This past weekend, my husband, Jon, and I attended a wedding for one of his cousins at the Dartmouth Outing Clubhouse in Hanover NH. The Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) was established in 1909 “to stimulate interest in out-of-door winter sports”. In 1929, the clubhouse was built. The “club” actually encompasses a dozen or so member organizations all having to do with some outdoor pursuit. The clubhouse is a beautiful building on Occom Pond with stone pillars and ivy crawling up the sides. It is right across the street from another beautiful Dartmouth property, the Hanover Country Club.

Front of the clubhouse

Pondside of the clubhouse

Hanover Country Club

The upstairs of the clubhouse has a large main room with fireplaces on either side of the room. There are historic photos on all the walls which I loved. Dartmouth runs the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge as the base of Mt. Moosilauke and owns the Second College Grant which has trails and many rental cabins. I wrote about the lodge on Moosilauke here. Seeing photos from Moosilauke and some of the cabins from the 1940s, 50s, and so on was really amazing. The Dartmouth Outing Club has done so much historically for the White Mountains. It was men from Harvard and Dartmouth that were some of the earliest hikers up many of my favorite peaks. There are a couple rooms off of the main room as well as a kitchen.

Main Room

Main Room

Main Room

Photos in a side room

The man in the portrait is Sherman Adams, ’20. He accomplished a lot in his life including being a part of the founding of Cabin and Trail as a senior, which was the central club for the DOC and gifting land on Moosilauke for a cabin used for wilderness skiing. He had quite a political career as a congressman, governor of NH, and finally chief of staff for Dwight D. Eisenhower. Off the main room there is also a beautiful balcony that overlooks Occom Pond.

Downstairs is the rental center for outdoor gear like cross country skis. There is a terrace that goes out to the pond and that’s where the ceremony was held.  The terrace was the gift of the class of 1944.

Pondside of the clubhouse & terrace

Hanover NH was an adorable town that I definitely would like to spend more time in. Its sort of a funny town up there practically in Vermont, very secluded. You have to wonder if everyone in the town is somehow associated with the college and its various associates.

I love weddings and this was my only one this fall! It was great seeing a lot of Jon’s family and celebrating his cousin’s big day. Being a hiker and lover of New Hampshire/New England it was amazing getting to spend some time in the DOC House.