Matthew Marshall: Keeper of the Inn

If a Hanover Inn habitue from centuries past should emerge from a time travel machine into the main dining room of 1986, the visitor would feel right at home in an atmosphere little changed for many years. That sense of timelessness is very calculated, according the the Inn's 36-year-old general manager, Matthew Marshall.

Of course there have been some changes at the Wheelock Street hostelry in its 208-year history. The exterior has been rebuilt and added onto many times. But interior alterations, especially during the last 50 years, have been mainly of the operational, behind-the-scenes variety. Little changed are the cosmetics of the interior, the gracious atmosphere, and many traditions its guests have come to expect as part of an Inn stay. The familiarity of the campus landmark represents stability to returning alumni, says Marshall. "The alumni have a very vivid image of what the Hanover Inn was like, and we want to accommodate that." For that reason, he says, "we would never change the dining room."

That guiding philosophy presents a paradox for Marshall, who frankly admits, "I love change." But he finds plenty of challenge in the task of keeping the Inn vital enough to stay abreast (or a little ahead) of its competition without sacrificing its New England country inn character. For the Hanover Inn is not only a beacon to returning alumni but also an active commercial venture. As such, it is one of a very small group of inns owned by colleges which not only serve their students, faculty, and alumni but also cater to the general public. The Inn's business falls into three fairly evenly divided groups about a third is College-related; another third is returning alumni; and the final third is commerical, including corporate conferences, tour groups, and general tourist business.

For most of its 208 years, the Inn sat in the midst of undeveloped farming communities, many hours away from any major population center. It was the only place for returning alumni to stay, and it was also the place for the faculty and administration and residents of the region to meet and dine on special occasions. But now, with the Upper Valley's increasing accessibility by air and by interstate highway, the Inn is no longer the only game in town.

"There are now 54 other restaurants including some right on campus that compete directly with us," says Marshall. "And people are very interested in food. Food is big business right now."

Any restaurateur would be stimulated by the current interest in food and dining out, and Marshall is no exception. But how to tap into the trend without trading off the traditions that are the trademark of the Inn is a dilemma Marshall has wrestled with. He thinks he's found the answer in the "Byble and Drum," the Inn's hide-away breakfast-and-lunch restaurant that gets converted somewhat awkwardly into a cocktail lounge at night.

By spring, the Byble and Drum will be no more. In its place will be the "Ivy Grill," a restaurant featuring American food in a casual atmosphere. "It will be less expensive, much more casual, mostly grilled foods prepared with lower calorie cooking methods," Marshall explains. "For grilling, we'll use mesquite wood, sassafrass, oak, maple, various fruitwoods like apple and peach. All the new things that are enticing diners by imparting more flavor to the food."

Marshall chose the Byble and Drum for the site of the new venture because there has been more change and less history preserved in that area of the Inn than any other. "It's a funny room," he says. "It has no outside walls, no windows. It's just sort of tucked away, so no one has any great attachment to it. We're going to completely gut the interior and remodel it, and by spring we'll have a completely new restaurant."

At the same time that Marshall has been planning enticements to draw the dining public into the Inn, he's also been looking at ways to reestablish the Inn as the dining and meeting place for the College community. "When I came to Hanover almost two years ago," he says, "the attitude about the Inn among the College community was, 'The food's terrible., it's very expensive, and the service is even worse.' " Some changes such as new items on the dining room menu and improvements in the service have begun to quell those complaints, and the College community is coming back. "The College has almost 2,000 employees, and I want them to be satisfied enough to become salesmen for us," Marshall says. "It's their inn. It's owned and operated by the College."

But despite the attempts to keep up with the times, keeping up with traditions remains just as important to the Inn in its continuing attempt to attract more alumni. There are some things, such as certain menu items, that are sacrosanct and will never be changed, says Marshall. "There's a lot of history at the Hanover Inn," he says. "We've been here 208 years, and we plan to be here another 208 years doing the same thing. I can't envision us ever changing from anything but the classic New England inn the front door to Dartmouth College. On the other hand, we want to continually refine the operation to make it better, but one step at a time, without touching traditions. There are things the alumni expect to find when they return that are always going to be here. Like blueberry pancakes. The traditional breakfast at Thayer must have been blueberry pancakes. If we have a breakfast buffet for an alumni group and there are no blueberry pancakes, some will say, 'Never mind. I'll go down to the coffee shop.' And roast beef with popovers. That's another item that will stay on the menu."

