PKT25: A History of The House
So, I pledged a fraternity. Before I go into what that was like, I want to cover a little history of the House. "The House" actually covers two different areas:
- It was a collective noun meaning "the active members of the fraternity", as in "the house voted to remodel the bathroom."
- It was the physical structure of our fraternity house, as in "I went back to the house after class."
At the time that I joined, the former definition included all the folks in Detour summary. This history necessarily covers both versions.
Phi Kappa Theta had been founded at the Case Institute of Technology in the fall semester of 1941. At the time, it was actually a chapter of Phi Kappa, a Catholic fraternity. In 1959 the national fraternity of Phi Kappa merged with the national fraternity of another Catholic fraternity, Theta Kappa Phi, resulting in Phi Kappa Theta. Our members are the Phi Kaps. Our chapter is the Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta.
Case Institute of Technology underwent a merger of its own with Western Reserve University in 1967 to form Case Western Reserve University. So I ended up attending a college that was a result of a merger and joining a fraternity that was the result of a merger.
So this leads to some items of interest.
- There was a strong oral tradition that our chapter was the only chapter of Phi Kappa to vote against the merger with Theta Kappa Phi. I've heard some vague stories about how we wear our fraternity pin somewhat differently from the other chapters because of that vote, but I no longer recall the details, and certainly we didn't take it terribly seriously. It was more a fun story to tell at national conventions.
- While I am told that there are chapters of Phi Kappa Theta that are VERY Catholic, to the point of having crucifixes on the wall of the chapter house, and that recruit almost exclusively among Catholic students, my chapter was not Catholic in the slightest. At one point in my undergraduate years I'm pretty sure we had more confirmed Jewish Atheists than Catholics, and I'm 100% certain that we had more people who had earned the Eagle Scout award as Boy Scouts than who were Catholics. The only tangible impact that this had on the chapter was that unique among Phi Kappa Theta chapters, when we did the fraternity yell we did not include the line "God and College".
- Yes, the chapter was founded the semester before Pearl Harbor. At our 75th anniversary in 2016 I was fortunate enough to meet one of those founding brothers of Phi Kap, who was a freshman that fall and has unsurprisingly since passed away in his mid-90s. When he said "life kind of got in the way" of his college experience he didn't mean "I failed a bunch of classes and had to drop out to work" like some people. He ended up graduating in 1947 or 48 as a I recall due to war service. Somehow, the chapter managed to survive that inauspicious timing, and has been on campus continuously ever since.
- At first, there was no physical house. At some point in the the late 1940s or early 1950s they rented (?) one for a while on Cornell Road. When I was in college the location was an empty field with a rock in it. I believe it is now the location of a newer Courtyard Marriott Hotel, but I could be wrong about that as the campus has changed over dramatically in the last 25 years and the empty field was only of historical interest to us. This address was coincidentally a couple of buildings over from my first solo apartment.
- As far as I can tell from auditor's records, the current house on Magnolia Drive was acquired in 1975. It's possible they bought it earlier and the 1/1/1975 transfer was moving it from one ownership structure to another (a similar transfer happened in 2007), but the auditor's site doesn't go back any farther than that. I will say that we definitely had composites and other items pre-dating 1975, but not very many of them. In any event, the purchase was driven (and some say largely funded) by a brother named Ernie Schmidt, who I never had the pleasure of meeting but who was commemorated by a plaque in the lobby. He passed away when I was an undergrad (or right after).
- In owning its own house and land, Phi Kappa Theta was nearly unique among the many Greek organizations at Case Western Reserve. Some owned a house that was built on land owned by the university. Others lived in houses that were essentially dorms. A few lived in houses that were owned by the university outright. To the best of my recollection, we were the only one who owned both the house and the land free and clear. This gave us an enormous advantage in that the university couldn't kick us off campus or keep us from making physical changes to the structure. We were officially student housing, which was a distinction necessary so our members could use student loans to pay rent. That allowed Case to have some have inspectors look at the house and a few other such things, but mostly we were on our own. To encourage brothers to live in the house, the rent was permanently set at 85% of the cost of a double room on the north side of campus, so it was always cheaper to live in the house than in the dorms.
And all that history brings us to the physical structure. It was built in 1935 (per the auditors site), which means it has housed Phi Kaps for more than half of its existence. The Phi Kappa Theta house is enormous, with a basement and three floors above it, plus a carriage house over a garage. The auditor's site says it has more than 6000 square feet of living space, and honestly that feels like it's a little low. Most of it is brick, although a few additions were built on over the years (possibly by PhiKaps, maybe prior) that were not. It is one of a row of mansion-sized houses from the days when Cleveland was the industrial center of America and Euclid Avenue was literally a millionaire's row of mansions. Those grand houses along Euclid have almost all long since been turn down, but the ones on Magnolia survive, albeit mostly not as single-family homes.
It's easy enough to pick out as you drive by, because our letters are present as giant letters that were lit up at night when we were having ritual or public events. When I was there, the last magnolia tree on Magnolia was out front. Next time, I'll take you inside.
