The Green (Dartmouth College) - History

History

The land on which the Green sits was originally a pine forest, with some trees reaching the height of 270 feet (82 m), high enough to block out the sun. The process of clearing the pines was begun in 1770 by the newly founded Dartmouth College. The village plan of Hanover was laid out the following year and included as its central feature an open square of 7.5 acres (3 ha) (three hectares). Even though the land had been cleared, many tree stumps remained until 1831; for a long period, it was a Dartmouth tradition for the graduating class to remove one stump.

The Green was not maintained at first; after being cleared, it was unkempt and ragged, sloping sharply towards a swamp in the southwest corner. As early as 1807, the College was debating as to the future of the plot, considering using it for a variety of purposes. In 1828, the Board of Trustees finally voted to plow, seed, level, and fence the area. Lack of funding would delay this plan from being carried out immediately; the Green was leveled in 1831 and finally fenced in 1836. The main road from Hanover to the northward Lyme, New Hampshire had previously led diagonally across the Green, and due to the new fences, had to be diverted around it.

One of the Green's earliest uses was as a pasture for cattle belonging to the residents of the town. Dartmouth students resented this use, and in the early 19th century herded all the cattle into the basement of Dartmouth Hall as a protest. The fence constructed during the 1836 renovations was in part a response to this action, and was meant to keep animals out.

In 1824, a Hanover ordinance permitted "the playing at ball or any game in which ball is used on the public common in front of Dartmouth College," confirming the Green's ongoing use as an athletic field. Cricket was among the games regularly played on the Green in the 18th century, and old division football was played by the 1820s. Dartmouth's first intercollegiate matches in baseball (1866), track and field (1875), football (1881), and tennis (1884) took place there. The College built its first gymnasium (Bissell Gymnasium) on the southeast corner of the Green in 1866-67.

In April 1873, the Town of Hanover seized part of the southeast corner of the green to align East and West Wheelock Streets; the town moved the fence thirty feet to the north of its original position. Dartmouth students protested by tearing down and burning the rebuilt fence; the town responded by threatening to reopen Main Street on its previous route from the Green's southwest corner across to the northeast. In an effort to quickly replace the fence and prevent the road from being reopened, College President Asa Dodge Smith convinced students to pay for the new fence. In 1893, when the fence's original purpose of keeping out livestock was no longer needed, the College decided to tear it down, to much student and alumni outcry. The class of 1893 restored and sponsored part of the fence as a "senior fence," and today the Senior Fence runs along the parts of the southern and western borders closest to the southwest corner. Only senior students were allowed to sit on it, and underclassmen in violation of this policy were soaked in a nearby watering trough.

In 1906, the Board of Trustees voted to officially name the space "the College Green," although at the time the space also went by names such as "the College Square," "the Common," and "the Campus." Aside from minor changes in furnishing, vegetation, and crosspaths, the Green has remained largely unchanged since being cleared.