College Book Seller

MAIN STREET, heading south, begins with the Dartmouth Bookstore, and there the day begins also for hundreds of students, professors and townspeople who drop in for the morning papers and the Hanover news that failed to get into print.

Presiding over this indispensable center of Hanover life, with a quiet courtesy which no one ever seems to take for granted, is one of the town's leading personalities—Dave Storrs '99. Known to many generations of Dartmouth men who are sure of a kindly welcome when they drop into the store on their return visits to Hanover, Dave Storrs was recently honored in a feature story in the trade journal of the National Association of College Stores. In the article he was credited with being probably the dean of college book sellers in the United States.

The first bookstore in Hanover opened in 1795 in the Commons Hall (where Rollins Chapel now is) "at the sign of Sterne's Head" by one Josiah Dunham and was short lived. Two years later two men named Phelps and Ellsworth tried their luck with "books and stationery," but they didn't last as long as Dunham. However, in March 1798, Professor Smith, the college librarian, opened a store under the name of the "Hanover Bookstore." After his death in 1809 his widow carried it on until 1813. The present Dartmouth Bookstore has been in business for sixty-six years, and has lasted many years longer than any previous Hanover bookshop.

The lot at the southwest corner of Main and Wheelock streets, where Casque and Gauntlet now stands, was granted by the college (two acres) for an Inn, to Captain Aaron Storrs, who came here in 1771 from Lebanon, New Hampshire, to undertake the business of innkeeper. In 1782 an inn was set up across the way (where there has been one to this day), and so Aaron turned his attention to the river ferry near the present bridge over to Norwich.

The Storrs family orginally came from Mansfield, Connecticut, and Mr. Storrs is a direct descendant of Aaron's brother Augustus who is described in local history as a considerable Hanover landowner.

Mr. Storrs was. born in Claremont, New Hampshire, August 7, 1876. He moved to Hanover with his family when he was about eight years of age. From stories I have heard, some no doubt apocryphal, he was a combination of Peck's bad boy and Tom Sawyer, or perhaps Plupy, Beany, and Pute all rolled into one, and no modern youngster, with his comics, radio and television, need feel sorry for him. With his tall, old-fashioned bicycle, with Mink Brook near by and the hills of Hanover to roam (he used to play in the hayloft of the Garipay barn on Reservoir Road), he probably had more fun in his day than the boys of our time do, with all their modern gadgets.

His father Edward Payson Storrs, who died in 1916, bought the present Dartmouth Bookstore in 1884 from Nelson A. McClary, who graduated that same year from Dartmouth and then moved west.

Mr. Storrs entered Dartmouth with the Class of '99, but after two years, owing to a love of fun and a lack of interest in his studies, he and the college parted company. He was in Dartmouth in the days of the giants: Dr. William J. Tucker, Professors Lord, "Tute" Worthen, "Clothespins" Richardson, Fred Emery, Charles D. Adams, and others. Two brothers, the late Edward Payson Storrs Jr. 'OO, and Dr. Harry C. Storrs '07, also went to Dartmouth. Two nephews, one of whom, Dr. Robert C. Storrs, is at the Hitchcock Clinic, are recent graduates of the College. The Storrs family is a Dartmouth one from way back.

It was in 1897 that Dave entered his father's bookstore then located next to Cobb's Grocery Store on Main Street in a building fronted by tall white pillars (which later decorated the old Phi Gam house) just about where the Indian Bowl is located today. The bookstore moved into its present location on the corner around 1900, and its personnel consisted of Dave, his father, and one clerk.

The only concession to modernity today is the installation of fluorescent lighting, and there are six clerks instead of one. The store has the same floor space in spite of the fact that the College is now more than four times larger in enrollment than when Dave moved in at the turn of the century. There is, as a matter of fact, no direction in which to expand except heavenward, and that space is preempted. His office in the rear is about 5 by 9, with an old roll-top desk, a leaning file of Pisa, and, outside the door, a safe that for all I know may be opened with a nutpick. Mr. Storrs is, indeed, the living incarnation, as the photograph shows, of the original Yankee bookseller.

In 1835 a blacksmith named William Tenney built a fine brick house on the southeast corner of Lebanon and Main streets. In 1883 this house was bought by E. P. Storrs and there Dave was brought up. When Mr. Storrs was married on February 11, 1918. to Miss Ethel Haskell, he took over the house and lived there until the new Post Office was built on the site in 1930. He then built a colonial brick house farther down Main Street where he now lives.

The Storrs have one daughter, Phoebe, a graduate of Wellesley, who lives in nearby Etna with her husband John Stebbins, a lawyer, and their three children. Dave's only rival as a fond and proud grandparent is his old friend Ernest Martin Hopkins.

Dave Storrs is a reticent person when it comes to talking about himself, and is modest to a degree that can only be understood by a real Yankee. He warned the author about being "too flowery" in this article. As a matter of fact Dave is, without much doubt, the first citizen of Hanover, and he has served his community unsparingly and with great distinction for more than fifty years. From 1922 to 1949 he was President of the Hanover Improvement Society, which runs the famous Nugget Theatre and with the profits maintains Storrs Pond for swimming, cares for and plants trees, buys fire-fighting equipment, provides street lights and sidewalks, and so on. He was a Selectman of the Town of Hanover for many years, was a member of the Fire Department, head of the Old Cemetery, director of the bank, leader of the Masonic Lodge, a member of the IOOF, and has held other positions in the town.

It was Will Rogers who said that he never met a man he didn't like, which distinguished him, in this respect at least, from many of us. All I can write apropos of this fatuous remark is that I have never met a man who didn't like Dave Storrs. His generosity is proverbial and very real. Many men of the town have written into their wills that if their widows had any questions or needed help, "Just go to Dave Storrs." He is young in spirit, full of good-humored fun, has a tremendous and undying loyalty to the College, is public spirited to an unusual degree, is friendly to all, and has a reputation for honesty and integrity that is outstanding. Anyone might well envy him his universally excellent reputation in a community that can be, and often is, most critical.

We all wish him happiness, good health, and prosperity for many years to come.

DAVE STORRS '99 OF THE DARTMOUTH BOOKSTORE