Grab a bite or go somewhere fun with friends at Rowan Boulevard, Glassboro’s downtown area at the edge of Rowan University’s campus.
Editor note: reviewed and updated October 2025.
Rowan Boulevard Location & History
Rowan Boulevard is a one-third mile strip built to reinvent downtown for students and area residents. In 2000, visions for Rowan Boulevard began, but it wasn’t until 2008 that construction really launched. We’d say that now in 2025 “the Boulevard” has really hit its stride. Anchored at what’s considered the beginning of the Boulevard is Martinson Honors College at Whitney Center and Courtyard Marriott at Glassboro. Rowan Blvd. ends at the Town Square and Glassboro Veterans Memorial.
What’s so great about Rowan Boulevard is that it’s pedestrian friendly. On-campus students have a convenient place to go when they want to escape their residence halls but don’t want to go too far. Commuters have a fun place to chill in between classes. It’s nice to just hang out there at night with your friends, even if you don’t have any specific plans.
Additionally, many restaurants and shops on Rowan Boulevard accept Rowan Bucks. Being able to buy Motrin from 7-Eleven when you don’t have cash on you, but you have Rowan Bucks, is a blessing. (Thanks for the Rowan Bucks, mom and dad!)
What’s On Rowan Boulevard?
Rowan Boulevard features local and familiar restaurants, entertainment and shopping along with on-campus housing, academic buildings and two parking garages. Many of the buildings here are mixed-use, meaning that the ground floor is a business and the upper floors are housing. (More on that later.)
Some of the restaurants, shops and entertainment you can find on Rowan Boulevard include, just to name a few:
- Playa Bowls
- Pizza Hut
- Chickie’s & Pete’s
- Kung Fu Tea
- Mexican Mariachi Grill
- The Boulevard Salon
- 7-Eleven
- Axe & Arrow Brewing Company (Rowan alumni owned, link is to an alumni feature!)
- LaScala’s Fire, Spicy’s Bar (formerly Dawn to Dusk Cafe; still has great coffee)
- Escape Room South Jersey
Also on Rowan Blvd. you will find Rowan University’s Welcome Center, an information hub for prospective students and their families that is the starting point for campus tours. Near the Welcome Center is Rowan Barnes & Noble, where you can shop for Prof Pride merchandise, textbooks or sit and chill with a cup of Starbucks from the cafe (pro tip, Champion hoodies usually go on sale at the end of fall semester right before winter break.)
Probably, most importantly though, is the Courtyard by Marriott at Glassboro. Finally having a close and convenient place for families to stay, parents can come down for Homecoming or Family Weekend and future Profs from outside the area can visit for a tour or Open House and not have to take a big, long trip back home right away.
Student Favorites on Rowan Boulevard
Cookie Munchers is a Rowan alumni-owned business open all night where you can buy cookies as big as your face at any hour. (Personally I’m a big fan of the double chocolate chip – pick up extra napkins, you’ll need them.) It is right next to Enterprise, a five-story building with four floors of classrooms.
After you eat all those cookies and get out of class, you can get back into your health and wellness at The Fitness Center, which is basically Rowan’s second gym and is located on one of the busy cross-streets that intersects with Rowan Boulevard.
E-sports is also huge on campus and one of our student blogger’s favorite places on Rowan Blvd. is Nerd Street’s Localhost (a gaming and esports venue).
Students also rave about Ry’s Bagels. Even the North Jersey kids. They tell me they are bagel snobs since North Jersey has better bagels than South Jersey.
The secret gem, though, and my personal favorite spot is the quiet end of the Boulevard known as the Town Square. Away from the hustle and bustle you can relax and study on the grass, at a picnic table or on the chairs surrounding the fire pit, under shade trees.
This is also the place where many community events happen. I’ve been to a car show, Boro in Lights, and a few food truck festivals. (You have to check out Reds III, owned by a young Rowan alum – you will not be disappointed! Link is for feature video story on them.)
Student Housing on Rowan Boulevard
Pop quiz: is housing on Rowan Boulevard considered on campus housing or off campus housing? Answer: it’s sort of both. Owned by Nexus Properties, these popular (and new) residence halls and apartments have CAs (community assistants, what used to be known as resident assistants) and are selected, and paid for, through a student’s account with the University’s Bursar’s office.
Whitney Center houses honors students, the Honors College office, and is also an academic building with classrooms for honors and non-honors students.
220 Rowan Boulevard is smack dab in the middle of Rowan Boulevard, in the center of it all, and is a popular choice for upperclassmen. The smaller roads branching off of Rowan Boulevard, which still feel like Rowan Boulevard, are where the following housing options are located: 223 West High Street, 230 Victoria Street, 57 North Main Street, and 114 Victoria Street.
Parking for Rowan Boulevard
The good news: there’s plenty of parking. The bad news: it’s all paid parking. The OK news: some of the businesses on Rowan Boulevard will validate your parking so you don’t have to pay.
As of 2024 all of downtown Glassboro is paid parking, through Glassboro itself and managed by Nexus. (Rowan doesn’t manage the parking or get the money.) It really stinks to pay and we all feel this way. However, Glassboro has shared that their research shows that most college towns with a downtown like ours have moved to paid parking – it frees up parking spaces for people to get in and out of businesses in the area, rather than cars parking in a prime spot for hours (or days) at a time. I get it, even if I don’t like it.
Parking works in the same way that other college campuses and towns down the shore handle parking: look for the posted sign with your parking zone and follow the instructions on the sign. Street parking and garage parking are both available.
Students can buy monthly or semester-long parking passes for the garages on Rowan Blvd.
2021 Story by:
Caitlyn Dickinson, public relations and advertising graduate
Updated in 2025 by student blog contributors
Updated in 2023 by Rowan Blog contributors
Photos by:
Rowan Blog contributors
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