- It was a collective noun meaning "the active members of the fraternity", as in "the house voted to remodel the bathroom."
- It was the physical structure of our fraternity house, as in "I went back to the house after class."
At the time that I joined, the former definition included all the folks in Detour summary. This history necessarily covers both versions.
Phi Kappa Theta had been founded at the Case Institute of Technology in the fall semester of 1941. At the time, it was actually a chapter of Phi Kappa, a Catholic fraternity. In 1959 the national fraternity of Phi Kappa merged with the national fraternity of another Catholic fraternity, Theta Kappa Phi, resulting in Phi Kappa Theta. Our members are the Phi Kaps. Our chapter is the Ohio Alpha Beta Chapter of Phi Kappa Theta.
Case Institute of Technology underwent a merger of its own with Western Reserve University in 1967 to form Case Western Reserve University. So I ended up attending a college that was a result of a merger and joining a fraternity that was the result of a merger.
So this leads to some items of interest.
- There was a strong oral tradition that our chapter was the only chapter of Phi Kappa to vote against the merger with Theta Kappa Phi. I've heard some vague stories about how we wear our fraternity pin somewhat differently from the other chapters because of that vote, but I no longer recall the details, and certainly we didn't take it terribly seriously. It was more a fun story to tell at national conventions.
- While I am told that there are chapters of Phi Kappa Theta that are VERY Catholic, to the point of having crucifixes on the wall of the chapter house, and that recruit almost exclusively among Catholic students, my chapter was not Catholic in the slightest. At one point in my undergraduate years I'm pretty sure we had more confirmed Jewish Atheists than Catholics, and I'm 100% certain that we had more people who had earned the Eagle Scout award as Boy Scouts than who were Catholics. The only tangible impact that this had on the chapter was that unique among Phi Kappa Theta chapters, when we did the fraternity yell we did not include the line "God and College".
- Yes, the chapter was founded the semester before Pearl Harbor. At our 75th anniversary in 2016 I was fortunate enough to meet one of those founding brothers of Phi Kap, who was a freshman that fall and has unsurprisingly since passed away in his mid-90s. When he said "life kind of got in the way" of his college experience he didn't mean "I failed a bunch of classes and had to drop out to work" like some people. He ended up graduating in 1947 or 48 as a I recall due to war service. Somehow, the chapter managed to survive that inauspicious timing, and has been on campus continuously ever since.
- At first, there was no physical house. At some point in the the late 1940s or early 1950s they rented (?) one for a while on Cornell Road. When I was in college the location was an empty field with a rock in it. I believe it is now the location of a newer Courtyard Marriott Hotel, but I could be wrong about that as the campus has changed over dramatically in the last 25 years and the empty field was only of historical interest to us. This address was coincidentally a couple of buildings over from my first solo apartment.
- As far as I can tell from auditor's records, the current house on Magnolia Drive was acquired in 1975. It's possible they bought it earlier and the 1/1/1975 transfer was moving it from one ownership structure to another (a similar transfer happened in 2007), but the auditor's site doesn't go back any farther than that. I will say that we definitely had composites and other items pre-dating 1975, but not very many of them. In any event, the purchase was driven (and some say largely funded) by a brother named Ernie Schmidt, who I never had the pleasure of meeting but who was commemorated by a plaque in the lobby. He passed away when I was an undergrad (or right after).
- In owning its own house and land, Phi Kappa Theta was nearly unique among the many Greek organizations at Case Western Reserve. Some owned a house that was built on land owned by the university. Others lived in houses that were essentially dorms. A few lived in houses that were owned by the university outright. To the best of my recollection, we were the only one who owned both the house and the land free and clear. This gave us an enormous advantage in that the university couldn't kick us off campus or keep us from making physical changes to the structure. We were officially student housing, which was a distinction necessary so our members could use student loans to pay rent. That allowed Case to have some have inspectors look at the house and a few other such things, but mostly we were on our own. To encourage brothers to live in the house, the rent was permanently set at 85% of the cost of a double room on the north side of campus, so it was always cheaper to live in the house than in the dorms.
And all that history brings us to the physical structure. It was built in 1935 (per the auditors site), which means it has housed Phi Kaps for more than half of its existence. The Phi Kappa Theta house is enormous, with a basement and three floors above it, plus a carriage house over a garage. The auditor's site says it has more than 6000 square feet of living space, and honestly that feels like it's a little low. Most of it is brick, although a few additions were built on over the years (possibly by PhiKaps, maybe prior) that were not. It is one of a row of mansion-sized houses from the days when Cleveland was the industrial center of America and Euclid Avenue was literally a millionaire's row of mansions. Those grand houses along Euclid have almost all long since been turn down, but the ones on Magnolia survive, albeit mostly not as single-family homes.
It's easy enough to pick out as you drive by, because our letters are present as giant letters that were lit up at night when we were having ritual or public events. When I was there, the last magnolia tree on Magnolia was out front. Next time, I'll take you inside.