In Harrisonburg public schools, students speak more than fifty different languages at home. The city is also called the Friendly City - a nickname that started as a Chamber of Commerce slogan in the 1960s and has since become genuinely descriptive. About 22,000 students at James Madison University and another roughly 1,500 across Eastern Mennonite University, both inside city limits, mix with multiple generations of Mennonite farmers, hundreds of refugee families resettled here over the last three decades from Iraq and Russia and Eritrea and a dozen other places, and the original Scots-Irish and German Valley families who arrived in the 18th century. Harrisonburg's population, 52,000 in 2020, is one of the most demographically varied small cities in the South.
Harrisonburg was founded in 1780 and named for Thomas Harrison, an early settler who donated land for the courthouse. For most of its history it was a market town serving the surrounding Rockingham County farms - poultry production in particular grew to dominate the regional economy, with Harrisonburg becoming an unofficial poultry capital. James Madison University, founded in 1908 as a state normal school for women, was named after the fourth U.S. president (and a Virginian) and grew through the 20th century into a major comprehensive public university. Eastern Mennonite University opened in 1917 as a school for Mennonite young people; it has since become an international center for peace studies. The two campuses, plus a community college, give a small city an outsized academic presence.
Harrisonburg has been an active refugee resettlement city for decades, working with the Church World Service and other agencies to place new arrivals from active conflict zones. The result is a downtown where you can buy Eritrean injera, Iraqi shawarma, Salvadoran pupusas, and Lao laap within a few blocks of each other. The public schools support students in more than 50 home languages, a remarkable number for any city, let alone one of 52,000. The cultural mix is not abstract - it shows up in the food scene, in the murals downtown, in the audiences at community events. Harrisonburg's experience is sometimes cited as an example of small-city refugee resettlement that has worked relatively well, though anyone who lives there will note that the work is ongoing and not without tension.
Drive twenty minutes in any direction outside Harrisonburg and you enter active Mennonite farming country. The Old Order Mennonites and the more progressive Mennonite Church USA congregations together represent one of the densest concentrations of Anabaptist communities outside Pennsylvania. The drive west toward Reddish Knob passes Mennonite farmsteads with neat dairy barns, family-run produce stands, and small shops selling baked goods. The Mennonite presence shapes Harrisonburg's politics, its food culture, and its self-understanding. The city is also a pivotal hub for Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, which brings practitioners from active conflict zones around the world to Harrisonburg every year.
Harrisonburg sits at the eastern edge of the George Washington National Forest and within an easy drive of the Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. Reddish Knob - 4,397 feet on the Virginia-West Virginia line - is a drive away, with a paved road to the bald summit. Luray Caverns, one of the East Coast's most popular show caves, is about 30 minutes east. Staunton is 30 minutes south. The mountains visible from JMU's newer campus are real mountains, not distant ones. Downtown Harrisonburg is compact, walkable, and built around a courthouse square that has hosted a farmers market for decades. The student nightlife concentrates around Court Square. The Friendly City does most things at a manageable scale - which is, perhaps, why it works.
Located at 38.4494N, 78.8689W in the central Shenandoah Valley along Interstate 81. Recommended viewing altitude is 3,500 to 5,500 feet for clear views of the city, the JMU and EMU campuses, and the surrounding agricultural Valley. Massanutten Mountain runs along the eastern side; the Allegheny Front rises to the west. Nearest airport is Shenandoah Valley Regional (KSHD) about 11 nm south. Watch for valley haze in summer.