Walton Hall

Walton Hall is, perhaps, the most iconic building on Eastern's St. David's campus. Built in 1912-13, this 40,355 square footage building comprised of three levels was once the private residence of Charles S. Walton Sr. and his family. The property was purchased by Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary on April 17, 1951 to become the new headquarters for their collegiate department for $171,500. Eastern Baptist College started classes at the St. David's campus on September 13, 1952. Several extensions have been added over the years, including a Dining Hall in 1961 and a new entryway and attached coffee shop in 1979. It now serves as the main hub of campus life, becoming the location of various departments including Student Development, Career Services, Campus Housing, and the Office of Faith & Practice.

The earliest records regarding the land where Walton Hall would one day stand can be traced as far back as 1681, when William Penn purchased the land from local Lenni-Lenape Native American leaders who had lived in the area for over 700 years. In 1858, Jason L. Fenimore – namesake of nearby Fenimore Road – purchased the area where the St. David's campus resides. At one point during the 1870s, a six-hole golf course was installed over part of the future campus, said to have been the second golf course built in the country. However, the history of the location would forever be changed when Charles S. Walton Sr. purchased 42 acres of the land from Fenimore in 1911. 

Born on April 16, 1892 in Philadelphia, Charles S. Walton Sr. was a seventh generation Quaker who then became a Baptist. He grew up in Haddonfield, NJ, which led to his nickname at University of Pennsylvania to become "Jersey." When he graduated with a mining engineering degree in 1882, the original plan was to go to Colorado and take advantage of the booming mining market for silver, gold, and lead. Instead, he met, fell in love, and married Martha E. Walton in 1887, joining his father-in-law's leather and tanning business and eventually becoming president of the company. A heart seizure in 1910 forced him to spend "less time at office, more time in pursuit of pleasure," and so he bought the 42 acres that would become the Walmarthon estate. 

As "a euphonious rearrangement of his wife's name," Walmarthon was described in local newspapers as a "sweeping mass of stone," with 18-inch-thick walls and most of its stonework imported from Italy, along with the rough tile and marble columns of the interior stairwell. Charles Walton Sr. made many of the decisions regarding the look of the building, but its architect was David Knickerbacker Boyd, a family friend of the Waltons who also designed Wayne's Central Baptist Church and Radnor High School. The Waltons vacationed in Southern California near the Redlands and wanted their Pennsylvanian house to be reminiscent of their vacation home. Thus they commissioned Boyd to create an estate inspired by the old Mission style of California with Sicilian pergolas and gardens, including landscaping designed by Sears and Wendell. 

At the time of its completion, the Walmarthon estate boasted all of the necessary conveniences for the "modern home of spacious dimensions" for the age. Each room in the estate claimed individuality: stucco dotted the great hall (now the main entrance to Walton Hall), exotic plants and fruits were grown in the conservatory (now the entrance to the Dining Hall), and marble decorated the rotunda (now the entryway to the Office of Faith & Practice). In the end, the estate had 55 rooms, 5 gables, 5 lavatories, and 8 baths. 

Other major locations within the estate included the living room, the library, and the billiard room. The living room stood where the lobby outside the Dining Hall now stands. Over the fireplace hangs the coat of arms from Walton Sr.'s mother's family, the Spittalls, proudly displaying In Deo est omnis mea fide (In God is all my faith) – in front of which his daughter would later be married on May 20, 1916. Opposite of the living room was the rotunda where his wife Martha would entertain her friends for tea. Charles Walton Sr.'s library was given an English Gothic look with natural mahogany woodwork. This room was later named the John A. Baird Jr. Library on November 12, 1998. Baird was a founding trustee of Eastern Baptist College and had married Virginia Walton, Charles Walton Sr.'s granddaughter who had been born in the Gatehouse of Walmarthon (the officiant at their wedding was Dr. Gordon Palmer, then-president and future namesake of Palmer Theological Seminary!). Their billiard room was later converted into the Prayer Chapel in 1971, described at the time as "masculine, medieval and modern." 

Charles Walton Sr. and his wife Martha were well-known in the community for their charity fetes and fundraising efforts. They contributed to the causes of the Radnor Board of Education, the Central Baptist Church of Wayne, and the Wayne Chapter of the Red Cross, and even helped found the Wayne Neighborhood League. "Cultured, well-educated, and traveled people," both Charles Sr. and Martha entertained everyone from missionaries and pastors to senators and educators… while at the same time welcoming children to swim in the boating lake during the summertime, or inviting an elevator boy who needed a good meal to a dinner in their home. They also employed over 15 servants to help manage the estate, offering the going wage at the time plus room and board: key figures on the Walmarthon staff included Sara Hardesty as the housekeeper, Antonio Falcone as the Italian chauffeur, and Billy Huston as the half-Cherokee life guard who would row a boat over the swimming lake as he "could not swim a stroke." 

