Dartmouth Hall
DARTMOUTH HALL! What son of the College is not stirred by the thought of its vanished glory. Planned by Eleazar Wheelock and built by John Wheelock it was the one building that had the age of the College. Built of wood, the material of its day, its sills of huge pine sticks hewn from the tall trees that grew on the plain, and its uprights of oak similarly cut from the great trees that grew on the neighboring hills, it stood one hundred and twenty years stately and strong, and secure for years to come, except against the one risk of fire, a risk which, though it had been reduced to a minimum, it was impossible wholly to prevent. Preserved from the danger from fireplaces, stoves and furnaces, from candles, camphine, whale oil and kerosene lamps, and gas, it finally was destroyed by fire caused by electric wires.
The building was begun in 1784 and completed, only after great sacrifices, in 1791. All possible means were employed to raise money for it—subscriptions, lotteries and loans—and when it was done a heavy debt rested on the College because of it, that for many years was an almost insupportable burden.
The Commencement exercises were first held in it in 1787, and on its completion it became the center of college life. It was at once a dormitory and recitation hall. The chapel exercises were not held in it until 1829, when the room was made that, since the building of Rollins Chapel, was known as the "Old Chapel." On the completion of the building the trustees appropriated the middle front room over it for the apparatus. At a later time the two literary societies, the Social Friends and the United Fraternity, had rooms for their libraries. They were here when the attempt was made by the authorities of the University to carry them off. For a little more than two years the building was in the possession of the University, but was recovered by the College immediately after the decision of the case in Washington.
As years went on many changes were made in the building, both within and without. The longitudinal halls on the first and second floors and the central transverse halls in all the stories, were removed, and at last the whole of the first and second stories were given up to recitation rooms. The single door in the center that served as the entrance to the chapel was closed and two doors placed, one at either side of the center. The original belfry having become decayed was rebuilt in 1846. In it from 1791 hung the bells, gradually increasing in size as one replaced another, that called the College to its work. On the gable front was placed the clockface in 1828 and the front windows were given blinds in 1869, but those on the other three sides did not receive theirs until 189-.
At different times the rooms of the building were used for different purposes. The Medical College had its first home in 1798 in the northwest corner of the first floor. In 1866 the reading-room was located in the room immediately opposite. The old room of the Social Friends was converted into the college bookstore. For many years the Society of Inquiry, later merged into the Y.M.C.A., was housed in the front room immediately under the clock and two Freshman societies had front rooms in the third story. For a long time the four classes had their separate recitation rooms, the seniors and sophomores in the north entry, the seniors at the head of the first flight of stairs on the right, and the sophomores on the first floor in the northeast corner; the juniors and freshmen in the south entry, the juniors at the foot of the first stairs in the southeast corner, the freshmen facing west on the second floor next the bookstore. Directly under the freshman room was Society Hall where the Socials and Fratres held their literary exercises. In course of time the rooms for the separate classes were given up and the rooms for the departments took their place.
It would be impossible to tell all the changes both in the arrangement and the use of the rooms. Almost every year witnessed some change. But in all these changes the building did not lose its character. Nothing affected its fine proportions and its simple but sufficient ornamentation. It was perfectly related to its surroundings and the eye passed in admiration from its massive foundations to the graceful belfry that gave the final touch of beauty to the whole. The men of later years, the years that set around it other and far costlier buildings, admired it even more than those of the earlier time when it was the principal building of the college. Then perhaps it seemed only the expression of the rugged life out of which it came and by which it was surrounded. But when in the broadening work of the College it ceased to be the center of its activities it drew to itself the sentiment and tradition of the College. The newness of other things made it still more venerable. The past was in it still serviceable and beautiful, and about it clustered the memories of those who had spent their college years within it and had gone out to worthy lives and lasting fame. No other building linked the past with the present, and was a visible reminder of the sacrifice, faith and energy of the early times that made possible the present.
DOWN GOES THE CHIMNEY
SWEEPING TOWARDS THORNTON
