Brief Biographies of Buildings
IX. Hitchcock Hall
HIRAM HITCHCOCK was born in Claremont, N. H., in 1832. Early in his life his family moved to the village of Drewsville, in the town of Walpole, N. H., where he was reared. At the age of 16, he entered the Black River Academy, at Ludlow, Vt., where he was graduated and where he served for a time as teacher. Because of a developing weakness of his eyes he was advised to go to the South, and there he found his true calling—that of hotel management. He rose rapidly in the employ of the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, later dividing his time between this hostelry and, in'the summer, the Nahant House, at Nahant, Mass. In 1859, together with Alfred B. Darling and Paran Stevens, he established the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York.
At the time, this enterprise was regarded as foolhardy. Its location on Madison Square was considered to be much too far north, and the size of the structure and the elaborateness of its equipment were judged to be highly extravagant. Almost at once, however, it assumed the leading place among the hotels of the metropolis and became an exceedingly profitable enterprise. For many years it was the most luxurious hotel in the city, and even when, in that regard, it was surpassed by more modern structures, it none the less attracted a steady and profitable patronage. From iB6O to 1900 it was the favored resort of political leaders, particularly those of the Republican variety, and a portion of its lobby, known as "Amen Corner," was the preferred hang-out of the "easy boss" of New York politics of the Bo's and go'sSenator Thomas A. Piatt. In 1866, because of ill health, Mr. Hitchcock, although retaining his interest, ceased to have an active share in the management of the hotel, but he resumed direct control in 1879, and continued in that position until his death in 1900.
Mr. Hitchcock had many other business interests in New York—he was an organizer and president of the Madison Square Garden Company, a founder and vice-president of the Garfield National Bank, president and general manager of the Nicaragua Canal Company and of the Maritime Railroad Company. These last two enterprises were financially unfortunate. Mr. Hitchcock's lively interest in the abortive attempt to build a trans-oceanic canal through Nicaragua resulted in commitments to the enterprise which sadly embarrassed his finances in his later years.
During his period of retirement he indulged in extensive European travel and became much interested in certain aspects of archaeology. He had much to do with the excavations of General di Cesnola in Cyprus, and vigorously defended the General when the latter became the victim of severe criticism of his conclusions and even reflections upon his veracity. Mr. Hitchcock himself published a number of articles upon Cyprus, while his scientific interests are further shown by his membership in the British Society of Biblical Archaeology and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also trustee and treasurer of the Metropolitan Art Museum.
MOVES TO HANOVER
About 1870 Mr. Hitchcock, for some reason attracted to Hanover, purchased in that town the newly-built house of Professor Henry Fairbanks, then retiring from the faculty. This was one of the two elaborate "modern" dwellings (the other was the Balch house, on the site of the present College Hall) erected in Hanover in the 60's. The two houses were much alike—huge, square, high-posted structures, of two stories with a high French roof—and represented the best taste, the most modern ideas and the most elaborate equipment of the period. The Hitchcock house, much secluded from observation, was located at the fork of the present Tuck Drive and its extensive grounds reached the river. Here its owner set up a fairly elaborate country estate, making Hanover his principal home until his return to New York in 1879, and even after that spending much of his time in New Hampshire. He soon became a respected member of the community, representing the town in the legislature, being president both of the Dartmouth National and the Dartmouth Savings Banks, a trustee of the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts (now the University of New Hampshire) then located in Hanover, and from 1878 to 1892 trustee of Dartmouth College. In the latter position he was one of the group of the trustees generally critical of President Bartlett.
He was munificient in his gifts to the community. In 1865 he founded a scholarship of $1000 in the College. He furnished an organ for the College Church, and in 1889 bore the larger part of the expense of reconstructing the interior of that building, securing the services of his friend, Stanford White, as architect. In the same year he announced his intention of building and equipping a hospital for the benefit of the community—this as a memorial to his first wife, who had died in 1887. The result was the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, which opened its doors just 50 years ago, and which, during that period, has been an institution of incalculable value to the communities of the upper Connecticut valley. No one knows exactly what the hospital cost Mr. Hitchcock, as no account was ever rendered, but the institution, complete in every part, was turned over to its trustees, entirely paid for, in 1893. The value of the building and grounds, involved in the original construction, are now carried on the hospital books at $220,000.
Early in 1900, some months before his death in December of that year, Mr. Hitchcock married as his second wife Miss Emily Howe, of Hanover. The Howe family, of whom Mrs. Hitchcock was the last survivor, occupied the old mansion house of Eleazar Wheelock, removed in 1839 from its original position on the site of Reed Hall, to West Wheelock Street. Upon her husband's death Mrs. Hitchcock inherited his real estate in Hanover. A woman of generous instincts, she had already established the Howe Library for community use, supplying as a building the Howe dwelling. The Hitchcock property did not at this time extend to Main Street; the house built by Professor Noyes (afterwards serving during the Bartlett period as a president's house) blocking it, save for a driveway, from that thoroughfare. In 1908 an agreement was made between Mrs. Hitchcock and the College whereby the Noyes house was moved to its present site on Webster Avenue (where it now houses the Eye Clinic) and the ground which it occupied was turned over to Mrs. Hitchcock. In return it was provided that upon Mrs. Hitchcock's death the entire Hitchcock real estate should become the property of the College. Mrs. Hitchcock died in 1912 and the agreement was then fulfilled. It was also provided in this agreement that the fund thus established should be known as the Emily Howe Hitchcock and Charles Henry Webster Howe Fund. It is valued on the college books at $50,000. This was not the total of Mrs. Hitchcock's benefactions to Hanover—by her will $20,000 was given to the Mary Hitchcock Hospital for the establishment of four free beds, and the endowment of the Howe Library was much increased.
The land thus acquired by the College has proved to be indispensable to the institution. Without it, it is difficult to see how the expansion program of the last thirty years could conveniently have been carried on. The Mall leading west from the Baker Library runs through the center of the estate, with the Tuck Drive following the contours of the ravine leading to the river. The Tuck School group and the Cummings Memorial (Thayer School) are at the western end of this Mall, while no fewer than six dormitories have been erected at the eastern end.
The first of the .dormitories to be placed on the site is called Hitchcock Hall. Built in 1913 it accommodates 93 students and it is held on the college books at a value of $145,000.