However, the lively household would be hit with a tragedy early in its life: Charles Walton Sr. died on December 26, 1916 after having a stroke on Christmas night. The estate was then run by Martha who continued hosting charity events and raising their four children (who, in turn, raised their own families on or near the property). Two years after Walton Sr.'s death, a nineteen-minute silent film titled Oh! Johnny! was filmed on location by the Betzwood Film Company, and for a time, the Walmarthon estate regained normalcy. This changed again on November 22, 1931 when a wheelchair-bound Martha Walton passed away, having included her children, grandchildren, key servants including Hardesty and Falcone, and various charities in her will. The Walmarthon estate then remained closed until 1942, when it was used by the Army Air Force during World War II to occupy 800 soldiers – and ten years later, it was purchased by Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary as the future home of their collegiate department. 

The original use of Walton Hall in the 1950s was massively different than now. Without McInnis Learning Center or Warner Memorial Library, classes were held on the third floor of Walton with faculty offices in the bathrooms on the same floor, and the library was in Charles Walton Sr.'s study. The Dining Hall as we know it was not built until 1961, so students ate in Walton 3 during the 1950s. Chapel was even held in the current Dining Hall lobby, often spilling out into the patio. All of these locations eventually underwent changes as additions were added. After McInnis was built in 1972, the third floor of Walton became home to various academic departments and student organizations. Walton 3 went from a student dining hall to a faculty dining room and even was once a president's office. 

In memory of the original inhabitants of the estate, a set of carillon bells was added to Walton Hall in 1964. Three of Walton Sr.'s children – Thomas Walton, Martha Wiedersheim, and Charles Walton Jr. – donated $10,000 to have the set of electronic bells installed by the Schlumerich Carillons of Sellersville, PA into the Walton Hall tower. The set included loudspeakers and a console that would strike each hour from 7:00 AM to midnight, playing a set of twenty-five different hymns twice a day all throughout the morning and evening. This went on until the 1990s when the bells were turned off; perhaps one day, they will be heard again… 

While the university has expanded its usage of the estate in the years since its purchase, the exterior of the mansion has remained relatively intact. One exception was in 1979, when an extended entrance was built over the Walton's circular drive at the front of the house and Martha's rose garden, now comprising the Lower Walton Lounge and coffee shop respectively. The extension was designed by Walter Thaete who also completed the glassed-in entry way outside Walton 3. 

Of course, as an administrative building, Walton Hall has its share of familiar faces who come with their own stories. One, who has seemingly been present since the 1960s is the supposed ghost of little Suzy Walton. Formally named Suzanne Walton was a real person. She was the granddaughter of Charles Walton Sr. who suffered from lupus. While she had access to some of the best medical care available at the time, she did pass away shortly before Christmas in 1929 at age seven. Despite not passing at the Walton Estate, Suzy is rumored to haunt the fourth floor.   

The haunting often looks different depending on who is telling the story. There are those who may not know better, or simply have a flair for the dramatic that retell Suzy’s death as the result of foul play. In these stories, Suzy is cast as a tormented spirit who is dangerous to anyone who may encounter her. Those who acknowledge Suzy as a young girl, who spent much of her short life sick, describe her presence as the “pattering of little feet."   

“I have often felt as if someone about waist-high was walking next to me at Walton,” a student told author Charles J. Adams in 2001. “It’s not easy to describe the feeling, and it’s not what I thought a classical ‘ghost’, but I have just felt that someone was there with me. I felt as if it was a little girl, and that she was trying to get my attention. Sometimes I even caught myself looking over and down, as if I might catch a glimpse of her.”

Walton Hall continues to serve the university community in many formats: as a gathering place, as an architectural marvel, and as an academic center at the heart of a campus.

Adams, C. J. (2001). "Suzy, The Ghost Of Eastern College." Ghost Stories Of Chester County and the Brandywine Valley (pp. 54–59). Exeter House Books.

Baird, John. (1984). Great House. Eastern College.

The Bulletin of the Radnor Historical Society, V. VI, No. 8, 1998.

Cooper, B. (1979). "The Legend Of Suzie Walton." The Spotlight, pp. 1.

Creutzburg, C. (1989). "Three great Wayne estates." The Suburban and Wayne Times, December 7, 1989.

"The Films - Betzwood." Library of Montgomery County Community College. https://library.mc3.edu/betzwood/now-showing.

"A history of the property of the college campus." (October 1970.)

Molitor-LaRouche, J. (1983). "The Waltons of 'Walmarthon'," by Jeanne Molitor-LaRouche. Main Line Times, March 31, 1983.

Priest, D. (2000). "A Brief History of the Eastern College campus."

Rogers, J. (2002). "The Ghost Of Suzanne Walton." Spirit , 7.

"Virginia Walton Bride in Church." The New York Times. March 9, 1941. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/03/09/85458928.html?pageNumber=88.

"Walmarthon: Inside Mr. Walton's Dream House." (2023) This House. YouTube. November 7, 2023. https://youtu.be/ioR7qp3-FtA?si=jr8kGn6dCRUPCtSL.

Walton, Charles S., Jr. "History of the Area Around the Campus of Eastern College." (original 1967, reissued 1980).

Walton Hall folders in Eastern University archives.