The Student Assembly voted last week to establish a Social Space Task Force to explore converting the Hovey Grill, the currently vacant area in the basement of Thayer Dining Hall, into "a new space tailored to the needs of the campus" -- but history has shown similar plans have failed for numerous reasons.
With the Assembly's endorsement, the Task Force will canvass students through Hinman Boxes within the next two weeks to garner student opinion regarding possible functions. The space has been virtually unused except for storage since 1994.
The Hovey Grill's walls are covered with controversial paintings that depict the College's founder, Eleazar Wheelock, with intoxicated, naked Native Americans. The walls have been covered with removable panels since 1983.
Within recent years, several unsuccessful proposals have attempted to convert the large centrally located space into a vending arcade or art gallery.
"We did intensive research on the space with facilities management, the administration, and the Hood Museum, and it's a very feasible conversion, and not really all that daunting a task," Chair of the Social Space Task Force and Assembly member Tom Leatherbee '01 told The Dartmouth.
Present obstacles include ascertaining student ideas for the space, financial support from the administration and renovations to render the space handicap and safety compliant.
The Task Force will discuss the fate of the murals with the appropriate administrators, although one possibility is to leave them covered, Leatherbee said.
The Grill has remained vacant since 1994, when the Lone Pine Tavern was built to serve a similar function in a different location. In 1996, Dartmouth Dining Services proposed creating a 24-hour vending lounge in the space, however, a year later the project failed due to a lack of funding.
The College's Facilities Committee balked at subsidizing the project in part to fix antiquated safety features such as fire sprinklers, ventilation systems, and lack of copper lighting.
A 1998 DDS estimate reported at least $75,000 would be needed to update the space to comply with code guidelines. This cost, however, would not include expenses to transform the space to an eatery or dance club.
Another obstacle to social use of the space is how to handle the Hovey Murals, which are now under the auspices of the Hood Museum.
The murals illustrate the song lyrics to "Eleazar Wheelock," composed by Richard Hovey of the Class of 1885, that mention "500 gallons of New England rum." While the murals are today deemed politically incorrect, they were constructed in the 1930s by Walter Humphrey '14.
In 1993, the Hood Museum planned to make the space a gallery to display the murals, however, it was abandoned because of the costly renovations expenses.
Native American Program Director Michael Hanitchak told the Dartmouth in 1997 that even though the murals were "distinctly racist and sexist," they still have a place in art history.
