STREETER HALL
Dormitory Name Recalls Robust Dartmouth Figure
THE THREE RESIDENCE HALLS, erected as a group in 1929 on the south side of Tuck Mall, were named for three trustees of the College prominent in the period from 1892 to 1925: Mr. Frank S. Streeter, Professor John K. Lord and Dr. John M. Gile. They will form the subject of this and the following article in this series.
Frank Sherwin Streeter was born at East Charleston, Vt., on August 5, 1853. His preparatory work was done at St. Johnsbury Academy and, after spending a year at Bates College, he was enrolled in Dartmouth in the class of 1874. This group was an especially distinguished one, embracing in its numbers not only Mr. Streeter, but such men as Chief Justices Aiken of Massachusetts and Parsons of New Hampshire, Attorney General Eastman of New Hampshire, Governor McCall and Representative Powers of Massachusetts. Mr. Streeter taught for a year in lowa and then studied law under A. P. Carpenter of Bath, N. H., afterwards Chief Justice of New Hampshire, whose daughter he married. Admitted to the bar in 1877, he maintained an office for six months in Orford, but soon removed to Concord, N. H., where he remained in active practice until his death on December 11, 1922.
As a lawyer—soon the head of a firm of able associates, varying in personnel as time went on—with no long delay he came to be recognized as the leader of the bar of the state. Early becoming associated as counsel with the Concord and Montreal Railroad, when that corporation was merged into the Boston and Maine he became and continued for many years the leader of the legal forces of the latter railroad in the days when it was the real ruler of the state. He was also counsel for the Western Union, the Amoskeag Corporation and many of the other larger corporations of the state. Especially profitable was his relationship as counsel with Mary Baker G. Eddy in the later years of the life of the founder of Christian Science, when she was involved in extensive and protracted litigation.
As a lawyer Mr. Streeter belied his ponderous physique and his somewhat pontifical bearing by the quickness of his wit and the agility of his mental processes. By those who did not like him he was regarded as overbearing, unduly authoritative and arrogant. But none of his opponents questioned his legal ability, his resourcefulness and his capacity both as an office advisor and in the conduct of cases in court.
Such a practice necessarily involved close association with politics, In the days of the preeminence of the Boston and Maine in the state its political leadership was largely exercised through him; when after 1906 the political power of the road was subject to violent attack, that attack was largely directed against him as the responsible agent of the corporation. In general he bore these attacks with unruffled imperturbability, but his sudden resignation in 1910 indicated a considerable degree of resentment on his part at the role which the corporation was calling upon him to play. The opposition to his corporation connections probably was the reason why he never attained the high political office that his ability seemed to entitle him and that his ambitions probably led him. For years, however, he was active in the work of party management, serving as a member of the Republican National Committee from 1904 to 1908. He served in the state House of Representatives for one term, he was twice President of the Constitutional Convention, and from 1919 to 1921 President of the State Board of Education. By appointment of President Taft he was a member of the International Joint Commission for settlement of the water boundary between the United States and Canada.
This "hard-boiled" personality, as he was generally considered by his associates and especially by his enemies, nevertheless had in its make-up a deep vein of sentiment. This was especially manifest in his relations with his college. Elected an alumni trustee in the second group thus chosen, in 1892, he was subsequently made a life trustee, and thus served the College for a period of 30 years. In the group of strong men who were his associates in all this period very soon he took rank and maintained it as probably the most influential. Busy as he was with the manifold demands upon his time, he was never too busy to devote his best energies to the progress of the College. Coming into office just before Dr. Tucker assumed the presidency, he was, perhaps, the most consistent and unwavering supporter of the President in the upbuilding of the new Dartmouth, and this at a time when many of his more conservative colleagues regarded the plans of the executive as entirely too daring and even reckless. His confidence in Dr. Tucker's leadership was complete, and personally he regarded the President with affectionate reverence which amounted almost to adoration. The cool business head and large experience of Mr. Streeter, while a steadying influence, never led to timidity in the formulation of new and vital plans for progress. His wide influence in the state was frequently of marked service to the institution. Despite his business associations he was always sturdy in defense of the independence of the College and its integrity as an educational institution. When some of his political associates were planning to institute reprisals on the College because of what they regarded as the heterodox political views and unseemly activity of a large portion of the faculty he blasted such plans out of existence in a burst of scorn. It was he who proposed and carried through the Board the award of an honorary doctorate to William E. Chandler, his most vehement and, it may almost be said, his malignant political enemy. In later years he had much to do with the selection of President Hopkins whom he came to regard almost as a father does his son. In all his years of service he was wise, far-sighted, progressive and devoted.
During his lifetime Mr. Streeter provided $17,000 for the installation of a new organ in Rollins Chapel. His will contained a bequest of $50,000 to the College, the use of which was unrestricted.
Streeter Hall, erected in 1929, accommodates 72 students and is valued at $120,000.
FRANK S. STREETER '74, New Hampshire lawyer and Dartmouth trustee for 30 years, for whom Streeter Hall was named in 1929.
Continuing Professor Richardson's series on Dartmouth graduates and benefactors whose names are memorialized by present College buildings.
