DICK'S HOUSE

Facing the west on Rope Ferry Road and overlooking Occom Pond stands Dick's House in memory of a boy who knew the joy of life and loved the College of which he was a member. Dick Hall completed only one year in college but he had grown up in a Dartmouth atmosphere and was no stranger to Hanover when he entered as a freshman. During the brief period of his college days he was realizing an ambition of his life and impressing his own personality on acquaintances and classmates so that it is altogether fitting for a memorial to preserve this personality in the place he loved. Dick's House, built by his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. E. K. Hall, is above all a house of personality. If an inanimate object can be held to possess a soul it is certainly evident in the House and the labor of love involved in its planning and construction is obvious to the most insensitive visitor.

The erroneous impression may have been gained that Dick's House is simply intended for students with minor ailments or convalescents who have been transferred from the hospital. This is not the case for the House is equipped to handle everything from a slight cold to the most serious surgical or medical cases. The boys will always go to Dick's House first and only in case of a major operation be taken through the connecting passage to the hospital and returned immediately after the operation or treatment is over.

The purpose of the House and the intentions of its donors cannot be better stated than in the following quotation from a letter of Mr. Hall's: "The purpose of Dick's House is to provide a home for the boys of Dartmouth when they are sick or ailing.

"It is our hope that the boys will come to feel that 'going up to Dick's House' is the next best thing to going to their own homes when they are in need of either the care or the surroundings that the dormitory or fraternity house is unable to furnish.

"As I stated in my letter to Josh Davis, President of Dick's Class in connection with the laying of the cornerstone: 'The House will richly serve its purpose if it is able to bring some measure of comfort to the boys of Dartmouth when they need it most, and if the boundless joy, the good cheer and the helpful spirit which filled the life of the boy whose name it bears may for all time abide and carry on within its walls.'"

During the last Commencement season between two and three thousand people visited Dick's House. A special time was set apart for the class of 1927, Dick's class, and the class of 1892, his father's class. One of the members of the latter class, Dr. W. R. P. Emerson, has recorded his impressions of the visit from which we are permitted to quote:

"Dick's House faces the sun as it sets over the Connecticut. It has light, and air, and quiet, and a place in which to live and rest and greet one's friends and gain health and strength, and, above all a place where one may know there is love in the world and those who care. Dick's House—a place to welcome the boy, who has come to Dartmouth hoping, like Dick, to make good in the great adventure of college life, who has, perchance, overspent himself and is fagged and needs comfort and rest.

"When I saw all the facilities for mental and physical healing, there came to mind the worst accident I have yet seen on the football field. Ed made a flying tackle to stop a fast back carrying the ball. At the same time Scruton made a similar tackle from another direction neither seeing the other. I can still hear the thud of the impact. Ed's face was smashed wickedly. The accident might easily have been fatal. What crude facilities there were in those days! I started with Ed for a surgeon, and, by chance, we met Dr. O'Connor who took a spoon from his pocket and, with its handle, set Ed's nose, picking out the fragments of bone with his fingers. Then we went to our room. A towel wrung out in cold water was the only available remedy. On the third day the swelling was so great and Ed's condition so serious, we were much worried and sent for the doctor who came, gave a look, and said, "Huh!" which we interpreted as meaning that Ed would probably get well if we let him alone. Dick's House with its promised service, what a contrast !

"Last spring a senior fainted in a fraternity meeting. When he recovered consciousness, he was delirious with fever. He was to have a Commencement part and kept repeating, "It's not written, not written, not written." He dreaded to go to the hospital. He needed the quiet of a private room, special care, and Dick's House, but neither were available. Finally arrangements were made for a room in the noisy children's ward of the hospital. Fortunately he was better in the morning and could return to his room. Dick's House is here, what a godsend !

"Last fall a boy came in to our physical fitness quarters, sat down dejectedly, and said, "I do not understand it at all." "What?" I asked. "I can't make it out. I'm so worried." Again I said, "What troubles you?" "Last year I was second in the cross-country snowshoe race, this year I hoped to be first, and I was hardly able to even finish." On inquiry it was found he was waiting on table to help pay his tuition, he was taking extra college courses, and yet could not understand why he was unable to do all this additional work and still win out in athletics. How his face lighted up when it was explained to him that there was nothing seriously wrong with him, that he was simply tired out. How fine it would have been to say to him, "Now, my boy, just go up to Dick's House and rest up a bit, they will be glad to see you up there. You're not sick, you know, just rest up and you'll be all right again."

"These Dartmouth boys, your own sons, are the finest in the world, their lives are precious. They 'carry on' wonderfully, but, now and then, their need is great."

"Always in the Class of '92 there has been a wonderful spirit—fostered in the past by the sacrifice of many personal ambitions—a spirit of caring one for another. Dick's House stands as a permanent embodiment of this same feelingit makes the world a better place in which to live."

Even before entering the House a hint of its unique individuality is encountered. One of the stone steps leading up to the entrance terrace was originally a step leading into Old Dartmouth Hall and preserved after the fire. It bears the date 1784. The terrace itself is enclosed by an old wrought iron fence of Colonial design and the knocker on the front door is a Napoleon Eagle cast in France in 1805 and formerly on one of the lampposts in the Place d'Etoile.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Dick's House is the reception hall with its "Scenic America" wall paper, depicting America in 1840. Along the walls and up the main stairway stretch brilliant scenes of Boston Harbor, West Point and Niagara Falls.

To the right of the front entrance is the office of the House Mother, a position ably occupied by Mrs. Sally K. Holton, who comes to Hanover after wide experience in other parts of the State. Here patients are admitted and registered and the necessary office files are kept for the administration of the House. Here too is a master radio set to which the headsets at each bed and the loud speakers in various parts of the building are connected by wire.

The waiting room for out-patients opens out of the House Mother's office and a passage-way leads to the examination rooms and doctor's lounge in the front of the southern wing. Here minor injuries will be treated under the most favorable conditions of equipment and surroundings. The lounge offers an opportunity for staff meetings of the doctors and is equipped in such a way that a doctor can comfortably spend the night in it if the condition of a patient should require it. In the corresponding rooms to the rear are quarters for three resident nurses.

The diet kitchen is situated in the main part of the first floor at the rear. The latest labor saving devices are installed here, such as a dish-washing machine, electric refrigerator and metal cabinets. Although the food is prepared in the main kitchen of the hospital and carried the short distance on electrically heated trucks, the diet kitchen has a range for reheating food and the preparation of special diets.

At the rear of the entrance hall is the dining room for the use of parents who may be staying in the House. The room overlooks the green fields to the east with Balch Hill in the background and its whole atmosphere is one of good cheer. Perhaps the most interesting piece of furniture in the room is a fine old pine table formerly used at one of the Shaker settlements in New England.

It is difficult to decide whether to conduct a visitor through the main livingroom first or to leave it for the final climax. Most of all it expresses the personality and spirit that is felt throughout Dick's House. Over the fireplace is a portrait of. Dick Hall painted by J. D. Katzieff, so successful that one gets the impression of a real personality to welcome visitors. If the building is Dick's House this is surely Dick's Room. At one end of the room is a fine old grandfather's clock with an inscription on the inside of the door from W. R. Abbott, Jr., '27, one of Dick's particular friends in the class. At the other end of the room is an antique secretary, donated by the Jack O'Lantern board of 1927 and bearing this inscription signed by the directorate: "As friends and classmates of Dick's, as men who knew him, worked with him, played with him, we hold it an especial privilege, and for us a pleasure and joy supreme, to perpetuate the friendship which was ours with Dick."

The whole atmosphere of the room is so fascinating that one is tempted to linger, with its comfortable davenports, bright rugs and unique reading lamps.

Most unique, however, is the library which lines the south wall. About one thousand books have been placed there by friends of Dick and of his family. Each book is a personal gift and contains an inscription by the donor and an intro- duction of the donor by Mr. Hall. This library in itself deserves a descriptive article. The bookplate of the library is the gift of Montclair friends of Mr. and Mrs. Hall. The design represents some of the interests which were uppermost in Dick's life showing scenes of camping and college life. The books presented by Dick's delegation in Delta Kappa Epsilon and a special collection of works by Indiana authors, given by the writers themselves, carry special plates of their own.

The affection that so many had for Dick Hall is nowhere better shown than in the inscriptions in the books on the library shelves. A few illustrations will show this.

David F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture and later Secretary of the Treasury in Wilson's cabinet, contributed his own work entitled "Eight Years with Wilson's Cabinet." Mr. Houston is at present vice-president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in charge of finances and was a long-time friend of Dick and the Hall family. He has written in the flyleaf of the book:

"To Dick's House—and to all who use it, who, having Dick in mind, will be better men."

Paul G. Sanderson '21, for several years Graduate-Secretary of the Dartmouth Christian Association, and now at the Harvard Medical School, donated a little volume entitled "The Speckled Brook Trout" with this inscription: "When the long Hanover winter began to degenerate into slush and mud, and the old longing for the great open spaces crept into one's soul—t'was time to talk of fishing.

"Dick would drop up in my room and with this little book and some old tackle as stimuli before the open fire we would be off for a long "league"—of Jones Pond, Dorothy, and Duncan, the Big Dam, Stewart Pool, canoes, guides, lean-to—and, ves, the big one that got away.

"Dick, this book goes on the shelves of your library as a witness to an everlasting friendship, founded and perpetuated in God's country— the woods."

"The Rise of American Civilization" by Charles A. Beard and Mary R. Beard, was sent by a high school classmate who later went to Harvard and who signs himself "Bill Holland" to the following inscription:

"We whose turn it now is to carry on this story needed Dick among us. We needed his humor, his strength, and the blessed companionship of one who put friendship highest among earthly things. We needed his fine eager flair for life which was to have sustained those who knew him in their moments of discouragement and defeat. In our most helpless defeat—when a greater Force, whose acts we cannot protest, took Dick from us—- it was for us to remember and cherish those qualities and to endeavor, in Dick's name, to keep them alive. To have known Dick is the greatest incentive to live the beautiful, helpful lFfe he had unmistakably charted for himself. That, which can never die, is Dick's priceless legacy to us, and this admiring and grateful companion of Dick's hopes for nothing better than that he may be a worthy heir."

Finally, perhaps the most touching inscription of all is in Rudyard Kipling's "Kim" given by Dick's cousin, Kimball Hall, an eleven year old boy, the son of Howard W. Hall '01. The inscription is :

"For Dick's House. He was always good to little boys and I loved him."

Kim.

The front of the north wing contains the rooms of the House Mother which can, when desired, be shut off from the rest of the building. Toward the rear is a room which has been named The Villagers equipped with electric sewing machine and other conveniences for the care of the linen. On the wall hangs a beautifully illuminated copy of "The Villages" by Martha Haskell Clark, a poem itself inspired by Hanover com munity life.

The rear wing on the north contains two rooms intended for the use of parents who must be near their sons when seriously ill. These rooms too form a separate unit of the House.

While the first floor of the House is largely for administrative and social purposes the two upp2r stories, conveniently reached by an elevator with micro-leveling device, contain the quarters for patients. On the second floor is the head nurse's desk with telephone control throughout the House and connection with the outside. If a patient requires attention he presses a button which shows a signal light at the head nurse's desk and also over the entrance to the patient's room, in the diet kitchens and elsewhere throughout the House where attention might need to be called. This light stays on until the nurse answering the call switches it off which can only be done at the patient's bedside. On the second floor are seven single rooms, one two-bed room and in each front wing two large rooms accommodating six beds each. A unique feature of all the rooms is their nomenclature. Instead of numbers each room bears the name of one of the Dartmouth presidents or of some individual intimately associated with the College. The two large rooms bear the names of President Bartlett, in whose administration Mr. Hall graduated, and President Hopkins, Dick's friend and president. At the front of each of these rooms is a lounge for convalescent'students-who are ready to enjoy again some of the comforts of life. The lounge opening from the Bartlett room was furnished by the Class of '92 and bears this inscription:

"The members of the Class of 1892, having claimed the privilege of furnishing this room, have on the occasion of our Thirty-Fifth Reunion, dedicated the room to its purpose in token of our friendship for Dick's father, our classmate, and in proud tribute to Dick."

