Here's this week's jigsaw puzzle:
With the current Hopkins Center construction in Hanover, it's interesting to compare what that block looked like sometime in the 1950s before the Hop opened in 1962.
The building in the left background is Bissell Hall. Built in 1867 as Dartmouth's gymnasium, it housed the Thayer School of Engineering in the 1920s. It was sited in what became the open area in front of the Hop. It was destroyed to make way for the Hop.
To its left, you can see South College Street in its final years before it, too, was closed. In those days, you could drive east past the Hanover Inn, and turn right between Bissell Hall and Wilson Hall. The street came out on Lebanon Street, near the current Black Family Visual Arts Center. It is now a walkway between the Hop and the Hood Museum.
Note also the treeless hills south of town, contrasting with the many trees around the Green. The traffic pattern and parking areas were much different as well.
This 1928 Map of Hanover will reveal many interesting details.
Cameron Cross