Webster Cottage

The College last month turned over the keys to the Webster Cottage to Prof. W. Benfield Pressey, president of the Hanover Historical Society, and Prof. Herbert W. Hill, chairman of a special committee concerned with developing the historic building.

The two front rooms and hall have been restored as closely as possible to their original state and after they have been furnished, the cottage will serve as a museum for Daniel Webster memorabilia owned by the College. It will also become the headquarters for the Hanover Historical Society, which has agreed to furnish and staff it.

The house was originally built in 1770 by Sylvanus Ripley and his wife Abigail whose father was Eleazar Wheelock, first president of Dartmouth. It is the sixth oldest house surviving in the village of Hanover. A small upstairs chamber was occupied by Daniel Webster during a portion of his undergraduate days, and the cottage thus bears his name.

Webster Cottage was moved in 1965 across North Main Street, near Webster Avenue and close to its original site from which it was moved when Silsby Hall was built in 1928.