not a great food city). Funky furniture and music stores, etc. A relatively casual vibe for the time. Things have changed. Harvard Square has gone quite a bit more upscale and generic. Central Square is still a bit more interesting.
One interesting thing. It always seems like the students are getting younger each year.
4 Likes