Stenner Glen: My First Home in SLO
In 1978, I arrived in San Luis Obispo too late for the Cal Poly dorms. Stenner Glen became my first home here — and the brochure I saved turned into a time capsule of the year I lived there.
1978–79 SCHOOL YEAR
1978–79 school year
In May 1978, I started attending DeVry Institute of Technology in Phoenix. I was 17, and moving out of state was a pretty big step. I quickly figured out that DeVry wasn’t for me, and since I already had a spot at Cal Poly for the fall, I moved back to California.
By then, though, I was too late to get into the Cal Poly dorms. So my mom and I made our first trip to San Luis Obispo to look for housing.
I ended up at Stenner Glen, a privately owned student residence with around 600 beds at the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Santa Rosa Street.
And that became my first home in SLO.
The Stenner Glen brochure
While I was living there, Stenner Glen produced a new eight-page promotional brochure. That brochure has become a little time capsule for me because the photos really are from the year I lived there.
Even better, several people I knew ended up in the pictures — some of my suite-mates and some of the girls who lived on the floor below us. I’m glad I somehow managed to hang onto it all these years.
Where I lived
Building 12
I lived in Building 12, on the side of the complex toward Foothill Boulevard. I think there was a Building 13, too, but don’t hold me to that.
Our suite
Building 12 was a little different from the other buildings, at least as I remember it. The student housing was on the second and third floors, with the staircase running up the middle and separating the two suites.
Our suite had six bedrooms: three doubles and three singles. A bathroom at the end could be reached from either hallway. In the middle was our shared “living room.”
Housekeeping even cleaned the bathroom and living room for us.
Most — maybe all — of the other buildings had a guys’ suite and a girls’ suite. Building 12 was different because both suites on the third floor were guys. I had one of the single rooms on the third floor.
There weren’t any student suites on the first floor. Our Resident Assistant had a room down there, but I honestly don’t remember what else was on that floor.
Building 12 marked on the brochure map.
Building 9 and the pool area. The dark section in the middle of Building 9 was the stairway.
The pool I never used
Stenner Glen had a pool.
I never swam in it.
We were near the front of the complex, so I rarely even walked past it. Management did host a few outdoor movie nights. They would project a movie onto the side of one of the buildings.
And 1978 was definitely a different time. Most of the students living at Stenner Glen were under 21, yet I remember Stenner Glen putting out a keg of beer for residents to help themselves to.
Amenities I apparently missed
Looking at the old brochure now, I discovered that Stenner Glen supposedly had a sauna.
I don’t remember ever knowing there was a sauna. For that matter, I don’t remember the game room, craft center, leather room or darkroom either.
Apparently there were quite a few amenities I somehow managed to completely avoid.
Two of my suite-mates, Gavin and Chris, are in this brochure photo.
The three food photos from the Stenner Glen brochure.
The dining room
I believe you had to have a meal plan if you lived at Stenner Glen.
I never ate at the Cal Poly food halls, so I have nothing to compare the food to, but I don’t remember having any complaints about it.
Of the three food photos on this page, the far-right image is the one that jumps out at me now.
College students were messy
Look at the salad bowl. The salad is spilled out all over the ice in front of it.
College students were messy!
A closer look at the far-right food photo: salad spilled all over the ice in front of the bowl.
Friday and Saturday nights were another story.
The furnished living room in one of the girls’ suites on the second floor of Building 12. Carol and Martha, I think.
The living room
As I remember it, nobody spent much time hanging out in our living room during the week.
Friday and Saturday nights were another story.
I had a TV on a rolling stand, and on Saturday nights I’d roll it out into the living room. Saturday Night Live was in its fourth season, most of the third floor would sit around and watch it together.
We also hosted a fair number of parties in our suite, as did other suites around Stenner Glen. Animal House had been released in 1978, so naturally toga parties were suddenly a thing.
Bret and Supertramp
When I met my future wife at Cal Poly in 1981, I learned that her brother, Bret, had also lived at Stenner Glen when I was there. He was in the building next to mine.
His suite hosted parties, so it’s entirely possible I crossed paths with him without knowing it.
Years later, Bret told me how much he loved Supertramp and that he used to blare it on his stereo at Stenner Glen. That made me laugh, because I actually remember that. My room faced his building, and I distinctly remember hearing Supertramp coming from over there.
So apparently I knew Bret’s stereo before I knew Bret.
My own photographs
Meet Melvin
My neighbor Andy somehow brought a mannequin into our suite, and we kept it standing in a corner. The mannequin was wearing a shirt with a name on it — Melvin, I think — so from then on, his name was Melvin.
One day we decided Melvin needed to go to dinner with us. Andy is on the left and I’m on the right, wearing my Animal House shirt.
Then someone — possibly me — put Melvin’s head on a cafeteria tray and sent him through to the Stenner Glen dishwashers.
The reaction on the other side.
Nearly 50 years later, I don’t remember everything about living at Stenner Glen.
But I remember Melvin.
Did you live at Stenner Glen? If you have your own Stenner Glen stories or photos, post them in the comments. I’d love to hear them.
The complete 8-page Stenner Glen brochure
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