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About the Town of Hanover

Hanover is located on the western side of New Hampshire in the scenic Upper Connecticut River Valley. The river forms the border between Vermont and New Hampshire.

The Town has a population of 10,850* and is the home of Dartmouth College, which was established in 1769. The Town charter was granted in 1761 and the first permanent settlers arrived from Connecticut in 1765. Today the most populated area of Town is near the river and the College. The more rural sections of Town are Hanover Center and Etna. The elevation is approximately 603 feet. See below for a brief history of Hanover, prepared by the League of Women Voters of the Upper Valley.

Located near Interstates 89 and 91, Hanover is 2 hours from Boston, 3 hours from Montreal, and 5 hours from New York City. Follow the links for a Hanover Map.  Go to the Hanover Maps page for links to other maps on this website.

For detailed information about Hanover and other NH towns see the New Hampshire Community Profiles. The Community Profile includes data on climate and demographics.

See the Congressional Representatives page on this site for information on contacting state and federal representatives.

The League of Women Voters' Hanover Citizens Guide explains both Town and school government and has information for voters. The Dresden School District educates students from Hanover and Norwich, VT in grades 7 - 12. The Dresden District includes the Richmond Middle School and the Hanover High School. The Ray School in Hanover and the Marion Cross School in Norwich are the elementary schools in the respective towns.

Hanover has two "sister cities": Joigny, France and Nihonmatsu, Japan.

See the Community Links page in this site for links to local organizations and institutions.

What's the weather here?  Go to:  National Weather Service forcasts for the Hanover area.

*2000 US Census includes resident students at Dartmouth College.

In 1761, the town of Hanover was granted a charter by the Royal Governor of New Hampshire in response to a petition from about 65 colonists in Connecticut. The grant was for land about seven miles square, divided into 68 shares, randomly divided among the proprietors. "Hannover," as it was spelled on the original charter, was named either after a local parish in Connecticut or after the House of Hannover, in honor of the reigning English king, George III.

The first settlers arrived in 1765, mostly locating in east Hanover (now Hanover Center), where Town Meeting was held for the first 77 years of Hanover's existence. As the town grew, new mills attracted more settlers, and Mill Village (now Etna village) became the center of town affairs, where Town Meeting was held for the next 78 years until moving to what we now think of as Hanover in 1922. (In New Hampshire, settlements called "villages" may exist within the formal geographic boundaries of a chartered "town.")

Hanover has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with her sister town across the Connecticut River: Norwich, Vermont.

From 1778-84, Hanover and a number of towns in Grafton County seceeded from New Hampshire. They flirted briefly with the idea of forming a separate state together with a group of Vermont towns--"New Connecticut" would have been the name and Dresden, the corner of Hanover where Dartmouth is located, would have become the capital. However, they settled on union with Vermont as a more practical way in which to assure association with their friends across the river. They were admitted to the state of Vermont in 1778. After much conflict, they finally dissolved ties with Vermont, and, in 1784, joined the New Hampshire state legislature.

From 1847-1959, Hanover and Norwich shared the Lewiston Train Station, located on the Norwich side of the river. For over a century, new arrivals to Hanover detrained in Lewiston.

In 1859, the Ledyard Free Bridge was built connecting Hanover and Norwich--the first, and for many years the only, non-toll bridge over the Connecticut River. The Ledyard Bridge has been rebuilt four times because one collapsed, one burned, one deteriorated, and one was condemned; the current bridge was completed in 1999. The bridge is named after John Ledyard, a drop-out and adventurer from one of Dartmouth's earliest classes.

Since 1963, Hanover and Norwich have been united as the Dresden School District, the first interstate school district in the United States. 

Dartmouth College provided the greatest single stimulus to the economic and cultural development of the town.

In 1769, the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock moved his Indian Charity School from Connecticut and directed his attention not only to the education of Indians but to English youth as well. The College Charter brought into being the college named in honor of its principal English benefactor, Lord Dartmouth. Samson Occom-a Mohegan Indian who was Wheelock's student and a respected preacher--spent a year in England successfully raising funds for Indian education. Wheelock, however, used these funds to educate English youth; only a handful of Indians graduated from Dartmouth during its first 200 years.

In 1818, Daniel Webster, Dartmouth's most celebrated alumnus, successfully argued the Dartmouth College Case before the Supreme Court, uttering the famous words "It is, sir, as I have said, a small college, and yet there are those who love it." The case denied the right of a state legislature to alter the charter of a private college without its consent. The ruling also came to be applied to corporations, thereby protecting them from undue legislative interference--or, as some would say, allowing them to act against the public interest. Webster Cottage on North Main Street, where Webster is said to have roomed as a student, is maintained by the Hanover Historical Society and open to the public.

Dartmouth's three graduate professional schools were established one in each century. In 1797, Dr. Nathan Smith founded the Dartmouth Medical School, the fourth oldest in the country. In 1871, Sylvanus Thayer, known as the "Father of West Point Military Academy," founded the Thayer School of Engineering. In 1900, Edward Tuck founded the Amos Tuck School of Business, the first in the world, and named it in honor of his father, Amos Tuck, one of the founders of the Republican party.

In 1972, Dartmouth became coeducational. Today, about 50% of the undergraduate students are women.

Dartmouth College now enrolls about 4000 undergraduates and 1000 graduate students.

In 1893, Mary Hitchcock Hospital was founded by Hiram Hitchcock as a memorial to his wife. The first hospital, located in the yellow brick buildings near the corner of Maynard Street and Rope Ferry Road, had 36 beds and three doctors.

The Hitchcock Hospital was home to important historical "firsts": the first diagnostic x-ray in 1896 and the first intensive care unit in 1955.

Today, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center--including the Hitchcock Clinic, Dartmouth Medical School, and the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital-- is one of New England's premier health-care institutions and one of the few academic medical centers in a rural setting. The award-winning facility, located off Route 120 in Lebanon, has about 400 beds and 350 doctors.

Barrett, Frank. Hanover, New Hamphire, volumes I and II. Collections of captioned photos.

Chase, Frederick. A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, N.H.. to 1815.

Childs, Francis (ed.). Hanover Bicentennial Book. A collection of essays.

Graham, Robert. The Dartmouth Story .

Hanover Trails Committee. Maps of walking tours of natural areas and older Hanover homes-available at the Nugget Theater, the Hanover Inn, and Town Hall.

Lord, John. A History of the Town of Hanover.

Daniel Webster House. Open to the public, managed by the Historical Society.

Daniell, Jere. Dartmouth professor and lecturer extraordinaire on local history.