1897

A letter was received from Frank Johnson telling of his plans to return to Puerto Rico for the winter and also about his two grandchildren graduating from schools. He writes that Bolser has returned to Puerto Rico for the winter and will be with the same people he stayed with last year.

A letter came from John Henderson telling of his expectations to retire, perhaps in the spring.

Sport Morse spent some time at the Hanover Inn during the last of the summer. I spent two days in Hanover in November and had a chance to see a lot of boys very closely and also had a chance to see the model of the college buildings all on a table like a platform. These models were made of wood and painted to look like the buildings. This model is in Bissell Hall.

While at Hanover I went over the largescale model of the new dormitories which are proposed to be built on the Clark School property. This area was recently acquired by the College. These true color models show better than drawings what is proposed. The style of the design is called contemporary architecture. The dormitories' full size room arrangement with furniture is one of the best examples of lay-out study for a building that I have seen. One of these units has a single room and bath for one student, the other unit two rooms and bath for two students. How far from traditional architecture the college should go, I feel is very important and will be a subject of criticism with strong feelings expressed.

I also had a short visit at the Thayer School to see its very large increased activity with ten times as many students as in our day. I was very much interested in the statement that the graduates are finding jobs at about $3600 a year to start which is three and a half times what I got when I graduated with my $20.00 a week start.

The stores and shops on Hanover's Main Street looked busy and showed attractive merchandise with just a start of the Christmas display. I was happy to see that the old "Tin Covered Tavern" building at Main and South Streets has been eliminated. This will help parking needs a good deal. That was one of the slums of Hanover that has been eliminated. Hamp Howe's old horse barn, the old empty coffin shop and one long, vacant, small, old house in ruins still stand on the valuable area in the block bounded by Main, Allen, School and Wheelock Streets. This interior land has high potential value and should be carefully studied for urgent parking needs and other profitable land coverage.

While lunching at the Coffee Shop I talked with a well known architect about the stores across the street and our discussions simply stated were these: the brick walls of these buildings are good and if they were cleaned and properly treated they would have a long life. The fenestration in these buildings is bad, the supporting cast iron columns look skinny, with one exception which is the small lunchroom just south of the book store which has already installed attractive windows, with small window panes about 12 x 16 instead of plate glass and using interesting window trim. This small sample of remodeling is a start in the right direction. Then the architect and I talked about the second and third stories of these buildings, especially the windows which have two light (panes) of glass ('one over one' we call this). I call them chicken-house windows. If the whole block had every window in the second and third stories with three over three lights, if their shutters were like Dartmouth Hall's and the store fronts were as good as the Campion & Lang buildings and the small lunchroom next to the bookstore, this side of Main Street would become an esthetic asset to the college.

I want to tell about my own experience with fenestration. I bought a 100-year-old house which had fine details, influenced by the Adams period, especially the fireplaces-four of them, two having especially fine mantels. All original windows were well designed and in the front of the house the first story windows had 12 over 16 lights. A previous owner had changed the windows to become 12 over 1, using plate glass in the lower sashes. Something over forty windows in the house had been altered using plate glass for the lower sash. I took out these sashes and cut the plate glass up into small panes. My feeling is that I doubled the value of the house. The tax assessor thought the same and increased my taxes. I think the big plate glass on Main St. could be cut up into small panes and with properly moulded muntin division bars be a very inexpensive method of bring ing about the architectural feeling that is lacking in plate glass for stores. A large amount of this kind of restoration is being done all over America and I look forward to Main Street in Hanover catching the spark.

Secretary, Treasurer and BequestChairman, 114 State St., Bridgeport 3, Conn.

Class Agent, 862 Park Square Building Boston 16, Mass.