Marshall comes well equipped for dealing with the challenges of his job, for he's no stranger to either collegiate or New England traditions. He came to Dartmouth from Wellesley, Mass., where he was the general manager of the Wellesley College Club, a college inn operated as a private club with a membership of 3,000. Much of his previous work experience was also in New England. He spent two years in the late 70s at the nearby Woodstock Inn while his wife, Elizabeth, was pursuing her Ph.D. in physics at Dartmouth, and before that he was at the Weekapaug Inn in Rhode Island and the Killington Ski Area in Vermont. Marshall also had a taste of the larger, corporate hotel world as a sales representative for Rockresorts, Inc., hotels in Hawaii and the Caribbean and as food and beverage operations manager for the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Cambridge, Mass.

An avid skier, Marshall came into the hotel business straight from the slopes. As an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, he majored in geology but found his career options in that field limited. "There are two things you can do with geology," he says. "You can get your Ph.D. and teach, or you can go to Alaska to look for oil. My friends who did that are making more in commissions than I do in a year's salary."

Instead, Marshall became a devotee of skiing. During his undergraduate years he was a member of the 1971 U.S. Ski Team and was involved in national and international Alpine competition until a severe accident, when he fractured his lower jaw in several places. "After that, instead of competing, I got into coaching: winters here, summers in Europe in France, Switzerland, and Austria," he says. "That brought me into close contact with the resort business, and eventually, in 1977,1 went to Cornell and got a master's in hotel administration. I love to run and I still love to ski, but now I do most of my skiing crosscountry."

That was one of the attractions of Woodstock, where Marshall indulged himself with regular runs on the 30-mile Skyline Cross-Country Trail. But lately skiing and even married life have taken a back seat to his involvement in running the Hanover Inn. When Marshall came to Hanover his marriage became a commuter relationship, with his wife remaining in Wellesley, where she is a physics professor engaged in experimental plasma research. "We're hoping a grant will come through so she can continue her research up here," Marshall says, "but the situation hasn't really been a problem. The hotel is a big commitment for me. It's 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so it's been good for me to have a little extra time with a new job."

Marshall is responsible for that job to John Skewes, the College's director of business affairs, and to the Inn's own board of overseers. Skewes recognizes that Marshall is faced with a "tough balancing act" between retaining tradition and being innovative enough to attract the eating-out public. "We want to keep the rockers on the front porch, but we want to draw the Yuppies inside," Skewes says. "It's a tough act to balance, but Matt is very enthusiastic and energetic. We need to have someone with ideas, the ability to put projects together, follow through, and sell them, and he has that ability. Across the board, in the guest rooms and in the dining room, we have quality standards, and he is raising them as high as possible - with my encouragement and with the encouragement of the board of overseers."

Keeping up the Inn's standards requires the involvement of all the Inn's employees, and Marshall encourages broad-based commitment to the enterprise by fostering staff participation in the decision-making process. Beyond that, says Barbara Stowe, the Inn's catering manager, Marshall urges all of the staff to interact with the guests. "He wants the guests to feel comfortable, so he encourages all of us even - those who are usually in an office behind a typewriter - to be exposed to the guests, to be on hand to answer their questions or help them out, rather than just walking past saying, 'Oh, that's not my department.'"

Stowe, who has been at the Inn for 32 years, says Marshall has also instituted a program that has made all department heads more cognizant of the overall operation of the Inn by periodically designating each department head as the "manager on duty" for an evening. "It has made us all aware of the operations of other departments," Stowe says. "You are in charge, say from 5:00 to 11:00 one night a month, and if any problem comes up, you find the answer to it. This way, we've become more involved in all aspects of the operation."

Marshall himself also tries to devote as much extra time as possible to being "on the floor" with guests and employees. "We have a real production line here," he says, "and there are a lot of people on that production line - a lot of employees. The management gets to spend fewer hours with the guest than do the line employees, and I want the guest to walk out the door saying, 'I had a great time for the money I spent,' so I try to spend time making sure that's happening." That means plenty of personal touches like putting flowers or live plants in the rooms, having the beds turned down at night, providing a bottle of wine or champagne or a basket of fresh fruit for overnight guests, or offering special services for alumni like letting them know who else from the same class is in town. "It's a matter of being there, and letting them know you're here," Marshall says. "That's the reason we're here."

The timeless charm of the Hanover Inn's dining room is something manager MatthewMarshall sees as central to the Inn s atmosphere.

Georgia Croft has profiled many members of theDartmouth community, including symphonyconductor Efrain Guigui and "Daily D" officemanager Connie Lambert.