Yeah it's a pretty large one. Here's a picture of it. If I ever get around to putting it together, I'll post it in the Illinois Fraternities thread.http://i1334.photobucket.com/albums/...psca53d39d.jpg

Yeah, thanks, that's the one I was picturing. One year, on Easter, there was virtually nobody on campus, and a friend and I decided we'd just wander around to different fraternity houses and see which ones left their doors unlocked, and then spent about an hour wandering around the empty Beta house.

DBB, maybe you know... what will Phi Mu be doing for housing in 2016? Do they have any plans as of yet? I'm surprised they would sell their house after being off campus for such a short time.

I'm still hoping ZTA will come back sometime soon to return to their house. It's one of the very few historic sorority houses that is in danger of being destroyed. (Although it looks like there is a push to recognize it as an historic landmark.)
http://m.dailyillini.com/news/campus....html?mode=jqm

Unfortunately there have been a few more fraternities in the past few years that have demolished their historic homes in favor of newer ones. (The Pike/TKE house, Theta Xi, Alpha Sigma Phi etc.) I think AKL has done the best renovation. They demolished the 1960s addition to the house, and renovated the historic structure down to the studs. They were able to maintain the historic aspects of the home but make it liveable for today's students.
http://www.aklgamma.com/current-house-photos

(RE: ZTA house) As a historic preservationist, it is actually sad that the owner really doesn't have a say in whether a site receives a local designation that has such huge financial implications attached to it! Mind you, I have no clue what the actual criteria are for such a local designation. I know historic districts, which require specific boundaries and 50% of the occupants approval for it to form and can control what changes a property owner can make to a building, including windows.

I don't know anything yet, but the rate of churn at Illinois is pretty high on the fraternity side, so hopefully something will open up. There was a lot of outrage from alumnae when the decision to sell was announced, but having such a big house was really a liability when it came to recruitment. A two-year live-in requirement is definitely a strike against the chapters that have it. We also had no parking, and the whole "new side" of the house was just flat-out ugly. Obviously I was sad to see it go, but I hope we can return with something that's a better fit.

I believe a member of our Iota chapter there told me that the Delta Gamma house COULD have been designated historic, but they chose to modify it to accommodate a wheelchair-bound member. The modifications disqualified it for historic status.

Those are absolutely gorgeous! I'd love to live in one of those stately mansions.