Most beautiful Sorority/Fraternity Row
 

Fuzzie started a thread about most beautiful badges...how about most beautiful chapter houses???

I think the university of kansas has some very historic and very beautiful houses...especially Pi Phi, Phi Psi, Beta, Theta and DG.

I visited the univ. of ok, and was blown away by the houses.

looking online...ucla has some very awesome chapter houses as well.


Any thoughts??? My chapter is getting ready to build a new house, so this is top of mind for me.

I do know that the Phi Psi house at kansas is the largest fraternity house in the nation. I have seen pictures of it and it looks unbelievable.

It is amazing! But, just to clarify....I'm not talking about size. I'm talking about either how beautiful and well kept they are...or how rich in history...like for example....the Sigma NU house at KU is the old governor's mansion...it's said to be haunted. lots of little nooks and crannies to get lost in....on purpose or not... think Rose Red.....heeeheeehee....:D :D :D :D

If I remember correctly, the first addition to the Phi Psi house was made after one of their long-time house cooks won the lottery and donated around $1 million to the gentlemen. See it pays to be nice to your house directors/moms, cooks/chefs, cleaning personel, etc....

Well Greek Guide, being from the midwest Kansas maybe (?) and knowing about the KU houses, and on building a new house, may I presume you are AGD (?) If so your house is going to be built between the LXA and SN House on that Hill! Am I close?:) :confused:

You got it! Go Gams!!


-Cheers!

UCLA has nice houses, true, but as a greek row...it's awful crowded together, and the houses directly across the street detract a LOT from what is there, plus the greek row is really spread out.

From my travels, I'd say that Southern Methodist (SMU) in Dallas had the most beautiful greek row I have ever seen. The University of Wyoming also has a nice greek quad area as well.

Most other schools have greeks spread too far around the campus that I have visited. Though some individual houses are unbelievably gorgeous.

http://www.plaudersmilies.de/cry.gif

Well, there is NO WAY that your Canadian cousins here can compete with those gorgeous houses that are at Ole Miss and UVA, but some of the houses at U of Toronto have a beautiful character (brownstone look) and are very "urban" (especially since the houses are right down town)

Sorority Houses at U of Toronto!
AOII house:
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/images/Aop0001-728.jpg
Alpha Phi house (used to be the DG house):
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/images/aphihouse2.jpg
Gamma Phi Beta:
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/images/gfbhouse2-812.jpg
Kappa Kappa Gamma:
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/images/KKGhouse.jpg
Pi Beta Phi:
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/images/PBPhouse.jpg
AGD:
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/images/agdhouse.jpg
----------------
A few minutes later...okay, I think tripod hides the pics or something, so here is the link, so you can see some bonafide sorority houses at the University of Toronto! My favorite is the AOII house, especially the eagle/phoenix thingy at the top of the turret!
http://utorontonpc.tripod.com/11memgroups.htm


I've seen the Greek Houses at:
UCLA - has a gorgeous Greek Row,
USC - has some gorgeous houses too (especially the girls houses). The boys' houses look a bit abused.
UBC - plain, modest
U of Alberta - cute houses, especially the KAT house. They have a circle shaped window which I love
U of Toronto (see above links)
University of Western Ontario - it is hard to even find the houses due to lack of signage
McGill - (see University of Western Ontario)
Wilfrid Laurier - houses are cute, modest
Santa Clara University - cute, modest
San Jose State University - some were nice, some not so nice
UC Berkeley - palaces! GORGEOUS!
Stanford - some were nice, some were generic looking dorm buildings

LXAAlum,
Now, that presents a quandary. How do people feel about having their chapters mixed in with residential versus part of a "Greek Town?" Does it help or hinder the GLO cause on campuses?

I can see both sides to the pendulum.

I've only ever seen UBC's and University of Washington's greek row - UBC's is very plain looking, UW however I found absolutely gorgeous.

UW's Greek Row is gorgeous - on the outside. On the inside, all the houses are basically dangerously in need of repairs, even if they are decorated nicely. I was talking to the Chi O house mom, and she was saying their house is in as bad shape as the AXD house, which needs a ridiculous amount spent in electrical repairs. But they are lovely buildings.

Other Greek rows I've seen ... most campuses I've seen either didn't have Greek houses, put them in identical dorm houses, or had them spread out all over campus, like mine did - hence no row.

Never fret, CutiePie...uniqueness is cool.

I happen to love the SDT house at KU. It's one of the smallest in terms of size, but it is really cool looking. It's looks like a medevial cottage. It's very cozy and is nestled on top of a hill in between some trees.

http://www.ukans.edu/~sdt/house.html

ohhhhhhhhhhh muuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh gawd. dang people. where do we get the freaking money to build these houses. and how come i didn't go to UofKansas? ehhhhhhhh...

marissa

Squirrely Girl,
I have no idea!!!!! All of the alums got the prospectus in the mail...we are going to need several million over the next 3-5 years and probably then some.

I think we send a check...they dig a little....send a check...they dig a little more. I think my measly check turned the jackhammer on and then off again. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahahaha hahahahahhaahaha

I can only imagine what those poor girls' housebills are going to be like......but, i don't know any of the in's and out's of the plans and funding.

You want big...check out Gamma Phi and Kappa and some others at KU...good lord!!

http://www.ku.edu/~gammaphi/

http://people.ku.edu/~jfimmen/Kappa%20webpage.html

http://www.ukans.edu/%7Ekufiji/fraternity/tour.html

http://www.ku.edu/~sigmachi/

http://www.ku.edu/~sigmak/

I love the U of M AGD house!
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~emianald/alphagam.html

It used to be two houses but was built into one way back in the day. The pictures from the construction are framed and mounted in the TV Room. The house also has a GIANT wooden crest and artwork drawn by one of our founders.


GreekGuide: I like that SDT house...except for the dining room, which looks like a cafeteria!

Leslie,
I was looking at that earlier and was thinking the same thing. When I get a chance, I'll scan in the blueprint for our new AGD chapter house being built at KU. Here's the current house.

http://kualphagam.8k.com/

GreekGuide, it's HUGE! The picture isn't very clear though. How many rooms? How many girls can live there? Are you selling the house to another organization or something?

I can't wait to see the blueprint!

I know that the Beta house at KU (since this seems to be the campus of choice at the moment) was home of the man who served as secretary of state under Lincoln during the Civil War. Their house is huge and pretty spectacular on the inside, but doesn't look that impressive from the street. The one thing about KU is that there is no true "Greek Row" more like Greek pockets spread throughout campus.

Beta at Mizzou actually has 2 (two) houses, one for pledges/sophomores and another for juniors and seniors, but I guess that's the kind benefits you get when your alumni include Sam Walton, founder of wal-mart, Ken Lay (well at one point...) and also the guy who founded Hidden Valley Ranch...
Despite having 2 houses there are no pictures to show...However Sigma Chi and Pike have pretty cool houses.

At Nebraska all the fraternity houses have very different architecture. FIJI is really the only one that seems as impressive as those at KU, but I like the fact that all the house look different. For sororities, AOII, Theta, and PiPhi all have similar looking houses in sort of barn frame shape...and most of the other houses also look more similar than the fraternities do...

And to think that when I was an undergrad, the nicest sorority house on my campus was the A Chi O house ... lol! It's cute, no question, but I'm looking at these huge mansions and thinking, eek, I went to the wrong school!

http://www.cwru.edu/orgs/alpha_chi_o...otoshouse.html

The sororities at UCLA look nice, but the fraternities are on the other side of campus, which I don't think is ideal for greek row.

Unfortunatley for me, the University of British Columbia has one of the ugliest greek rows I've ever seen. First, there are no sorority houses, and the fraternity houses were built back in the 1960s and basically look like carboard boxes. :(

In response to the last few posts and Leslie...actually, the fact that KU doesn't have a true "Greek Row" has been kind of a problem. You see, AGD was on a street with six fraternities. All of the houses on Stewart were built in the late 60's and have kind of a ski lodge or motel 6 look to them. They kind of went to hell and we became known as the Greek Ghetto. In the four years since I've been out, all of the fraternities onthe street have been torn down and replaced with apartments. AGD is the only remaining chapter there. We were able to secure property within a cluster of houses that includes ADPi, Tri-Delt, Kap Sig, SigNu, AXO, and KD and now I think per Earp, LXA is up there. They used to be on our street as well. The current AGD house has maybe 20-30 rooms. If I remember correctly, it houses 80 or more girls. Soph, Juniors and most of the seniors live-in.

Because the frats are gone and apartments are there, the property has become prime. So, we'll be able to sell that. The property we bought was owned by Sigma Nu, who's going under a remodeling of their own. We will still need to raising $2million beyond the profits from selling the current place.

Ok, I've got an image of the new house scanned in...does anyone know how I can share it with you?

UCF's Greek Row is beautiful. All the houses are modern and there is a lot of property per house. The houses are all well-maintained. The only problem is that we need more Greek housing space. We have 12 houses right now and there are approximately 13 that do not have one. We desperately need more because within the next year we are supposed to add 3 more organizations.

try Indiana
 

Indiana University DEFINITLY has a beautiful greek row. It goes through and around campus. Houses like Tri Delt, Pi Phi, ATO, Acacia, Sigma Chi (which some believe is the nicest [on the inside] fraternity in the midwest) AXiD, Theta...the list goes on.

Unfortunately, aesthetically, not all houses have been success story.

Also, if you want to talk BIG, take a peak at AXiD, AOII, Zeta, AXO, or Kappa. Some of our sorority houses hold over 125 girls!

what about unique history
 

Yes, IU is gorgoeous. I forgot my parents used to take me there when I was a kid.

Anyone out there know of any cool history or unique stories behind some of their chapter house histories. I love hearing those stories.

I bet some of you GC's in the deep south have some pretty interesting stories....such rich and colorful histories.

GG, at last year's Convention, Amy Tarwater (Epsilon Beta President) gave the Toast to the Alumnae at the Feast of Roses. It's because of them that chapters are able to have such beautiful houses. It was a touching toast to both collegians and alumnae alike. :D

WOW!!!!:D Some of these houses are knocking my socks off!

The sorority houses and 3/6 fraternity houses at Bethany are identical 1960's deals. They aren't much to look at, but I'm thankful that we have a place to call our own!

There are some fraternity houses off campus. The Sigma Nu house is by far the best! It's an older home with a beautiful huge staircase. The other houses are pretty nice, but unoriginal designs.

Now...if we can just get boys to take care of the insides of their houses... ;)

University of Alabama
 

Alabama has the most beautiful Greek row in the country. i don't think anyone who sees it will argue. I do not know how to link, but there has to be an IFC/PanHel link associated with the school. The houses are not all gigantic, but they all feature exquisite architecture. No parking in front. Beautiful green spaces.

U of Mich doesnt have a greek row truely. All the houses (most except for 4 out of 50 something) are in the same area, but mixed in with residential houses. This does suck when social events get thrown cuz you end up having neighbors complain about the noise. I remember my fresh and soph year wheber fraternities had parties they would put mattress up to the windows to drown out the music where the dance floor was. Needless to say it could be 70 degrees outside and 98 where the dance floor was inside. However, im surpised none of the neighbors have complained about TEP shooting fireworks at ohh 3 am in the morning and playing a loud game of b-ball at 4am :rolleyes: They may not be the best but UM does have really nice greek houses.

U of Michigan Greek Houses

The AGD house is pretty sweet. It doesnt hurt that we now have a "63 inch or whatever 2 size above a "55 inch big screen tv with a surround sound DVD system.

Re: what about unique history
 

Okay, here is some info about the houses at U of I:

Due to a lack of university housing, almost every single Greek house added an addition in the late '60s. If you look carefully at the houses, you can pick out the addition on most of them, but some of them are so blatant they are ugly. Phi Mu and ZBT come to mind under this category.

About six houses have two fronts. There was originally going to be a street running through what is now a park, so these houses built their front enterances facing what would have been the street. It was never built, so they all use the other sides, on second or third street, for their enterances. However, the side facing the park is much prettier in almost every case, and the doors now used as their back open up into magnificent foyers.

When the old Acacia house burnt down, they built a new one with financial support from their national organization. The house was huge, with elevators, private rooms, more bathrooms than a group of guys could possible need, and no expense was spared. Needless to say, they could not keep up with the payments, and they had to sell it to the university. It is now the library information sciences building, but you can still see "Acacia" etched in the stones out front.

The University doesn't allow crests inside houses to be destroyed if a new group moves in. Instead, they must be preserved for historical purposes, so you can see old crests and coats of arms in different houses. Also, several houses are registered as historical landmarks under the groups that built them, not the groups that currently occupy them.

The Gamma Phi Beta house has couches from the set of "Gone With the Wind."

I agree about IU's greek row. The houses on 3rd Street are my favorites, with Lambda Chi being at the top. ATO's is really cool too.

At Rose, we have a greek row on campus, with us, SN, ATO, and Triangle grouped together. Chi O is across the yard from SN, but their entrance is off campus, whereas ours is connected to campus. Pike has their own house, an old orphanage east of campus. here's a short history on their house. rumor has it that charles manson was an orphan there for a short time. they have their own gym, and 2 or 3 buildings, but it's old, and a lot of it is falling apart. it's a cool looking house though. FIJI, Theta Xi, and Delta Sig are all off campus, in ISU's frat. row, which is slowly being spread out across town. I know SK, LXA, and Pike are all at the north end of campus, and several others are at the old frat. row, which is being turned back into a historical residential area. TX (Rose) might be losing their house sometime in the near future, because it's falling into disrepair and they don't have the numbers or funds to keep it up. FIJI's is a historical house, and i'm not sure about DSPhi's. All of the on campus houses, aside from XO's are 35 years old or less. SN's is 5 years, ours-26, ATO and Triangle both about 35.

I saw a lot of people dicussing UCLA's Greek Row. And it SUCKS! We actually have two, the sororities on one side of campus and the fraternities on the other which is about a mile and a half apart. TriDelt especially has a horrible spot on the row because we are all the way down the row about 7 houses away from the rest of the houses. This is because we were one of the last houses to buy our houses and all the houses in between us use to be sororities but folded. Most people that don't know the row don't even see us. :( The same thing with Sigma Chi but on the other side of campus!

I must say that although the houses out in Kansas ARE beautiful I have to represent for California and go with USC. They have a very traditianal greek row. Houses on each side of the street (although some are not exactly on the row they are all close by) but I must agree with another comment that the girls are better than the guys which do seem rather used/abused. Berkely has some nice houses as well.... but they are not on a row, rather they are scattered through out the neighborhood. :D

Holy Crap, that's a lot of money!!! :eek:

I am firm to believe that this will be the nicest fraternity house in the world, when done:
Oklahoma State - Beta Theta Pi

I was IM'ing an Oklahoma State Refounding-Father of the Beta colony there, and he said that the house (linked above) is the new house they will be building, and they currently bought the old ZBT house for the time being.....just to house 50 guys until the new one is finished.

I have a hard time believing that there are better greek houses outside of Kansas and Oklahoma. There maybe a few nicer houses elsewhere, but overall, the greek housing on those big KS and OK campuses cannot be beat.

I personally like Iowa States greek row/area. There are some nice houses there, mainly the DZ house and the Beta house.

the plans for that beta house look completely awesome.

marissa

Oh my goodness! These houses you're all linking us to are AMAZING!!

At Penn State we don't have a row. Well, actually, there is a street named Fraternity Row, but I believe it only has 5 or 6 fraternities. There are way too many to have an actual row. It's more like a greek area. And a few outliers.

There are no sorority houses up here. Some of the fraternity houses are small, regular houses, but most of them are gorgous. Some not kept up so well, but with a good cleaning and basic repairs, they'd be unbelieveable. I don't know that they rival some of the ones you've shown, but I think a few could get some votes :)

New Kansas AGD House
 

Hey everyone....I got an image of the new Alpha Gamma Delta Legacy House that is being built at the University of Kansas. I stuck it in a photo album.

Here it is!!! So cool. I'm so proud of my chapter!!

http://www.cartogra.com/imageBoard/imageView.asp

check out the SAE house/castle at Iowa State at http://iowagamma.moonfruit.com/

University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~sae/

University of Washington
http://students.washington.edu/~sigmaae/

University of Oregon
http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~sae/

Kansas State University
http://www.ksu.edu/sigalph/pics.html

Purdue University
http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~sigalpha/

University of Arkansas
http://comp.uark.edu/~sae/

These are just a few that I wanted to tell about, there are lots more.

Ok...I may be a little bit biased but I personally think sorority row at LSU is absolutely gorgeous. All of the houses face our University Lakes. Plus all of them are of mammoth proportions. I personally loooooove the Chi O house at LSU. It's just so absolutely gorgeous. As far as fraternities go at LSU...I have to say that KA has the nicest house. I got a mini tour from my cousin a few years ago right after it was built and I was completely blown away. If I find pics...I'll post them on here.

Allison

Of course, we all need to remember the obvious here....it's not how nice the house looks, inside or out: it's the MEMBERS living in that house that make it a good chapter....