PA State: giving community a peek inside their houses

[hoosier]

Oct. 02, 2005


Fraternity houses consider giving community a peek inside

By Adam Smeltz
asmeltz@centredaily.com


STATE COLLEGE -- Fraternity houses in town and on campus may open their doors to regular, public tours early next year.

Penn State's Interfraternity Council is developing the plan, part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the fraternities' civic engagement, IFC President Brian Bertges said.

"Any fraternity that wants to be showcased will be showcased," he said. The IFC counts more than 50 member chapters, most of them in the borough.

Bertges said the tour idea, inspired by the university Lion Ambassadors program and proposed by IFC Vice President Jason Yanushonis, also could help the fraternities recruit new members.

Jackie Melander, president of the Centre County Historical Society, applauded the IFC plans.

"The fraternities are what you might call the mansions of State College," Melander said. "I think for residents as well as Penn State alumni, there's a real interest in those houses, both architecturally and in what they've represented as a college town."

Most of the fraternity houses here were built in the 1920s and '30s, she said, and many were designed by architects. They still sport lots of interior detailing that has since become rare, Melander said.

The IFC tour plans are still preliminary, though organizers are already expecting to train 15 to 20 members of the Greek community to become guides, Bertges said. He said the tours are meant to be a consistent offering, held more than once per year.

Fraternity members already put their houses on display each December, when they host the IFC's Holiday Lighting Contest. But that's an exterior-only display.

University spokesman Tysen Kendig said Penn State encourages the extra outreach.

"A lot of times, our fraternities and sororities get a bad rap," Kendig said. "Other than the dance marathon every year, the good things the Greek community does are often overlooked."

The interior tours, he said, "might help push away some of those perceptions."

Melander said past fraternity leaders have occasionally made their houses open to the public. But she said she couldn't remember any formal, consistent efforts.

[honeychile]

My dad's family has attended and/or been on the faculty at PSU since 1902 or 1903 (I forget!), and I've been fortunate enough to see the inside of some of the fraternity houses (two of my great-aunts were fraternity sweethearts). They are truly beautiful - calling them "mansions" is no stretch of the imagination!!!

[AngelPhiSig]

I always thought that giving house tours to anyone who would want to come see the house was a great form of PR and a good way to keep the public from thinking that there were shady things going on in our sorority houses... ;)

But I wouldnt want to tour the fraternitites at Clarion... ick. Ive seen em...

[HoosierPhiSig]

Originally posted by honeychile
My dad's family has attended and/or been on the faculty at PSU since 1902 or 1903 (I forget!), and I've been fortunate enough to see the inside of some of the fraternity houses (two of my great-aunts were fraternity sweethearts). They are truly beautiful - calling them "mansions" is no stretch of the imagination!!!

which ones have you been in? Most of my friends go there and Ive been in a bunch of them.

[sugar and spice]

I've always wished our Panhel did something like this -- less so with IFC as a lot of the frat houses, while gorgeous on the outside, are less so on the inside after a century of college-age boys/men living in them. The sororities are better maintained. It would be especially effective here because most of the Greek houses are in the historical "Mansion Hill" district, and so many of them have such fantastic histories. The Tri Delta house once belonged to a Wisconsin governor; the top floor used to be a ballroom and still retains its wood floors. Chi Phi used to be a church (yes, really).

And while I saw many of the sorority houses during rush, and many of the fraternity houses during parties -- well, the basements, anyway -- there have been plenty that I've never explored and would love to see (specifically Sigma Pi and Sigma Phi, which have great houses, but by the time they came back on campus and were housed, I was out of the fraternity party scene).

[PSUSigKap]

The fraternity houses at PSU are gorgeous. My favorite architecturally is Sigma Pi. Yea for the guys!

[honeychile]

Originally posted by HoosierPhiSig
which ones have you been in? Most of my friends go there and Ive been in a bunch of them.
It's been about 5 years since I last went, but I do remember SAE (who wouldn't?!), Delta Tau Delta, SigEp, KA Order, and I think Beta Theta Pi.

