Dartmouth College is the principal resident of attractive little Hanover (pop. 9,212), and the Ivy League influence shows in the local architecture, fashions, and cultural diversions. When school is in session, the cafés hum with undergraduate discourse, the downtown teems with students, and a varsity air envelops the historic campus and its sturdy neighbors. Between terms, however, the town’s metabolism drops toward hibernation levels, which means there’s no line for espresso.
Standing out from all the Georgian-style brick buildings is Dartmouth’s Hood Museum of Art (closed Mon.; free; 603/646-2808), on the southeast side of the Green. Housed in a modern gallery designed in part by Charles Moore, the Hood shows a changing selection from its permanent collection, but mainly hosts visiting exhibitions.
More contentious art can be experienced at the very center of Dartmouth where, in the lower level reading room of Baker Library, the walls are covered with a set of politically-charged frescoes by José Clemente Orozco: “An Epic of American Civilization.”
If it’s too nice a day to stay indoors and contemplate society’s ills, rent a bike and ride north to Lyme and back, or borrow a canoe or kayak from Dartmouth’s Ledyard Canoe Club ($5/hour; 603/643-6709), located on the river just north of the Route 10A bridge, and play Huck Finn for an afternoon. Or you can take a hike: the Dartmouth Outing Club maintains hundreds of miles of trails, including a part of the Appalachian Trail that runs right through town. There’s an AT marker embedded in the sidewalk in front of the Hanover Inn, from where the trail runs west across the bridge to Vermont, and east down Main and Lebanon streets to the town of Etna, before climbing the 2,280-foot peak of Moose Mountain.
