Rooming with Style

Dartmouth dorm decor has changed from the spartan beginnings to the awesome eighties.

College houseing has come a long way since the early days on the Hanover Plain. In 1796 Samuel Swift '00 referred to Dartmouth Hall as "the great wooden air castle in which most of the students had their rooms." Yet, compared to the earliest accommodations, Dartmouth Hall was downright ritzy. The first College building was a primitive log hut which sheltered Eleazar Wheelock and the ladies in his family. His sons and 30 students slept in makeshift "booths," or lean-to shelters, on beds made of hemlock boughs.

Wheelock moved out of the hut as soon as construction was completed on a one-story house. A two-story all-purpose building erected on what is now the southeast corner of the Green housed an academy, a kitchen, and 16 rooms that provided sleeping quarters for 80 students. This reddish-brown structure, devoid of paint or other decoration inside, rose and sank with the frost heaves and was cold, dark, and dirty. The only sources of heat were fireplaces. Students chopped and split the firewood, a job they often performed in their rooms or the corridors, despite the College's rule that it be done outdoors. Pine knots were burned for light.

Rustic living conditions persisted into the nineteenth century . One of the few modernizations was the installation of wood stoves in some College buildings in 1822. It wasn't until the 1840s that the faculty pushed the College to improve living conditions. A wood stove was finally installed in the chapel, to the disgust of alumni, who considered this an effeminization of the College and its students. The faculty ruled that recitation rooms, the chapel, and lecture rooms be swept each week, and that other maintenance become routine, even if only before Commencement. Maintenance of student rooms consisted of removing ashes from them once a week.

There was a regulation against the fattening of fowl in student quarters, but students did it anyway. By 1853, 15 rooms in Wentworth and Thornton Halls were so filthy, bug-infested, dark, and cold that no students would rent them. By the 1870s students were calling for improvements, such as the provision of bathing facilities in the gymnasium. But when the College, under President Tucker, finally built nine new dormitories and remodeled four between 1894 and 1908, alumni deplored the improvements-bath tubs in dorms, central heating, and new standards of cleanliness-as a further softening of the College from its stoical roots.

Four walls, a bedframe (but no mattress), and a chiffonier were the College's idea of dorm room furnishings from the nineteenth century right into the 19505. Students had to supply the rest. Scrambling for the best secondhand furniture was a student ritual each fall, replete with tradition and drudgery. The tradition belonged to the upperclassmen and the drudgery fell to the freshmen. Who else but a freshman could an upperclassmen enlist to transport his belongings to a dorm room across campus?

Freshmen became well-acquainted with the stock of Hanover's used furniture emporiums, the Trading Post and Fletcher's, and the offerings of student second-hand furniture entrepreneurs as they struggled with the mattresses, overstuffed armchairs, dilapidated sofas, and heavy wooden desks that everyone wanted. Life was relatively easy once a room was furnished, however. From the turn of the century to the late 1950s the College provided janitorial service that included room cleaning and bedmaking.

The College's notions of dorm basics keeps on changing. Andres, one of the new East Wheelock cluster dormitories, boasts an oriental carpet in its communal living room. "Snack Preparation Areas" are provided in each dorm. Room furnishings now include the mattresses, desks, desk chairs, and bookcases that students used to get at bargain basements. Second-hand furniture has become supplementary rather than essential, and freshmen need lug only their own belongings, not anyone else's. But today's students don't get all the breaks. They have to make their own beds. And they have to do their own room cleaning, aided only by "Supersuck," a high-tech central vacuum system.

Some things about dorms haven't changed over the years: students still play hall hockey, sports equipment still fills hard-to-decorate corners, Winter Carnival posters still spruce up the walls, and curtains by mom are still in demand.

A skull on the stack of books was a then stylish reminder of mortality for John H. Leach,class of 1870. This grim accessory was compensated by such creature comforts as a leatherarmchair, needlepoint-covered rocking chair, and hanging lamp. Storage for coal for thestove was provided in each room.

A roaring fire and well-pillowed window seat added to the comfort of this floral wallpaperecparadise in 3 Crosby Hall, home ofFrancis Griswold '18 and A. Russell Tout '18 in 1914Postcards and banners were de rigueur.

In the 19205, dorm rooms were on the quiet side-telephones were down the hall and onlya few people had victrolas. The main sounds were the human voice and the strains of amandolin, guitar, or ukelele. These students looked happy enough in their rug-covered andtapestried sitting room. And why shouldn't they be? They had "Campus Humor" and"Artists' Models" magazines to give them something to talk about.

