The Heart of Dartmouth

Want to take Dartmouth's pulse? Listen as you walk across the Green.

1771

Dartmouth's first Commencement is held on the Green. Though just four students graduate, there isn't a building large enough for all who want to attend.

1776

The local militia trains on the Green.

1803

Livestock graze on the Green. Students, angered from stepping in agricultural by-products, lock bovine hostages in the basement of Dartmouth Hall. Only after farmers agree to find greener pastures elsewhere are the cows released.

1808

Trees are planted along the walks of the Green. Historian John Lord observes, "The saplings developed a strange tendency toward nocturnal somersaults, being found in the morning with their branches in the ground and their roots in the air."

1824

Town law permits ball playing on the Green.

1831

Tree stumps, remnants of the College's frontier origin, still rise from the Green. President Nathan Lord orders them removed.

1836

The Green is leveled. Gravel is spread along the paths.

1873

The town takes a 30-foot strip of ground along the south side of the Green to widen the street. Students burn a fence in protest. The College makes amends after selectmen threaten to reopen a public road that once ran diagonally across the Green.

1875

The Dartmouth Athletic Aasociation is founded. Its inaugural event is a track meet. A quarter-mile oval is laid out on the Green for distance events, dashes, hurdles, a wheelbarrow race, a sack race, and a three-legged race.

1888

The Green's first bonfire celebrates a baseball victory.

1906

The Trustees vote a name change. The site known as "the campus" officially becomes "the College Green."

1938

The Great Hurricane destroys many of the Green's elms. Survivors eventually succumb to Dutch elm disease.

1970

Half the student body assembles on the Green to discuss "Strike Week" at Dartmouth.

1980

After spending $ 10,000 to regrade and returf the Green, the grounds department rules that the Greek chariot races and Woodsmen Weekend can no longer be held there.

1985

Students protesting the College's investments in South Africa build symbolic shanties on the Green.

1987

The world's largest snowman, 37 and a half feet tall, makes the Green his home during Winter Carnival.

1996

Students clash with administrators over holding the Pow Wow on the Green. Only Dartmouth Night, Winter Carnival, Green Key, Summer Carnival, and a woodchopping demonstration belong on the Green, says Parkhurst. The Pow Wow moves to Thompson Arena, and a committee studies which events are appropriate for the Green.

The Green's central location makes it ideaLfor play or protest.