Feature

MAIN STREET

JUNE 1982 Nancy Wasserman

MAIN STREET Nancy Wasserman JUNE 1982

Feature

MAIN STREET

JUNE 1982 Nancy Wasserman

Main Street the very words conjure up images of hometown, hanging hamburgers and fries, neighborhood familiarity, and at least one purveyor of every minor necessity. In Hanover, where both the town and the College share the major commercial thoroughfare. Main Street has been all of these things for thousands of rootbound, immobile students, for the townspeople who own and patronize the local concerns, and for the many returning alumni who consider Hanover "home."

Although College and commerce have been clearly demarcated by Wheelock Street since 1914 when the Dartmouth Savings Bank gathered up its assets and removed itself from the site of Robinson Hall, they have followed somewhat similar courses. Both have held strictly to an unwritten doctrine of individuality and exclusivity. Hanover has yet to be penetrated by a large department store or fast-food chain. And town and gown have responded to changing needs with new enterprises and construction, relocations and renovations, to the degree that today's establishments would be barely recognizable to the student of 50 years ago. The business area actually changes so frequently that even the youngest alumni returning for their reunion will find things at odds with their memories.

Fifty years ago, Hanover's Main Street featured soda fountains and general eateries, few if any student automobiles, no parking meters or traffic lights, and the shade of a number of elm trees later lost in the 1938 hurricane. Allen Street was still a lane providing little more than a livery stable. The post office, at half its current size, was brand new. Campion's and the Dartmouth Co-op were about a quarter of their current size, and every third or fourth store was either a grocery or a place to eat.

During the 19305, James Campion '28 and others convinced the College to purchase the two old wooden buildings just south of the Inn and replace them with a less combustible brick building. By 1938, the Lang building, including Campion's now familiar facade, was completed. What are now Campion's womenswear and sportswear departments housed the Boston and Maine ticket office, Western Union, Max's Restaurant, Granite State Electric, and Mrs. Margolis' Dress Shop. Located south of Campion's were the Typewriter Shop, Emerson Gardens, Coburn's Jewelry, Putnam's Rexall Drug Store (including Saia's Soda Fountain), Hanover Hardware, Roger Eastman's new pharmacy, the banks, and a number of groceries including the renowned Tanzi's, suppliers of fruit, tobacco, munchies, keg beer, and lively conversation since 1897.

At the head of the street, the Inn Coffee Shop looked out through large picture windows onto the Dartmouth Bookstore

and the restaurant that at various points in time has been Scotty's Cafe, the Indian Bowl, the Wigwam, the Beefeater, and the Village Green. Farther down the west side of the street stood Ward and Baird's Department Store, Serry's (then operated by the original tailor, Pasquale Serafini). Allen's Drug Store, the Dartmouth Co-op, Rand's Furniture (and coffin) store. Cam pion's Sporting Goods, and the new (in 1938) Consumer Co-operative supermarket. Then came Williams Laundry. D mouth Printing, the firehouse, Ediths Cut Rate, the Specialty Shop, Cattabri ga's, and Amidon's. In the lower reaches things were apparently a bit less formal.

Fletcher's store, in the basement of the Musgrove Building, featured a little bit of everything furniture trading, a pool table, miscellaneous necessities for the Dartmouth man, and Fletch himself, frequently referred to as the original dirty old man. Young women were advised to steer clear of the store, and interestingly enough, Phoebe Storrs Stebbins' chronicle of Main Street, the best in existence, neglects to mention that the place even existed. Another apparent unmentionable was the Tavern Block, which actually faced West South Street and is rumored to have been a compendium of rooming houses and bars. 1: most solid recorded fact on the building is that it was torn down in 1958 to make more room for parking.

One long-time Hanover resident readily admits that "during World War 11, Main Street was a mess." Soon thereafter, though, local entrepreneurs established many of today's "venerable" institutions. The Typewriter Shop became College Supplies, Art Bennett's and Lou's opened their doors. Jack Manchester '33 took over the Gulf service station, and Emerson Gardens became Porter's and eventually Roberts Flowers. The Music and Recording Studio also opened in what is currently the Hillwinds Shop.

In 1951, the Hanover Improvement Society completed the "new" Nugget Theater, including a lavish lobby, half of which has since become Greydon-Freeman office supplies. The building also provided space for Hill Optician's and the Webster Shop, the town's only tobacconist. Just up the street, Town and Country and the Camera Shop opened up in the new Bishop Block. Allen Street had also come a long way. Here one could find Tony's Pizza, the Inn Garage, College Cleaners, Mo's Village Store, Roger Burt printing, and Dartmouth Printing, late of Main Street. Commerce was also extending south to the top of the hill where, by the end of the fifties, one could find the Green Lantern Inn, a bakery, Al's Red & White, and Hampshire House. Not only was commerce expanding outward but also upward; in the middle of Main Street one could find the second-floor showrooms of clothiers J. Press and the Andover Shop as well as A. B. Gile insurance, Tony's Barber Shop, and a photo studio.

As plans for Hopkins Center materialized and became reality during the late fifties and early sixties, movement and expansion began to occur all over town. The bank expanded northward, forcing Roger Eastman down the street to build his new brick drug store. Enough tenants had finally moved out of the Lang Building so that all of Campion's could be in one place, and the Co-op moved out onto Park Street, opening up space for the Dartmouth Bookstore to move from its longtime corner locale on Nugget Alley. Main Street, in fact, like its suburban cousins, had developed a parking problem, requiring the construction of a large lot behind the Hanover Precinct Building. After all that moving about, things settled down until the late sixties, when the Improvement Society tore down the last wooden commercial structure on the west side of Main Street and replaced it with the Nugget Arcade. Omer & Bob's moved in from Lebanon Street, Edith's and Amidon's moved in from their torn-down location, and the Camera Shop moved over from next door.

Three major construction projects during the mid-seventies greatly changed the look of downtown Hanover. The first was the expansion of the bookstore onto Allen Street, encompassing the old diner that, in its last days, had become a Chinese restaurant and filling the alleyway that had provided a direct route between Mos ano Mass Row. The new Dartmouth Nation..! Bank building and subsequent remodeling of the Savings Bank brought a new financial visibility to the south end of town. Finally, the tearing down of Buskey s Inn Garage (and its illuminated Esso sign on the Main Street corner) to construct what has become the headquarters of Hanover s only-multinational corporation has forever changed Allen Street from a loiterer s pardise into a respectable passageway.

The lowering of the drinking age to • in 1973 created a perfect atmosphere tor the opening of Peter Christians very gentell tavern in what had been a combined pool hall, hobby store, and barber shop Changes in the zoning laws opened up Lebanon Street for conversion, yielding the Ice Cream Machine, Rosey Jekes, C & A Pizza (the only restaurant in town without some sort of liquor license); and the present Upper Crust and its bistro predecessor.

Since the mid-seventies, the major change has been one of atmosphere. The ernative book and food stores have gone it of business, replaced by small specialty stores selling toys, dancewear, and computers. The great outdoors has been rediscovered sidewalk merchandise abounds. Campion's provides an outdoor 'able for the weary shopper, Peter Christian's sports an outdoor deck, and, despite initial objection by many merchants, each day around noon street peddlers and their customers virtually take over the new park in front of the old firehouse.

Every third or fourth store has become either a clothier or sporting goods store, if not both. Indoors, much has been renovated, replacing not only the old fixtures and floorboards but also much of the character. Tanzi's went out of business in 1969, and the building burned down in 1976. The Village Green has replaced its U-shaped counters with more private booths, Mo's has been sold and reorganized with wider aisles and tiled floors, and Hal's has become a children's clothing store. Hanover Hardware and the Bull's Eye Tavern retain the only bare wooden floors on Main Street.

The necessities of life have become harder to find. Barbers and hairdressers are predominantly on the second floor or out of town. Groceries can be found only at the P & C at the end of town or to a limited degree in the Village Store. Furniture and meerschaum pipes are just not sold anymore in Hanover. And although restaurants abound, the standard student fare of hamburger, fries, and frappe are nearly impossible to locate among the quiches, salads, and white wine of current menus. In fact, some visitors might think they were back in Cos Cob or Grosse Pointe.

Towns elsewhere in the northeast may be crumbling. but Hanover and its Main Street havehad a growth industry students and alumnipractically since the beginning. Are thecrowds and traffic worse today? Not necessarily: Compare the slushy thoroughfare of thethirties (opposite page, center) with a 1982view from the same perspective (left). In thefifties, the baby boom was big. exemplified by noless than nine carriages converging on the Co-opstore (opposite, top left) at the corner of Mainand Allen. The scene today. with one of the fewremaining elms, is all grown up. At the end ofthe sixties, the quirky, gabled Inn of old (opposite. top right) gave way to the neo-Georgianefficiency of the new. Likewise, the votaries ofLouis LaCourse's barbershop and pool room(above) have fled, supplanted by the genteelpatrons of Peter Christian's restaurant. As fortraffic signals. 20 years ago there were none.

The faces change, the roles endure. Once therewas Serafini of Serry's (oppositepage, top left),ami now it's Campion of Campion's (opposite,top right). For the basic necessities that is.beer students flocked to the Tanzi family'sestrimable establishment (opposite, lower left).Until she retired this spring. Linda of Mo'spp ;te. lower right) dispensed the same necessity for 18 years. At Putnam's Drug Store(above it left), business was no laughing matter,in high contrast to the mood of Fletcher's (right)and Edith's (far right). A decade ago. MurrayWashburn (above right) had a vision andnawed it Peter Christian's.

Nancy Wasserman '77. who is a member of thisyear's youngest reunion class, was a mere 14years old when the Tanzis shut their door.