By the 19305, dormitories had gotten decidedly louder—though they were sedate bytoday's booming standards. The number ofportable phonographs, collections of 78rpm records, and radios in the dorms hadgrown considerably. By night the better radios could bring in the hottest bands fromas far away as Chicago and St. Louis. Mailwas delivered tivice a day direct to a mailslot in each dorm room. Hanging outsidemany windows during frigid weather werejugs of cider-adding a handful of raisinsand covering uncapped jugs with cheesecloth was supposed to bring on fermentation and a core of hard cider amid the ice.To the dismay of many, cider often burstbefore its time.

Post-war times saw the resurgence of items of frivolity and comfort-carpets, used furniture,Winter Carnival posters, radios, phonographs, and the first wire recorders and tape recorders. Big Ben alarm clocks loudly ticked the time and could shatter the dreams of themost comatose of sleepers. For those who forgot their room keys: a coat hanger twisted justso could open any room in the dorm. All this was a far cry from the war years, when 12dorms were converted into "ships" for the Navy V-12 program. Sporting the no-frillsbarracks look, these ships were inspected daily by Naval officers. Navy issue furniture fornavy and marine trainees, who lived four to a room, consisted of two double bunks, andfour desks, chairs, and lamps. Married veterans who returned to the College after the warlived in Wigwam Circle, down Tuck Mall, in separate quarters.

The age of cinder block, linoleum, and builtins arrived in the late 1950s when theChoates screamed modernity. Mirror-image beds, desks, and bookshelves in the newdorms left little space or need for cast-offfurniture. The older dorms still were filledwith those second-hand treasures, especially Dartmouth captain's chairs, coffee tables, day-beds, and self-containedentertainment centers (that is, cabinetscommodious enough for glasses, bottles,and 78-, 45-, and 33-rpm records.) Students lucky enough to have fireplaces couldset an amorous mood ablaze, as long as theydid so before 7 p.m. on weeknights and 1a.m. on weekends, when the ladies wereushered out of the dorms.

In the 1960s things turned groovy. Beatles records piled up next to the übiquitous portablestereos. Red and blue light bulbs created the mood that would impress dates. Whateverworked impressed fellow classmates. Portable bars were well-stocked and well-equipped withshakers, pitchers, swizzle sticks, beer mugs, and wine glasses. Bamboo blinds were used aswall hangings. To the chagrin of the Buildings and Grounds folks, burlap was glued towalls to add texture and facilitate the hanging of Winter Carnival or Jane Fonda posters.Candles, incense, Indian bedspreads hung on the wall or suspended from the ceilings, ricepaper lanterns-if it was considered even remotely non-institutional, it was in. By the endof the decade anti-war protests lured students from their rooms to sit-ins at PresidentDickey's office.

Rooms of the 1980s house the high-tech necessities from the newest Macintoshes to the latestReeboks. The stereos of the early 80s are being replaced by the latest compact disk players.Four speakers and all the music of the Rolling Stones are musts for many. That necessity,the refrigerator, can look great when covered with artsy tapestries or sports fashions.

In the 1970s dorm rooms had to be cool.This was achieved by the right mix of coolthings obtained or done in a cool way. Woodfor fireplaces acquired through raids onfraternity woodpiles was cool. Refrigeratorswere cool, and they contained beer. Message pads on doors were cool when filledwith messages left by cool people doing coolthings. Dying spider plants were cool because they implied that the owner was toobusy to be concerned with mundane thingslike watering plants. Road signs indicateda cavalier attitude toward the law and sowere cool. The all-time cool sign, "Pleaselimit play to one hour while others are waiting," hung above the bed. For women itwas cool to have a boyfriend hangingaround and for a guy it was cool to have agirlfriend around-if she went to anothercollege.

Scrambling for second-handfurniture was a ritual.

Thanks to contributors Len Morrissey '22,Os Skinner '28, Richard Olmsted '32, BillScherman '34, James Boldt '35, Fritz Hier'44, Walter Snickenberger '46, Ham Chase'47, Bob Nutt '49, Lynmar Brock '55, DaveOrr '58, Bruce Jolly '65, Judy and TomOxman '71, Al Henning '77, Sue Young'77, Burr Gray '79, and Ken Johnson '83,who could actually remember what was intheir dorm rooms.