University of Texas Greek Houses

[old school]

I saw a 1960 CACTUS Yearbook and was impressed by all of the big new fraternity and sorority houses. Many of the chapters are no longer there, and of those that remain, several are now in much smaller houses. What has happened to all of the structures and who now occupies them? Very sad!

[honeychile]

I don't know about Texas, but my mother has somehow become the depository of several yearbooks (40? 50?), and I see that trend everywhere! Large, beautiful homes being replaced by impersonal townhouses or even dorms.

My guess is that it's an economic move - it's probably much less expensive to maintain a newer house that's up to code than the ones which weren't. Pity, though.

[Tom Earp]

The Large AntiBellam(Sic), English Tudor and other Homes seem to be lost forever when it comes to building New Houses.

A House can be constructed and a Frontal Elevation can be added to give it a different look. But with each change comes cost.

Our New House while very nice is not what I would think of to build. Again, costs.

honeychile,
You are so right! It is cost effective to build of cement blocks and be sterile than be awesome for presentation.

I think the good old days are lost. Just look at the new houses being built today!

You can check LX Z web site www.lambdachizeta.org and see our New House.

Cost, @ $750,000.00 for 15 housing. We also owned the 3 corner lost it is setting on so that is not figured in to the cost.

Cost for building, depending on where it is, is at least $100 + a square foot.

With rules and regulations, it usually inflates the building costs.

[Firehouse]

Here's what happened at Texas. Those beautiful old, substantial homes you saw were at the end of their useful lives in the 1960s. They suffered from cramped quarters, bad wiring, ancient construction, high maintentnece costs. The 1950s and 1960s were years of great prosperity for Greeks, and so many chapters made plans to rebuild modern new structures to accomodate increased chapter sizes and lower the cost of maintenence & repair.
Unfortunately, two things happened in the course of ten years: first, the architecture chosen tended to be the trendy, faddish, inexpensive style of the time instead of the traditional-looking greek house. That "modern" style passed quickly from favor and became very uninspiring and indistinguishable, like "ranch" style homes. The second thing that happend was that Greek member ship took a sharp nosedive from 1969 through about 1973, and some chapters that had mortgaged themselves to pay for new construction in the 1960s lost their homes due to low membership.
A few fraternitis at Texas have invested in new, traditional-style construction (Sig Ep for instance), and SAE has built a new compound, not in the traditional style but substantial and impressive. Fiji has a unique situation as their home is a historical landmark. But too many fraternities got burned so badly before that they do things like rennovate apartment complexes (i.e. planning for failure). What woyld really help the UT Greek system is if an area of land could be set aside for new housing and the fraternities could create a sort of Greek Park, but the administration is liberal and the chance of that happening is probably not great.

[Tom Earp]

So Sad! Out with The Old and in with the new!

Granted, many times it is needed when Young People live in Houses for a long period of Time! Fraternitys seem to be the worst of course!

Respect seems to lack anymore!

[g41965]

DU had a large house at 2510 Leon ,15,000 square feet slept 52 + housemother unfortunately house was built in 1958 at the heighth of the modern style, the house was badly dated by 1984 when I arrived and hurt us badly in the status conscious 80's. When Beta and Delta Sig renovated houses we really took a hit, house was sold in 1997 to KA as an annex and DU moved a 25 man chapter to to a small house at 2305 Leon and died two years later, 950 alumni now have an inactive chapter.

[Tex1899]

I've heard the KA/old DU house is up for sale.

An alumnus of UT told me one of the houses was mysteriously burned days before it was to be sold. I don't recall if it was a fraternity or sorority but I'm almost positive this happened after 1970.

I have a UT rush guide from 1951 (I actually know a guy who's in it). Several chapters existed then and don't know. And of course some chapters have moved. Many great houses have been razed and replaced by condos. It's happening in Champaign, IL, too.

The Fiji and Sig Ep houses at UT are just amazing!

[honeychile]

FWIW, this is a PRIME reason why the Chapter Housing Corp and or Historian should take pictures of the house, outside from every angle, and inside from every angle each year. There may come a time when that house is no longer there, and it would be great for the Chapter to have an idea of what the house looked like.

My chapter isn't 100% great on this, but we DO have a photo from the 1950's with Shirley Jones (who was living in the house) in it! It's the little things like that which will thrill sisters of the future!

[tinydancer]

FIJI and KKG both have beautiful old houses at Texas. They are both something to see. I'm still mad about the old Kappa Sigma house. It was a lovely old house on the hill across from the mall that runs down to the main building. It was sold to the state in the mid 70s and torn down. It's STILL a parking lot. I get furious every time I drive past it to this very day.

[Tex1899]

Oh yeah. Apparently when Phi Delt went dry the chapter had a party to end all parties. I'm told the wife of an alum drove by the house, saw it had been trashed, called her husband and told him he'd better find out what happened. I think the house was eventually demolished.

The individual who told me this was a long-time chapter advisor for another fraternity. He also said this Phi Delt chapter would call around to see which fraternity had the highest dues, then add $15 to determine their own dues.

[lyrica9]

Originally posted by Firehouse
What woyld really help the UT Greek system is if an area of land could be set aside for new housing and the fraternities could create a sort of Greek Park, but the administration is liberal and the chance of that happening is probably not great.

heh, sorry, but i doubt it has much to do with the supposed liberal administration. that area of austin is in high demand, and it would be near impossible to get enough land to even begin something like that anywhere near campus, because real estate around there is so expensive.

[MikeBFiji]

Another thing to consider is insurance. I've heard fraternities are in the top 10 of high risk insurance.

I'm happy to hear everyone thinks the FIJI house is as amazing as I do. There is a picture of it on our nationals website decorated for Christmas.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Our chapter at texas is getting ready to build a new house. You can read about it here:



ETA this chapter did build one of those very modern looking chapter houses and managed to be highly competitive.

[dznat187]

that is beautiful and classic. good job.