According to Baird's, the Alpha chapter of the Fraternity of Delta Psi was founded at Columbia University in January 17, 1847 by John Hone Anthon, Sam. F. Barger, Charles Arms Budd, and William Myn Van Wagener.[3][8] In TheReview magazine, the fraternity says Anthon was a founder, the first leader, and an important Mason.[9] Another source says the fraternity was started by the fifteen-year-old Edward Forbes Travis who came to Columbia University from England "with an odd fascination for St. Anthony the Great, the gnarled fourth-century mystic."[5][10] In this scenario, Travis shared "certain rituals" with a Charles Arms Budd on the Saint's feast day, creating "a sacred bond that was soon extended to others."[5][10]
According to its national website, Delta Psi was founded on the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great as a "fraternity dedicated to the love of education and the well-being of its members."[11] The fraternity developed "a literary flavor: members would spend hours reading essays to one another for general critique or amusement."[5] By 1853, it was holding an Annual Literary Festival and Dinner.[12] It also held evenings featuring orators and poets, often publishing the poems or speeches.[13][14][15][16]
A Beta chapter was formed at New York University on January 17, 1847.[3] However Beta was short-lived; the Columbia College's Record lists the New York University founders alongside its own students.[17] In 1879, Baird's listed seventeen chapters opening throughout the Northeast and South during the mid 19th-century.[3]
During the Civil War, formal contact ended between the Northern and Southern chapters, and all of the Southern chapters closed.[6][3][18] In fact, 25% of the fraternity's membership died in the Civil War, with 90 of the 109 deaths coming from the Southern chapters.[19] In December 1865, the fraternity held its annual convention in New York City. The New York Times reported, "Attendance from all the Northern chapters was large, and measures were taken to give the most cordial assistance in response to applications for the rehabilitation of the Southern chapters in such of their colleges are again in operation."[20]
Three of the Southern chapters resumed operations: the University of Virginia, the University of Mississippi, and Washington and Lee.[19][21][6] In April 1867, eleven members of the Williams College chapter commissioned a life-sized portrait of a fallen brother; the portrait was displayed at the Schwabe Gallery of Fallen Heroes in Boston, along with the portraits of four other Delta Psi brothers.[22] Members from many Southern chapters attended a commemorative dinner in New York City in December 1871.[23]
In 1894, Yale's Sigma chapter built a dormitory building and named it St. Anthony Hall, apparently the first use of that name.[24][25][26] The Fraternity of Delta Psi also became known as the Order of St. Anthony and St. Anthony Hall.[27]
In accordance with the respective traditions of each chapter, St. Anthony Hall is now self-described and referred to on its various campuses as a fraternity or coed fraternity, a secret society or literary society, or a private club.[2][28] A former Yale chapter president said, "Chapters have a range of degrees of secrecy."[2] In 2006, a Yale member said, "Our secret aspects are truly secret, and our non-secret aspects are truly non–secret"[2]
Symbols
Fraternity of Delta Psi badge, from Baird's 1883 edition
The 1879 edition of Baird's describes the fraternity's badge as a "Saint Anthony's cross, with curved sides. The cross bears a shield in blue enamel displaying the letters ΔΨ. On the bar of the cross are engraved four Hebrew letters, and beneath the shield the skull and bones."[3] The badge was designed by fraternity member Henry Steel Olcott in 1850.[9]
The 1873 University of Pennsylvania yearbook illustration (see infobox above) shows a tau cross or Saint Anthony's cross, a flat topped shield with the letters ΔΨ, a skull, a sword, a key, a floating triangle, and four Hebrew letters.[29] The sword and the key are crossed, with the skull on top.[29]
In 1860 when the Civil War seemed inevitable, fraternal medallions were made for the brothers to attach to their uniforms so they would be recognized as a member of Delta Psi on the battlefield.[19] A photograph of a medallion in the fraternity's archives shows a round, gold coin with a skull as its central figure.[19] Beneath the skull is a crossed sword and key.[19] Encircling the outer edge of the medallion is a list of each chapter's Greek letter and date of founding.[19]
Chapters
There are eleven active chapters of Delta Psi, including the following active chapters noted in bold. Dormant chapters are noted in italics. Note that the now-dormant Delta Psi local fraternity at the University of Vermont (1850–2004) was never affiliated.[3][6]
There have been rumors that the Lambda chapter operates underground; Williams College banned all fraternities in the 1960s, phasing them out by 1970.[32][31] In 2003, The Williams Record reported that the fraternity began operating as the coed Vermont Literary Society as early as 1973.[31] At that time, the Vermont Literary Society was meeting outside of Williamstown at a place in Vermont referred to as "The Barn".[31] The college offered amnesty to any students who came forward; however, none took advantage of the offer.[31] Again in 2020, there were reports that the Vermont Literary Society was still active as the underground Lambda chapter.[32]The Williams Record's investigation noted that Williams College graduates from 2016 were serving on the board of the Lambda chapter's alumni association.[32] However, the paper later reported that the group disbanded in August 2020.[33]
Notes
^Members all transferred to Columbia University and joined the chapter there.
