I'm always fascinated by where the different houses were, and where they are now, just as which local became which national.
At Pitt, the sororities moved around with great regularity for years! The Alpha Delta Pi house prior to the University mandate (1959) to move into an all-sorority hall was located where the parking garage for the Holiday Inn is, on Bigelow Blvd. Part of my pledgeship was finding the driveway & the
ADP in the sidewalk where it was. Looking at it, the Tri-Delta house was on the right (I'm fairly certain).
The all-sorority hall is Amos Hall, named after the first Dean of Women, Thyros Amos, whose life-sized portrait used to be in the lobby. It was part of an exclusive apartment complex, the Schenley Hall Apartments, built in 1927. There were five buildings to the complex, and conveniently, Amos Hall is Building A.
It was also the most expensive of the apartment buildings (I have the floor plans). It has only two apartments on each floor, each apartment having three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, kitchen, and two maids' rooms. The other apartment buildings used "rent a maid" services from Schenley Hotel - that's why there was an extra bathroom on every other floor - heaven forbid that the hired help would use the facilities!
When Amos was first converted, a housemother had to live with the sorority, usually in a room that was converted from the two maids' rooms and the service hallway that lead from the kitchen to the dining room. The service hallway had cabinets for china, and a counter for last minute food prep, and the dining rooms had a small "toe button" on the floor, for the mistress of the home to summon the maid. The maids' rooms had a series of lights & bells to respond to. My understanding is that there was a lottery held to see who got which floor. ADPi won first choice, so they chose the Penthouse Suite, with the 20' ceilings which are wonderful, except when you try to paint them!
When I first pledged, all of the Amos sororities (KKG & KAT lived off campus under a "grandfather clause") lived on the Formal, or more impressive side of Amos, and only four (
ADP, DDD, CW, DZ) had both sides on a permenant basis. The Informal sides of the other floors held sorority members who couldn't get into their own suite. Each suite has some usage differences, but each Formal side has a living room that's 25'x18' and most have a fireplace. Each of the rooms have a LOT of closet space, and many built-ins, like bookcases and display cabinets. The biggest drawback is the tiny kitchens - people were to use them mostly for breakfast, and then take their meals in the Hotel (when they were apartments) or the cafeteria (when there were students).
Supposedly, someone hanged themself in the one bedroom on our floor, but having lived in that room, I highly doubt it. The craziest thing I ever saw in that closet was my roomie, who was nuttier than a jar of Skippy!
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