Hanover history: How a loom house became Indiana's oldest private college

With Hanover College Homecoming coming up this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23 and 24, it's a good week to look back at where the college started, a few steps from a house that still stands on Crowe Street. The Rev. John Finley Crowe came to Hanover in 1823 as pastor of Hanover Presbyterian Church. A year later he built a two-room cabin, and by the time he died in 1860 it had grown into a two-story, ten-room home. Today it's known as the Crowe-Garritt House, at 172 Crowe Street. On January 1, 1827, Crowe opened a school in a small loom house a few feet from his home. The college's catalog says two students met him there that first day, while Crowe's own account, printed in the college's first catalogue in 1833, counts six. Either way, it was a humble start. The school grew quickly. The Madison Presbytery took it under its care as Hanover Academy in 1828, the state granted a charter effective February 26, 1829, and a new charter created Hanover College effective January 1, 1833. Classes centered on the College Edifice, built in 1832 and now Hanover Presbyterian Church, until 1857, when the college moved half a mile east to its present spot overlooking the Ohio Valley. Crowe's family stayed tied to the college for generations. His son-in-law, Joshua Bolles Garritt, taught Greek and Latin there for 50 years, and Garritt's daughter, Leila, served as the college librarian. When Hanover marked its centennial in 1927, a bronze marker was dedicated on the spot where that first school met, on land belonging to the house. Hanover is the oldest private college in Indiana, and this New Year's Day will mark 200 years since that first class. If you're in town for Homecoming, the house is worth a look from the street. Homecoming details: https://aroundmadison.com/events/hanover-college-homecoming-2026 Sources: Hanover College 2024–25 Catalog https://www.hanover.edu/docs/courses/24-25Catalog.pdf ; Crowe-Garritt House National Register nomination (National Park Service) https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/f6eec599-cc05-4e87-b0dd-b5858d19b7c7 ; Hanover College history archive, "John Finley Crowe" https://history.hanover.edu/texts/millis/millis2.html Photo: Crowe-Garritt House by Nyttend, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.