I thought it was interesting that there are pictures of what appears to be alcohol (beer bottles) in the Greek section...can you imagine that happening in a university yearbook these days? :eek:

(Other random thought...I thought old-school Southern women didn't drink out of bottles? :confused:)

I noticed how small the chapters were, too. There also sems to have been a lot of shuffling in that era: KAT and AGD were both new, and a couple of chapters had just closed. There were also a couple of chapters that were soon to close.

It's interesting. Mind you, I know next to nothing about Bama's Greek system except what I've read on GC, but I'm assuming chapters have become so large in part because of the cost of colonizing and the chance that a new group may find survival to be hard. That doesn't seem to have been a problem back then. I wonder what changed?

:confused: Our Psi chapter was chartered in 1921.

Whoops. I meant Alpha Omicron Pi! Sorry!

Don't ask me how I got AGD. :p

Dingdingding!!

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Along with cost, it seems to be more important these days to have a showy chapter house. And tradition is very highly valued, hence the new chapters having a hard time surviving.

My aunt was an AEPhi at 'Bama, and I can't remember what years she was there!

I noticed that the Alpha Xi Delta section of the '69 yearbook included an architect's rendering of a new house. Kind of sad and ironic considering that they closed a few years later ...

AnchorAlumna, DG had a really cool house. Was it built specifically for your chapter? It looks old and historic.

http://i10.tinypic.com/68asfpf.jpg

It looks like that artist's rendering is now the Gamma Phi house. It turned out a little different --there's no third story and no porches on the front -- but AXiD and I believe SK have been in our house before us.

Here's a photo of what it looks like now:

http://www.uagammaphibeta.com/images/house.jpg

Re: the Chi O chapter—I've been reading Mockingbird, the new biography of Harper Lee, and apparently she had a reputation as the campus oddball (the author quotes a Phi Mu who remembers her as a "nerd"). It speaks well of the Nu Beta chapter, though, that they liked her anyway. :)

Thanks, sweetie! Yes, it was built for us, but it wasn't that old. I believe it was built in the late 1940s or very early 1950s. It had columns at one time (UA has a requirement that all buildings have columns), but they rotted and were removed long before I got there, and were never replaced. The building was torn down for stadium expansion.

You are correct, this is now the Gamma Phi house, with quite a bit of renovation. It was built for Alpha Xi Delta - in fact it was only about a year old when I was a freshman. Sigma Kappa was never in this house. They were in a big ugly brick house next to Delta Gamma (next to the stadium). That house was originally built for Alpha Phi. When I was in school, a fraternity moved into it (Phi Sigma Kappa? Phi Kappa Sigma? One of 'em). That building was also torn down for stadium expansion.


I think sorority "images" were a LOT more fluid back then, expecially since it was a much smaller campus and everybody knew more people. And in the 1930s, it wasn't unusual for a chapter to have 20 or 30 members...or even fewer.

There is no physical room left on the traditional sorority row...in fact, the stadium expansion eliminated 4 sorority houses, although only 1 was being used at the time as a sorority house.
Not to mention that it's highly competitive, and Panhellenic has never been supportive of struggling groups. That campus seems to need to have a "little group" as a target for the "don't pledge them" rumors.:mad: You can find my rants elsewhere.

I've read the book too. I'm so glad she's a Chi Omega. My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has been such a recluse for most of her life; however, she has in recent years left her small Alabama hometown for a few functions in L.A. (and I don't mean LOWER ALABAMA!!!)and NYC. She was invited to attend the 2004 Chi Omega National Convention as the recipient of our Woman of Achievement Award. She did not attend, but sent a lovely letter signed, "Nell Harper Lee, Nu Beta"

Okay I get it now. Reminds me of UCF. The unhoused situation is mostly survivable there (also helps that almost half of the NPC chapters are now in that situation) but it's certainly not pretty for the chapters that are stuck.

I can see how lack of comparable housing could equal a quick death for the chapter involved at Bama.

Where did the sorority who's house was bulldozed for stadium expansion go?

Man, that house was right under the stadium. I asked them how they stood it during games. Apparently, one always goes to the games so it didn't matter.

The new house is unbelievably gorgeous! An alum told me that they told the school that if they took their house, they'd have to give them this and that and that and they got it!