It’s 10 p.m. at Normal Bar. Owner Bain Mattox serves up drinks and chats with regulars in the dimly lit, cozy community establishment that’s decorated in artifacts of area history.  For a brief moment, the hustle and bustle at the bar stops as patrons stop to admire and honor the sound of a bugle blaring from a speaker outside.

For 57 years, ensigns at the Navy Supply Corps School heard "Reveille" as a wake-up call, and each night the bugle signaled lights-out with "Taps." Mattox missed the bugle calls when the Navy school moved to Rhode Island in 2010.  Other area residents told him they felt the same, so he mounted a large speaker on the roof of the bar and acquired a timer-controlled system that blasts reveille at 8 a.m. and taps at 10 p.m.

“People love it,” he says.  “There were actually two older women here who had been in Normaltown for a long time, and one of them got kind of teary when they first heard it. But everyone is like, ‘Yeah, that’s awesome.’ And they get kind of quiet when it goes off.”

Just a few steps down the road, history is written in brick and mortar at the University of Georgia’s new Health Sciences Campus. Originally a teachers' college, the Normal School for Women, in the early 1800s, it passed through other hands and, from 1953 to 2010, the Navy trained young officers there.

When UGA took over the campus in 2011, neighbors saw its arrival as a boost for business and transportation and a gift of green space. Yet they can’t help but worry what the 800-pound gorilla in their midst might do in years to come, if 56 acres begins to feel too small. Just as Milledge Avenue residents must contend with an ever-present battle to coexist with Greek life and rowdy undergraduate students, residents in Normaltown are cautiously optimistic about what the new Health Sciences Campus may mean for their neighborhoods in years to come.

So far, the university has been a good neighbor with money to spend.  Its architectural team is going to great lengths to renovate sagging mid-century structures and preserve original buildings such as Winnie Davis Hall, built in 1902 and named for Jefferson Davis’ daughter. The former dormitory for Normal School ladies is now the administrative headquarters for the medical partnership between UGA and Georgia Regents University Augusta, formerly the Medical College of Georgia. In the foyer, glass-faced cabinets display mementos of Winnie Davis, the Normal School and other past glories.

Change in this neighborhood is evident inside Normal Bar, where long-time patrons are sharing space with students and professors who are walking over from campus at the end of the day—recovering from a big test or just winding down. Walking, it seems, is an ingrained part of Normaltown culture, along with cycling and taking public transportation when possible.

For Cord Sibilsky, a real estate agent who has lived in Normaltown for several years now, the friendly atmosphere and walkability of the neighborhood make it unique. People who don’t isolate themselves in cars are more likely to nip in and out of local stores and enjoy their neighborhood as much as they enjoy their own home, he says.

"It’s a tight-knit neighborhood," Sibilsky says. "There are a lot of people outside walking their dogs, riding their bikes. There’s a commercial corridor right here on Prince Avenue that has anything from restaurants to bars to hardware stores. And it’s all within walking distance.”

The new campus has meant an increase in public transportation in the area with a UGA bus running along Prince Avenue to South Campus every 20 minutes. While this service was mainly intended as a benefit to UGA students or employees who live in the area, other Normaltown residents also are taking advantage of the new transportation, said Historic Boulevard Neighborhood Association President Dan Lorentz.  A simple wave and the bus will let you on free at Athens Transit stops. Residents certainly appreciate it, especially after Athens Transit cut service to the area just last year.

“When UGA announced the new, more frequent bus service along Prince Avenue, our neighborhood listserv lit up with excitement,” Lorentz says. “The frequency of service and UGA's generosity in welcoming all riders—even offering to stop at Athens Transit stops and not just UGA stops—was very well received.”

Another obvious difference since the opening of the campus: the removal of the black iron fences that were installed on the Navy school perimeter following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The fence along Prince Avenue is now gone for good, and the campus is open to the public. Now that they’re gone, neighborhood residents have taken notice.

“Taking down the fences has made the campus seem more approachable, more part of the neighborhood,” Lorentz says. “People have definitely noticed this, and I think, over time, it will become natural for folks to think of the medical campus as part of the larger neighborhood.”

With its broad lawns and mature trees and shrubs, the 56-acre campus is a park-like setting that lends itself to a host of recreational activities.  “I’m pretty sure I saw people throwing a Frisbee there the other day,” Sibilsky says.

Buena Vista Heights residents disagree on whether they need a historic district to protect the neighborhood from development.

Despite a bevy of benefits surrounding this new campus, balancing a University campus with residential neighborhoods also causes struggles. An effort to designate the Buena Vista Heights neighborhood a historic district is just one way of putting up safeguards to maintain this beloved local neighborhood’s cultural independence.

Many owners of rental properties, builders and those who would like to redevelop their lots oppose the district because they believe it would stifle their creativity and unfairly restrict their rights. But supporters argue that historic designation for Buena Vista would allow for new construction and the remodeling of existing homes in the area, but it would also preserve the area's collection of mostly smaller, modest homes. Historic designation, along with complete streets and an updated zoning plan, should be adopted to ensure responsible development along the Prince Avenue corridor, Lorentz says.

“People who are here already really like living in these neighborhoods, and many people moving to Athens seek out these very neighborhoods,” he says.  “If we don't work to maintain their character and walkability, Athens will lose some important assets. Campuses and office buildings aren't all that matters for a city's economic development. Neighborhoods—their character and their walkability—should matter, too.”

The Health Sciences Campus is likely to be a good neighbor for the area, so long as development around the campus is done responsibly, Lorentz says.

“The medical campus is a big reason for the increased interest in development in general along and near the Prince Avenue corridor,” he says. “Most people living in Buena Vista, in Boulevard, Cobbham and other areas near the medical campus accept and welcome new, more dense development along Prince Avenue, as long as its done in a way that preserves the great residential neighborhoods that border it.”

UGA’s decision to tear down Rutherford Hall caused some brief skepticism of UGA's plans for the Health Sciences campus. However, last month’s reversal on closing Legion Pool proves the importance of community residents speaking up about preserving beloved, university-owned structures and buildings. While plans for the Health Sciences Campus include filling in an old pool rumored to be the first desegregated pool in town, UGA's focus on preserving structures like the Carnegie Library, built in 1910 with a grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, still shows their commitment towards preservation of history. So far, UGA has done a good job at preserving historic structures and being a good neighbor to the Normaltown neighborhood. And that relationship with UGA will most likely only continue in the future, Lorentz says.

“I can't speak for everyone living near the UGA Health Sciences Campus,” he says, “But for my neighbors in Boulevard, I think it's fair to say we've been impressed with the changes that have happened and with UGA's efforts to keep us informed and to listen to us.”