With The Outing Club

The New Outing Club House

To THE show places of Hanover there has been added within the past year and a half a building which is fast becoming an integral part of undergraduate life. I speak of the new Dartmouth Outing Club House, the gift of the class of 1900, dedicated to "the enduring Dartmouth fellowship in outdoor life," and opened last February as one of the greatest forward steps the Outing Club has made in its twenty-one years of existence.

The House is nestled in a grove of birch and pine at the northeastern end of Occom Pond on a beautiful site generously given by Mrs. Chase. It is a low, rambling type of architecture of stone and wood, admirably suited to express the spirit of the Outing Club. Although the house is extensively used the year around, its chief function is to serve as the headquarters of winter sports activities. Located as it is between Occom Pond on one side and the golf course, toboggan slide and ski-jumps on the other, it is available for skiers, skaters, and golfers who welcome such a place iii which to rest their limbs after a long afternoon of skiing or skating or putting.

One result was that skating nearly doubled in popularity this past winter and the statistics of the college recreational department showed skiing to be far in the lead of all the other indoor and outdoor activities. On any afternoon during the winter when the shadows deepened along Occom Ridge and the skaters and skiers and toboggan parties returned from their play, the House was thronged with students in ski-jackets and skating rig and the oak-beamed rooms rung with the exhuberant spirit of youth out-of-doors.

On entering the House the visitor first finds himself in a large lounge room with two huge, wide-open fireplaces, with numerous hides and heads of animals on the walls, together with the finest of the pictures ever taken of D. O. C. activities; also with various trophy cups above the fireplaces. Above one of the hearths hangs a mammoth kodack bear skin, the gift of Paul G. Redington '00, chief of the U. S. biological survey. This is said to be one of the finest specimens ever taken of the world's largest species of bear. Two shaggy buffalo heads glare down at the visitor, the gifts of Sir Henry Thornton, president of the Canadian National Railways and John J. McDavitt '67. Across the room wolf heads snarl at the bison and finally the crackling of cord-size logs in the fireplaces complete the outdoor atmosphere ingrained in the Outing Club.

AND WHAT TOOTHSOME FOOD

Opening from one end of the lounge room is the dining-room and kitchen. Lunch, afternoon tea and dinner are served daily with possible accommodations for sixty persons at one time. The House has become very popular for fraternity and other organizations, the members of which find the cosy, secluded atmosphere ideal for their feeds; in fact, banquets have averaged three a week. Students with their parents or other guests are proud to show off the Outing Club House as part of the Dartmouth equipment; others spend the evening there playing bridge or chess after dinner. Since the opening of the dining room an average of forty-six guests have been served daily.

In November the Outing Club inaugurated a new form of feed, the "Off the trail suppers," which have become thoroughly welcomed by D. O. C. enthusiasts. These are especially for the benefit of hikers returning Sunday night after a week-end tramp or ski along the chain of cabins. The men eat dinner in their hiking clothes just as they have come off the trail, thus lending a bit of true local color to the dining room. No record has been kept of the greatest number of waffles consumed; the average alone would be extraordinary.

In the other wing of the house is the council room of Cabin and Trail, executive body of the Outing Club. Here is kept the J. H. Rust Memorial Library, together with most of the records of the Outing Club. The former is a rapidly growing collection of the best books available on camping, hiking and winter sports, made possible through a fund given by the parents of J. H. Rust '30, who lost his life in the Connecticut River in the spring of 1928. The library committee has already obtained a large number of autographed volumes. Around the council room are more pictures and trophy cups, most of the latter representing victories of the winter sports team in former years at intercollegiate carnivals in the United States and Canada. Several were won by individual champions from Dartmouth. There are also the Carnival Queen cup bearing the names of those fair young ladies who have from year to year been selected "Queen of the Snows" at past carnivals, and the Ledyard Canoe Club cup on which are inscribed the names of students who have successfully made the trip by canoe from Hanover to the sea.

One finds few Dartmouth men who cannot recall practically freezing their hands and feet while attempting to change in and out of skates along the shore of Occom Pond on a wintry afternoon or evening when the mercury was playing tag with some point below zero. Now this is no longer necessary; on the lower floor of the new House there is ample room for changing skates and skis and a passage has been cut from the edge of the pond to the steps of the House permitting skaters to glide right up to the porch. Hot dogs, coffee and candy are sold in astonishing quantities. Lockers are provided for those who wish to rent them. On this floor are also the quarters of the winter sports team with a work bench, rubbing table, showers and lockers.

The House is ably managed by Mrs. Florence Preston, former proprietor of the Wayside Tea Room at Thetford Center, and under her direction it has proved to be self-supporting. Possible future plans call for a swimming pool on the northwest side of the House with bathhouses under the embankment, and also for glassed-in front and rear porches.

The presence of this new Outing Club home has radically altered certain aspects of the Carnival Outdoor Evening Program. During the recent festival it became a favorite mecca for the guests. There the final selection of the Queen of the Snows was made and from there the revellers sallied forth in active Carnival participation on skis, skates and toboggans. In this way the new House has served to emphasize more than ever the outdoor part of Carnival, the goal toward which the Outing Club ever strives.

THE OUTING CLUB LOUNGE

PIAZZA FOR WEARY GOLFERS

THE OUTLOOK ON OCCOM POND

THE DINING ROOM