Somewhere, in the family scrapbooks, is a photo of me when I was about 4, and the fraternities were having a snow sculpture contest on Whipple Dam. I'm looking scared at a T Rex about four times my size!

And if you know Whipple Dam, I can tell you which houses are/were in my family!

ETA: If you want to see some of the houses, click here (http://www.sa.psu.edu/greeks/chapters.asp) and select a fraternity. The sororities have chapter rooms, not houses.

[HoosierPhiSig]

wow i never realized PSU had so many chapters! Are many of them pretty small? From my understanding from talking to people in the PSU Greek community, there are alot of houses, membership numbers arent that big within houses. Whereas here it is different. There are 25 or so fraternities, but memberships of some houses get as big as 150+

My best friends there are Delta Sigs, and seem to have a fairly large house compared to many on their campus. For them, 20 guys is a good sized plege class. Our house is probably twice the size of theirs, and we have 43 in our latest pledge class (most on campus i just found out today).

[mmcat]

excellent idea, but everyone needs to be on the same page. no surprises.

[LionTamer]

I've heard about schools where the houses are battered and beaten-up.

But even when they're not officially open to the public, many of the bigger houses at Penn State are well-maintained. I was a little sister at TKE, and in and out of the house all the time for meals and meetings, and it was generally clean.

Sigma Pi, SAE and Beta are downright gorgeous, and the houses for Skull, Sigma Chi, Chi Phi, Pi Kapp, and a few others are pretty spiffy as well. Some of the others are less stellar, but what do you expect with 50 some chapters?

A lot of the houses do the rack room thing, so without the need for beds, the brothers' upstairs rooms are amazing - guys over the years have installed bars, aquariums, bookshelves, comfy seating, etc. By the time I was a senior, I would go over to the TKE house on a Saturday, have dinner and watch a movie in someone's room on a big-screen TV (complete with snacks and mixed drinks from a small bar), and then leave before the guys went downstairs to hit on the freshmen. A nice respite from the tiny, cinderblock dormrooms we sororities had to deal with.

[dzrose93]

UGA's Panhellenic sororities do a big house tour every year. I've never been able to go -- they always seem to do it on the weekend of my family's big pre-Christmas gathering -- but I hear it's awesome to see all the sorority houses. :)

[Tom Earp]

Just wonder how many get to the Members rooms?

Normaly the Main Floor looks Neato, the rooms look like Rooms with People living in them. Dirty Closes abound and funcky Posters.

MOMs always love to come for visits and give shit about, "You Werent Brought Up Like This":D

Ah To Be a College Student again!:D

[exlurker]

Alumnus Funds House Upgrades, Redecoration at Penn State

. . . at Penn State . . .
Sigma Pi, SAE and Beta are downright gorgeous, and the houses for Skull, Sigma Chi, Chi Phi, Pi Kapp, and a few others are pretty spiffy as well. . . ..

An alumnus of Beta Theta Pi is funding a fix-up / spruce-up of that house at Penn State. Well, maybe a little more than that, according to the local newspaper:

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/15337054.htm

[honeychile]

Alumnus Funds House Upgrades, Redecoration at Penn State



An alumnus of Beta Theta Pi is funding a fix-up / spruce-up of that house at Penn State. Well, maybe a little more than that, according to the local newspaper:

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/nation/15337054.htm
My favorite radio station had this on the news this morning, only somehow, it became "Beta Pi Theta". :rolleyes: The producer, a friend of mine (even though she was a GDI), had it properly corrected by the second broadcast!

[LionTamer]

Inside and out. The boys were a little TOO clean-cut for my taste - remember the nazi house in "Animal House"? Well, that was the Betas, and I don't think they've changed much. But the house was lovely - we did a tree decorating party there once, and they do know how to do Christmas.

But the insides of most of the houses at Penn State, when i was there, were all pretty decent. Some of the guys had fixed up their bedrooms into pretty cool bachelor pad living rooms (many slept in separate rack rooms) and we'd go over and watch movies on cable.