Residence Hall
Job Position
Board of Trustees
Preview
Creation Date
Spring 2024
Description
Rev. Walter Harriman was born in Ryegate, Vermont, in 1882. In 1908, he came to Ohio and entered Cedarville College, where he graduated in 1912. He then attended Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. After graduating from seminary, he served as pastor of the Presbyterian church in Fairview, Pennsylvania, for seven years before he returned to Cedarville in 1919 to serve the Presbyterian church here until 1931. He then went on to serve in a Dayton, Ohio, church until 1937. During this time, Cedarville College was looking to purchase a home to become its first women’s dormitory. In 1940, the Board of Trustees authorized the executive committee to purchase the “Pollock house” at the corner of Main and Chillicothe streets to serve as a dormitory. That first dormitory was opened in September 1940, and was named Harriman Hall in honor of Dr. Walter Harriman, an alumnus of Cedarville College and a former pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Cedarville; he was also serving on the Board of Trustees at the time of his death. During its first use as a dormitory, Mrs. Harriman herself was the housemother, her husband Dr. Harriman having died in 1939. Because of ill health, she served in that capacity for only one year. Harriman Hall, initially a dorm for women, has switched back and forth between serving women and men over all its years of use.
