Brief Biographies of Buildings
11. Reed Hall
THE HONORABLE WILLIAM REED, for whom Reed Hall is named, is a somewhat nebulous figure, about whom the available information is scanty. It seems, however, that he was born at Marblehead, Mass., in 1777, and passed all his life in that town. "Compelled early in life to abandon the hope of a public education, he engaged in mercantile pursuits" of an unspecified character, "which he followed \with great energy and activity and with a good degree of success. Having acquired a competence, he devoted the latter part of his life to philanthropic and benevolent purposes."
Evidently a leader in his community, residing in one of its most elaborate homes, the Sewell mansion, he was twice elected to Congress, serving from 1811. to 1815. He was interested in all charitable movements stemming from Congregational orthodoxy. Thus he served as President of the Sabbath School Union of Massachusetts and of the American Tract Society; he was a member of the Board of Visitors of the Andover Theological Society and a Trustee of Amherst College. Always deeply interested in the limitation of the liquor traffic, in his native town he was termed the "Apostle of Temperance." He died very suddenly at Academy Hall, Marblehead,in 1837, while preparing for a celebration by the Sunday School of the North Congregational Church.
Mr. Reed was elected a Trustee of Dartmouth in 1834 to succeed ex-President Bennet Tyler. It does not exactly appear what his interest in the College, if any, may have been: certainly it was not such as to call forth excessive personal effort on his part, for he attended but one meeting of the Board during his 2V2 years of service. It is probable that his devotion to the more rigid branch of Congregationalism was thought to incline him favorably to an orthodox institution such as Dartmouth then was; it may be, also, that hope was entertained that, through his connection with the College, he might be willing to share some of his affluence with the institution. If the latter was really the case, the hope was justified, for Mr. Reed's will contained three conditional bequests to the institution: one of $lO,OOO, payable at the death of a niece; another of $7OOO available after the death of his widow; and a third of $ 12,600 subject to the pleasure of the latter "when- she should have no occasion for the use of it."
The last provision made it desirable that Mrs. Reed should be kept well disposed to the institution, and President Lord made occasional visits to Marblehead with that end in view. He evidently felt that he had accomplished that result, but to no real avail, for in his report of 1855 he stated that her intentions were good, but that "by reason of losses to the estate, Mrs. Reed would be unable to appropriate the amount called for." It was not until 28 years after Mr. Reed's death, in 1865, that payment of the $7OOO bequest was made, while the further sum of $lO,OOO, plus $2471 of accrued interest, came to the College in the period from 1865 to 1869, making a total of $19,471.
Despite the fact that actual payments were far in the future, in view of the extremely rapid growth of the College the Trustees voted in 1838 that it was "expedient" to erect two new buildings, one north and one south of "the present structures." Unfortunately (from an architectural point of view) the subsequent precipitate decline in student attendance made but one of these buildings necessary. The south structure, however, authorized and erected in 1839, was g'ven the name Reed Hall. The "mansion house" of President Wheelock was purchased from his grandson-in-law, President Allen for $3OOO, the house upon it was sold for $525 and moved away (it still survives on Wheelock Street as the Howe Library) and the site appropriated to the new building. For this structure Ammi B. Young was appointed architect. While apparently self-taught, he was highly competent and successful in his profession, such structures still surviving as the State House at Montpelier, the Custom House at Boston and Reed Hall itself, attesting his skill. The contractor was Dyer B. Young, brother of the architect, while a third brother, Professor Ira Young, represented the interests of the College. The estimated cost was $ll,OOO, but the actual expense far outran the estimates, resulting in an earnest, but not acrimonious, controversy between contractor and Trustees. In 1841 a settlement for $14,557 was supposed to have been made, but in 1843, in response to further demands, an additional sum of $5OO was voted. Treasurer Edgerton, in Dartmouth College Gifts andEndowments places the total original cost of the building as $15,637.
As the newest of the College structures, Reed Hall housed on its first and second floors for many years the College and Society Libraries, the Museum, the "philosophical apparatus" and the art collection. Upon the completion of Culver Hall in 1871 the Museum was moved to it, while the Library and art collection were transferred to the newly erected Wilson Hall in 1885. The first floor of Reed continued to be used by the Department of Physics until its removal to the Wilder Laboratory in 1899. Reed was then applied solely to dormitory purposes until 1932-1933, when, preserving the outer walls intact, the interior was entirely removed and reconstructed, so that the building now serves the purpose of a modern and convenient recitation hall. The expense of this latest reconstruction was $75,656.
