From Woody's Couch

Buckeye Village residents, 1940s

The Buckeye Village’s first permanent housing was built in 1948 as World War II veterans returned to campus under the GI Bill to complete their education – often with a family in tow. (You can find one war veteran’s story of living there here.( http://kb.osu.edu/dspace/handle/1811/58840) 

Soon enough a club sprang up called the Buckeye Village Wives, which – among other activities – held fund-raising bazaars for a child-care center, organized lectures by University professors, and published a mimeographed newspaper called The Villager. (Apparently, a Mrs. Betty Gremillion won a basket of groceries for coming up with the name, according to a 1948 Lantern article.)

Also from the very beginning, Buckeye Village was international in nature: in 1948 the 152 wives living there represented four nations and three continents.

Buckeye Village, no date

As early as 1955 Village residents were banding together to make their opinions known to the University: According to a July 27 Lantern article, an “urgent cry’ by residents to paint both the inside and outside of the Village apartments led OSU officials to decide to skip the bidding process for outside vendors and have the University’s service department employees do the job.

Two years later residents were protesting a proposed 21-percent rent hike, even though the year before a Lantern editorial chastised the University for its lack of upkeep on the buildings, calling the Village OSU’s “biggest eyesore.” (It would not be the last time residents united to protest rent hikes.)

Buckeye Village residents, 1993

Less than five years later, though, the University had built forty new apartment units, which opened in 1961; the total number of units rose to 400. And in fact, a 1962 Lantern article said residents were content to live in apartments whose rents ranged from $79.50 to $89.50 per month ($4.00 extra for air conditioning), and who could take advantage of a community hall that housed a study library, a pool, ping-pong tables and a nursery school for children. There also was a community garden.

In the mid-1950s the University had dropped the rule that residents must be veterans, but students who lived there still had to be married. By 1986, the majority of residents (80 percent) were international students who were married; the rest were domestic students who were married or single parents. Today, any student can apply to live in Buckeye Village; however, priority still goes to married students and those with children.