Roach Motel: Partiers of the past, present find common ground

Behind a white, almost rotted, wooden sign accented with two hand-drawn roaches, a passerby would not suspect the Roach Motel to be more than an ordinary house with an unfortunate nickname. But from the Dunn family to a famous drummer to porn stars, the Roach Motel at the corner of Seventh Street and Indiana Avenue has seen it all.\nMarjorie “Marge” Hudgins, who owned the Roach Motel for 37 years before she sold it to Horn Properties in 2006, said the Roach Motel was first built by the Dunn family as a farm house, and one of the heirs sold it directly to her.\nBut about a decade passed before the house officially got its name, Hudgins said.\nWhen a resident first put up the sign, Hudgins said she and her husband found it funny. But later, she said, “it turned out to be a great marketing tool.”\nWith such an infamous name, the house has been a home for many IU students. Among them was drummer Kenny Aronoff.\nIn 1977, before making it big playing with artists such as John Mellencamp, the Smashing Pumpkins and the Rolling Stones, Aronoff said he lived in the Roach Motel, where he was able to “live the dream of a rock and roll band,” practicing with his bandmates and playing at clubs all over the Midwest.\nDespite his current fame, Aronoff said his makeshift bedroom on the porch at the Roach Motel was so small and so cold that he was only able to fit a small drum set, some clothes, a stereo, a bed, a light and an end table.\n“But it didn’t seem to bother me. I actually thought it was kind of fun,” Aronoff said. “During the summer, we would put a PA system and blast music. We would do that until the cops came by and stopped us.”\nAlthough Aronoff and his roommates were not the residents that created the first Roach Motel sign, Aronoff claimed he was the first to give the house its memorable moniker.\n“We didn’t have a sign up, but we were the first ones to call it the ‘Roach Motel’ because we felt like a bunch of cockroaches, running in and out of the house,” Aronoff said. \nIt wasn’t until the spring of 1981 that the house’s name was publicly displayed. \nAlumni and past resident Deborah Schemenauer said she and her five roommates created the first “Roach Motel” sign after discovering a colony of roaches traveling in and out of the house through a small pipe in the wall.\n“Cockroaches were a big problem for Bloomington at the time,” Schemenauer said. “But the roaches in the house were especially huge.”\nIn addition to the sign, Schemenauer said she and her roommates also attached recipes for “deep battered roaches” and “fried roaches” onto the sign – just large enough for anyone who walked by to see.\nAlthough the sign has been changed and the place exterminated, cleaned up and remodeled, the Roach Motel’s legacy still stands strong, Aronoff said.\n“The Roach Motel was party central,” Aronoff said proudly. “We had parties where things were knocked off the wall – even sinks.”\nToday visitors can find the Roach Motel littered with blue and red party cups and pizza boxes, as an aromatic mixture of beer, vodka and sweat lingers in the air from parties past.\nIU senior Dan Cohen, one of six current residents of the Roach Motel, said the house always manages to attract a variety of different people. From party-goers looking for a good time to reminiscent alumni hoping to bring back memories to even a homeless man seeking shelter, Cohen said the Roach Motel is “where everybody comes to hang out.”\nBut students were not the only ones “hanging out” at the Roach Motel. \nIn October 2002, the pornographic filmmakers Shane’s World Enterprises made a stop at the house during their controversial visit to IU to tape part of their “Shane’s World Vol. 32: Campus Invasion” film. After shooting in Teter Quad, the Shane’s World film crew and actors paid a visit to the Roach Motel, where students and actors participated in sex games, according to a Sept. 3, 2003, IDS article. In the end, the students who participated in the shoot were disciplined by the University while the controversy spurred the movie to become the company’s top-selling pornographic production.\nBut the house is also a favorite stop for past Roach Motel residents. Cohen said it is not uncommon, especially during Little 500 weekend, for previous residents to come by and knock on the door of the Roach Motel to reminisce about their time there.\nOne time, several alumni came to visit and went so far as to give Cohen and his roommates money to buy a keg. By the time the party started, however, Cohen said the alumni never showed up to enjoy the beer.\nDespite its name, the Roach Motel’s rich history and proximity to campus has always made it an attractive housing option for IU students.\nAnd at about $3,000 a month for six people, Cohen admits, “the rent is up there.” \nStill, there is already a line of potential renters, said Gerald “Gerry” Stasny, co-owner of Horn Properties.\n“The house was rented in last September for 2008 to 2009,” Stasny said. “And there are already about four or five groups on the list wanting to rent the house for 2009 to 2010.”\nCohen said he believes the wait and the rent is “more than worth it.”\n“People always remember this place,” he said, “because the party pretty much goes on.”