The Council of Independent Colleges: Historic Campus Architecture Project

River's Edge Apartments

Click on image titles for larger views.

River's Edge Apartments (ca. 1929), Bryan College

River's Edge Apartments (distant view), Bryan College

Institution Name: Bryan College
Original/Historic Place Name: Cedar Hill
Location on Campus: 123 Chickamauga Dr., Dayton TN
Date(s) of Construction:

1929	original construction

Designer: unknown
Type of Place: Individual building
Style: Greek revival (Glossary)
Significance: culture, education, history, religion
Narrative: see below
References: see below

Materials:

Foundation: concrete

Walls: brick

Roof: metal

Function:

ca. 1929	infirmary (not owned by college, but is a hospital)
1932-1938	dining hall (and kitchen)
1932-1938	residence hall (women's dormitory)
1938-1946	other (not owned by college, owned and operated as a tourist home)
1967-1984	residence hall (married student housing, then women's dormitory)
ca. 2004-present (2006)	other (not owned by college, used as apartments)

Narrative:
Cedar Hill is the oldest complete building still in existence that was at various times owned or leased by Bryan College (for 24 years). From 1932-1938 it was leased by Bryan University and used as a women's dormitory and the college dining hall and kitchen. During the thirties, students living at Cedar Hill had to walk back and forth to the main campus, but the college later provided a shuttle bus. From 1967-1984 Bryan College owned the building and used it first for married students and then as a women's dormitory. In 1979 the Tennessee Historical Committee erected a historical roadside marker about Bryan College and placed it at the edge of the Cedar Hill property.

Cedar Hill was originally built in 1929 by Dr. Walter Agnew Thomison and some local businessmen as Dayton's first hospital. It had the first elevator in Rhea County. Dr. Thomison was a graduate of Vanderbilt Medical School and had a fellowship in surgery at the Mayo Clinic. He was the surgeon for the Southern Railway System, and in 1943 he became the first in that part of the state to administer penicillin. From 1938-1946 Cedar Hill was owned and operated as a tourist home by Scopes Trial juror Jess Goodrich, who was the last of the trial jurors to die.

As the two photos show, the main exterior architectural change in the original building was the removal of the second floor veranda and the painting of the brick columns.

References: