Dartmouth College campus tour: the Green, Baker Library and Hanover

Founded in 1769, Dartmouth College is one of the nine colleges that predate American independence and a member of the Ivy League. It is also the most rural of that group: the campus fills much of Hanover, a small New Hampshire town on the Connecticut River, with Vermont on the opposite bank and wooded hills in every direction. This guide walks through the landmarks around the Green, explains what the setting means for student life, and covers how to reach a place that is further from a big city than most well-known campuses.

The shape of the campus

Almost everything is arranged around the Green, a large open lawn crossed by diagonal footpaths. Learn its four sides and you know the campus:

East: Dartmouth Row, a line of white buildings on a low rise.
North: Baker Library and its tower.
South: the Hopkins Center for the Arts and the town's inn.
West: the student centre and administration buildings, with the business and engineering schools further west, above the river.

Hanover's Main Street begins at the south-west corner.

Dartmouth Hall and Dartmouth Row

Dartmouth Hall, white with a green-capped cupola, is the picture on most Dartmouth postcards. The building you see was completed in 1906 after a fire destroyed the eighteenth-century original two years earlier, and it was rebuilt to look much the same, in brick rather than wood. With its neighbours it forms Dartmouth Row, the oldest part of campus.

Baker Library and the Orozco murals

On the north side of the Green, Baker Library opened in 1928. Its white tower was inspired by Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and its bells mark the hours across campus. The newer Berry Library is attached behind, and students usually refer to the pair as Baker-Berry.

The reason to step inside is on the lower level. Between 1932 and 1934 the Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco covered the walls of a long reading room with The Epic of American Civilization, a cycle of murals that runs from the ancient Americas to the industrial age. It is one of the most important works of art on any American campus, and students still study at the tables beneath it.

The Hopkins Center and the Hood Museum

Across the Green, the Hopkins Center for the Arts, known as the Hop, has been the college's home for concerts, plays and films since the early 1960s. Its row of tall arched windows will look familiar to anyone who knows the opera house at Lincoln Center in New York: the two share an architect. Next to it, the Hood Museum of Art is the college's teaching museum, with collections ranging from ancient Assyrian reliefs to contemporary work.

Tuck, Thayer and the medical school

Dartmouth calls itself a college, but it has three long-established professional schools. The Tuck School of Business, founded in 1900, and the Thayer School of Engineering, founded in 1867, share the west end of campus on the bluff above the river. The medical school dates from 1797, which makes it one of the oldest in the country.

Living and studying here

Dartmouth runs a year-round calendar of four terms, known as the D-Plan. Students choose which terms to spend on campus and which to spend on study abroad or work placements, and most stay in Hanover for the summer after their second year. Most undergraduates live in college housing, and everyday life revolves around the student centre and the main dining hall, both just off the west side of the Green.

The outdoors on the doorstep

The setting is a large part of the appeal. The Dartmouth Outing Club, founded in 1909, is the oldest college outing club in the country and looks after cabins and many miles of trail. The Appalachian Trail runs right through Hanover, along the pavements of Main Street and across the bridge into Vermont. The college has its own ski area a short drive north, and a canoe club on the Connecticut River just below campus.

Traditions and the town

Two traditions define the calendar. At Homecoming each autumn, a towering bonfire is lit in the middle of the Green. In February, Winter Carnival celebrates the cold with races, events and a snow sculpture. Dartmouth's teams, known as the Big Green, play football at Memorial Field on the south-east side of campus.

Hanover itself is small and tidy. Main Street has cafés, restaurants, a cinema and independent shops, and that is more or less the whole town centre.

Arranging a visit

Like most colleges, Dartmouth typically offers campus tours and admissions presentations for prospective students, and the Green and the paths around it are open to walk on your own. Schedules vary with the academic calendar, so check the college's official visitor page for what is currently available.

Getting there and around

By car: allow roughly two to two and a half hours from Boston, more in winter weather.
By coach: regular coach services link Hanover with Boston and its airport, and with New York.
By train: the nearest station is at White River Junction, Vermont, a short drive away, with limited long-distance services.
By air: a small regional airport at Lebanon is closest; most visitors fly into Boston or Manchester, New Hampshire.

Areas families usually choose

Hanover: a handful of hotels and inns within walking distance of the Green; the most convenient, and the first to fill.
Lebanon and West Lebanon: a wider choice of mid-range hotels, ten to fifteen minutes away by car.
White River Junction and Norwich, Vermont: just across the river, with small inns and a few larger hotels.

Rooms across the region are scarce during autumn foliage season, Homecoming and graduation, so reserve early for those dates.

Combining Dartmouth with other campuses

Most families pair Hanover with Boston. Our Harvard campus tour and MIT campus tour cover the two universities in Cambridge, and the Brown University campus tour covers Providence, an hour beyond Boston.

Tips for a smoother day

Start at Dartmouth Hall, cross the Green to Baker Library for the murals, then loop past the Hop and finish on Main Street.
Dress for the season: winters are properly cold and snowy, and paths can be icy.
Check the college's visitor page again shortly before you travel, as arrangements change.

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Cover photo: Gunnar Klack, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons