Reed Hall Reopens Doors

With the resumption of classes following the period of semester examinations, Reed Hall, one of the most historic of the College buildings, opened its doors once again as a recitation and office building. During the preceding six months the entire interior of the old building, used in the more recent period as a dormitory, had been removed and replaced by modern materials of steel and concrete so that to-day Reed Hall takes its proper place as one of the finest buildings in the College plant. With the exception of the removal of four of the eight old chimneys the exterior of the building remains unchanged, its classic charm and perfect proportions unmarred, the finest of the old-timers.

The departments of Economics and History as well as a few of the smaller Social Science departments will use the building for classrooms and offices. Individual offices will provide attractive quarters for members of the Economics group who are vacating McNutt Hall, and for the members of the History department, previously located in Wentworth Hall. The department of Philosophy will expand from its restricted quarters in Thornton Hall to the space made available in Wentworth. With these changes individual offices, so important now that so much of the instruction is done by means of per- sonal conferences, will be provided for practically all teachers in the Social Science division.

The space in McNutt relinquished by the department of Economics will be adapted for the departments of Education, Psychology, and Graphics and Engineering, which will move into their new quarters next year. The lecture rooms and classrooms will meanwhile be used for special purposes from time to time by various departments.

The new internal construction in Reed Hall follows the specifications of the other jecent interior construction of the College There are sixteen classrooms, the fi st floor being entirely devoted to them with others on the second and third floors. There are thirtytwo offices and two seminar rooms on the upper two floors. There is a faculty room for social purposes on the basement floor, connected with a kitchenette.

Nearly a hundred years ago, in 1834 to be exact, Dartmouth was faced with a very real problem in providing living accommodations for the increased numbers of students that were seeking admission. The number of academic students, which for twenty years had averaged about 150, began to increase rapidly, passing 200 in 1836 and reaching nearly 350 by 1840. Surprising though it may seem in view of present enrollments, in 1841 Dartmouth graduated 76 men, whereas Yale graduated 78, Princeton 60, and Harvard but 48. Apparently no thought was given to the possibility of restriction of enrollment and the one concern of the Trustees was to provide promptly for the adequate housing of all undergraduates and for relief of the congestion that existed in the library, then housed in Dartmouth Hall. Several plans were suggested for meeting the problem and a subscription to raise funds for a new building was about to be started when, upon the death in 1837 of the Honorable William Reed, a member of the Board of Trustees, a handsome legacy was made available which seemed to be an answer to the problem.

After some delay the Trustees set about the task of providing a new building. A site was secured by purchasing the Wheelock mansion (now the Howe library) and work on the new building was started in 1839. Three brothers were responsible for the design and construction. Ammi B. Young of Boston drew the plans for which he received $277.75. Dyer H. Young of Lebanon agreed to construct the building for $11,000, a sum which had to be increased to slightly more than $15,000 when the costs were finally added up. Professor Ira Young was engaged by the Trustees to supervise the job for the College, a position which he was reluctant to take, but which he executed to the entire satisfaction of the Trustees and for which he received a fee of $250. Professor John K. Lord, from whose history these facts have been taken, records that "the work of all three was faithfully done."

Through the years there have been many authorities who have commented on the perfection of detail and proportion as exemplified in the exterior design of Reed. It is worthy of mention that to achieve this end and to give the building a height in correct proportion to its length it was necessary to continue the outside walls four and a half feet above the ceilings of the third-floor rooms, thus creating a vast attic space of no utilitarian value. That the officers of the College should have been willing to meet this extra cost at a time when the finances of the College were in a most unfavorable state is testimony to the regard which was given to the aesthetic values of architecture in those early days.

When Reed was first opened in 1840 it provided space on the first floor for lecture and museum rooms, the second floor was devoted entirely to the College and Society libraries, and the third floor was laid out to provide ten suites of rooms for students. This number fell so far short of providing for the existing demand that the immediate erection of another building seemed necessary. The Trustees even went so far as to design a dormitory to be located in a position corresponding to Reed but at the north end of the yard, on the site used many years later for Rollins Chapel. The decline in enroll- ment that took place immediately caused the plan to be abandoned.

Through the years since 1840 Reed has passed through many changes as the requirements of the College have shifted. It has housed various departments of instruction and as other buildings were provided it became more completely a dormitory until in 1904 its entire three floors were turned over to student rooms.

REED HALL Historic building reopened this semester after being remodeled as a classroom and office building