The Hanover Scene

NOT long ago we had the benefit of a personally conducted tour of the sewers of Hanover. This was no mad chase, a la Jean Valjean pursued by an avenging Javert, since the local underground network is by no means as extensive or spacious as that of 19th century Paris. Nor was the trip haunted by the plaintive notes of the Third Man theme. Rather, it started in the Village Engineer's office in the Precinct Building, proceeded to the extensive reaches of Halsey Edgerton's fund of local lore, and wound up in our own distant recollections of conversations with Dr. Gil Frost.

We are here concerned with actualities rather than the many legends of undergraduate fortitude which preceded the building by the College of the first Hanover sewer line in the 'Bo's. This installation, considered a distinct improvement, ran from Reed Hall down East Wheelock, past the old New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and through the Chase Farm. It was later incorporated into the South Side, or South Main Street system. The piping-in of a water supply in the '90's, and the introduction of the bath tub into Hanover life, in- spired a group of faculty members living in the north part of the village to install a private sewer which emptied into a swamp now the second fairway of the golf course, but then enjoy- ing the fair title of "Crystal Lake." Later, the Hospital joined in to brighten this same area.

Thus began two of the four main systems of Hanover sanitation; the South Side and the North End sewers. These were eventually taken over by the College, expanding and stretching out tentacles to cover half the village. The South Side system services Lebanon Street, the east side of South Main Street, the Gymnasium area, and homes on the old Currier estate even reaching across other lines to such disparate locations as Thayer Hall and Parker Apartments. This line empties into a tricky sort of siphon tank in the Mink Brook valley, which periodically whooshes its contents through pipes to the river.

The North End lines, combined with the old Hospital lines, serve the village north of the campus, Occom Ridge, and Rope Ferry Road. Long ago they were extended from "Crystal Lake" to the river, through the gully that traps short drives from the third tee.

The West Side Sewer Company is an ancient and private organization whose lines serve West Wheelock Street, some parts of Main Street, and the Maple and School Street areas. Dave Storrs '99 is the authority in these matters. This line empties into the river just above Ledyard Bridge, after a fast run down the hill.

The East Side Sewer Company and the College's Valley Road sewers, recently acquired by the Village Precinct, have a long and complicated history. They serve the portions of the village from Park Street east. For many years the effluent from their large septic tank in the Chase Farm area cast an unenviable aura about the lower reaches of East Wheelock Street, but a series of extended pipe lines and the installation of a second tank in the Vale of Tempe (with its magical miniature vistas), and an eventual complete piping to the river at a point opposite the "First Island," have brightened the locality no end, so that the name "Skunk Hollow" has almost passed from currency.

The numerous little private sewer lines have in some instances been incorporated into the Big Four, but in others are still going it bravely alone. Among these latter are the Downing Road, the Sargent Street, the Thayer- Tuck, and the Webster Avenue sewers - all emptying separately into the Connecticut, making a total of eight exits into that recently broadened expanse of shimmering beauty. Presumably the Precinct will eventually take over complete control and supervision, and even extend its system to replace the numerous septic tanks that still dot various clusters of freeholds within the village limits.

These are utilitarian, albeit pedestrian, considerations.

Surface drainage is a different kettle of fish. The local streets and gutters are effectively cleared through a separate drainage system, of piecemeal construction, partly town and partly College, commencing at all crucial wet spots and concluding in various unknown pleasances, or miserably straggling to an end in sandy deltas. This is the system that calls into play the "steam wagon" for spring thawing, and from which, later, are spooned out great heaps of rich black sand and dirt—"lovely muck" that would have gladdened the heart of Housman's Terence, homing erratically from Ludlow Fair.