CARPENTERS AND MASONS AGAIN BUSY IN HANOVER
The outstanding changes in the physical equipment of the College during the summer were the completion of the addition to the Administration Building and the complete renovation of Thornton Hall.
The latter venerable member of the original "Old Row" has been transformed from a dormitory into a recitation building, modern in every respect. Six class rooms have been installed on each of the two lower floors and two on the third floor, the remainder of which is given over to offices, now occupied by the departments of Far Eastern Civilizations, Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy and a portion of the English department.
The use of Thornton Hall for class rooms and offices has made possible other changes. The Tuck School building is now entirely given over to the Tuck School and the Economics department. Dartmouth Hall has the offices of the remainder of. the English department and those of the Greek, Latin, German, Comparative Literature, Archaeology, and Romance Languages departments. The offices of the English and the Romance Languages departments have been grouped around seminar rooms of special design. In Wentworth may now be found the offices of the departments of Biography, Biblical History and Literature, Public Speaking and History.
The addition to the Administration Building was constructed to make possible a larger faculty room which had been much needed for several years. Incidentally the offices on the first floor have been rearranged, provision being made here for the Director of Personnel Research. The creating of a larger women's rest room on the second floor forced the Medical Director into a very attractive suite of offices in the basement. Here an additional store room and a drafting room for the Superintendent of Buildings have also been laid out.
Other changes have been largely in the nature of repairs. A new platform in the chapel; new showers, toilets and lavatories in College Hall; the installation of a new vacuum cleaning system, a large below surface inlet and a new outlet in the Spaulding Pool; and cement walks on the west and south sides of the campus and in front of Dartmouth, Wentworth and Thornton Halls are most worthy of mention. The completion in the spring of the addition to the Hanover Inn made possible repairs to Massachusetts Hall which have been prevented the last few summers by its use as an annex to the Inn.
A new 200kw generator has been installed to replace one of the three 75kw generators in use hitherto and to- meet the constantly growing demand of the college plant for electrical power. The institution of the private branch exchange telephone service is mentioned elsewhere in this department but the installation of private booths in all of the dormitories where they were not already in use has also been completed. The capacity of the octagon room in the College library has been doubled by the placing of additional stacks over ijhose already in use and the construction of a balcony.
Several fraternities are also deeply interested in blue prints and all that goes with them. It is expected that the new Phi Sigma Kappa house will be completed by the Christmas holidays. Ground was broken on July 12 and at the present time the brickwork and the roofing have been virtually completed. It is located to the rear and slightly to the north of the present chapter house which with the barn will soon be moved away to make room for tennis courts. The house is to be 34 by 71, three stories high and built of sandstruck brick in the prevailing type of College architecture. There is to be a large porch on the south side of the billiard room. The entrance hall which is to be laid with black and white tiles, leads into a large living room finished with a maple floor and walls of plaster panels and cornice mould. The chapter room is in the basement while suites of studies and bedrooms, with wash rooms and showers fill the two upper floors. The construction is being done by Walter Kidde & Co., of New York.
Nearby on Webster avenue, the ground for the new Delta Tau Delta house was actually broken shortly after the opening of college this fall. The location of the new house is on the second lot west of the junction of Tuck Drive and Webster avenue and the house will be set lengthwise so as to face toward that of Kappa Sigma. The plans, which were prepared by Blackall, Clapp and Whittemore of Boston, call for a three-story brick structure of the American Georgian Colonial architecture. A library, a writing room and a large living room are on the first floor, together with a vestibule at the rear of the front hall which leads to a stone terrace overlooking Tuck Drive. A billiard room will share the basement with a kitchen connected by a dumb waiter with a serving room on the first floor. Six studies and bedrooms accommodating 12 men are planned on the second floor and a chapter hall, two guest rooms, and accommodations for four more men will be found on the top floor. E. H. Hunter '01, of Hanover, has the contract. The old Delta Tau Delta house on North Main street has been purchased by the College.
Theta Delta Chi will not start work until the close of the year but has completed plans for a three-story brick structure, also in the Colonial style. The house will face St. Thomas Church but a wide porch will run the entire length of the West Wheelock street side. The chapter will have to move into temporary quarters during the next scholastic year as its present house is to be torn down to make room for the new building.
The somewhat detailed descriptions of these fraternity houses are of interest because they are typical of Dartmouth's new fraternity life.