The lounge opening from the Hopkins kins room was furnished by Dick's own class and has this inscription: "Dick Hall, your loyalty to Dartmouth, to your friends, and to the highest ideals in life has won for you the respect and love of your class, and we, your Classmates of 1927, dedicate this room to the perpetua- tion of your young life."

All the rooms show the unusual thought and attention that has been given to the comfort of the patients. The beds of steel, attractively tinted, are of the Gatch type and adjustible for the greatest comfort and convenience. Reading lights are provided, as well as bed-side telephones arid radio head sets. The night light in the large rooms is set in the wall near the floor so that the nurse may see her way about without using light enough to disturb patients.

The second floor also contains a serving diet kitchen and various service rooms and at the rear a sun-porch of vita-glass which allows the beneficial violet rays of the sun to enter as well as other light rays. Patients in need of this treatment may be brought to the porch on their beds or in wheel chairs.

In case a contagious disease appears in the College the rooms on the third floor will be available and should emergency arise requiring more space the Bartlett room and the private rooms at the north end of the second floor can be completely segregated from the rest of the building and serviced from the third floor. The third floor has a capacity of eight beds, five rooms being private and each room forming a self-contained unit with its own lavoratory. Like the rooms below these are furnished in the best taste and have their own bedside telephones and radio head sets. Patients, forced by contagious disease, to use this floor will not pass through the rest of the House but enter by a special entrance in the basement and be carried to the top by elevator while their clothes will be left in the disinfecting chamber. Consideration of this aspect alone, the handling of contagious cases, shows what a need Dick's House will fill in the College.

Every effort has been made to have the House a home and as little like an institution as possible. There are no white walls in corridor, living room or sick room and no white furniture or beds. The furniture in each private room is different and selected with the utmost care. Much thought was given to the color scheme throughout the House. There are no wards and all the rooms including the group rooms receive an individuality through their names.

Furthermore the two upper floors are planned to afford the best possible care with the least amount of effort. The double purpose is accomplished of providing comfort for the patients and convenience for those who operate the House. All floors are of rubber tiling, which requires a minimum of care for its proper upkeep. All diet kitchen sinks are of monel metal and are backed with rubber tiling so that damage is impossible from splashing water. All plumbing and heating fixtures are hung from the wall, preventing the accumulation of dust in inaccessible places. The walls are papered and the paper sprayed with numerous coats of laquer so that they may be readily cleaned. The stairways are of steel with slate treads and the construction practically fireproof. Everywhere in the House the visitor is impressed with the thought and attention to detail that has gone into the planning and furnishing. Its success is, of course, due to the donors, Mr. and Mrs. Hall, but it is an added satisfaction to know that the work is throughout a Dartmouth product. The architect is Mr. J. F. Larson of the college staff and the builder,

Mr. E. H. Hunter 'Ol, long a friend of the Hall family. During Mr. Hunter's serious and prolonged illness the construction was carried on under the supervision of Mr. H. C. Edgerton 'O6, Treasurer of the College.

But to revert again to the thought expressed at the beginning of this article the real success of Dick's House lies in having invested it with a heart and a personality. Dick himself greets the visitor to its rooms and is made evident even to those who did not know him. Some lines written by Mrs. Lilian M. Gilbert of Montclair, New Jersey, a close friend of the Hall family, are hanging framed in the living room: "Dick is away, but his House is here, The hearth is burning bright. Here are books and an easy chair. Nearby—a waiting light.

"Here one may rest and plan and dream Just as he used to do. This is a House for Dartmouth men. Welcome home to you."

Fireplace and portrait in the living room

Entrance hall looking into the (lining room

A corner of the 1927 lounge

The bookshelves in the living room

Looking across the Hopkins room into the 1927 lounge