^ abBurlington College operated from (1846–1881). This New Jersey school had no connection with the later Vermont school of the same name. Its Delta chapter of ΔΨ appears to have been the only fraternity established on the campus. That chapter moved to UPenn in 1854.
^Lambda chapter was established as the Zeta chapter of Zeta Psi in 1848.
Members of St. Anthony Hall call each other "Brother", "Sister", or "Sibling" according to individual preference.[5] In 1961, the Yale chapter was the first fraternity on campus to admit a person of color.[34] The University of North Carolina chapter was the first fraternity at its campus to admit African-American members in 1967, followed by the University of Mississippi chapter.[35] In recent times, the fraternity's membership has become more multicultural.[5]
In 1969, the Yale chapter was the first to go coed, also becoming the first Yale society to accept women.[34] Additional chapters subsequently turned coed, including Columbia University, MIT in 1969, the University of North Carolina in 1971, and Trinity College in 1985.[36][6][37][38] Other chapters were reestablished as coed including, Brown University in 1983, Princeton University in 1986, and the University of Rochester in 2010.[6][30] The University of Pennsylvania, the University of Mississippi and the University of Virginia chapters remain all-male.[6]
In 2016, Town & Country included the Columbia University chapter of St. Anthony Hall in its list of the "six most exclusive clubs of the Ivey League".[39]
Activities
St. Anthony Hall members pursue their literary mandate through different programs at the various chapters. The Brown chapter publishes a literary and visual arts magazine called The Sketchbook and hosts bi-weekly literary readings.[40][30] The UNC chapter hosts open mic nights, poetry readings, and art shows.[41][42] The Delta chapter at the University of Pennsylvania hosts an annual lecture series with nationally significant speakers and also organizes a book drive and reading program for a local public school.[43][44][45] The MIT chapter hosts a scholarly lecture series, coffee hours, and participates in charitable activities.[38] The Yale chapter sponsors a public series of Sigma Seminars every two to three weeks on literature, poetry, art, and current affairs; a recent speaker was Pap Souleye Fall, a Senegalese–American interdisciplinary and comic artist.[2][46] The Trinity chapter hosts its annual Clement Lectures.[47] The Columbia chapter hosts writers to discuss their works at least once a semester and also engages in charitable fundraising.[5]
The Trinity chapter endows a St. Anthony Professorship in Art History, several annual prizes for Trinity students, and the annual Martin W. Clement lecture. In 1970 when it went coed, the Yale chapter endowed a scholarship at Yale for women.[2] The Yale chapter also offers the St. Anthony Hall Chase Coggins Fellowship.[48]
Chapter houses and buildings
1879 Alpha chapter house and St. Anthony Club of New York
1879 Alpha chapter house after alterations
Current Alpha chapter house
1889 Delta chapter house and St Anthony Club of Philadelphia
Current Delta chapter house
Upsilon chapter house in 1903
Upsilon chapter house
Epsilon chapter house
Kappa chapter house
Former Lambda chapter house
Former Phi chapter house
1894 Sigma chapter house and dormitory
Sigma chapter house, 1912
Tau chapter house and St. Anthony Club of Boston,1912
In an 1891 newspaper feature article on American college societies, three Delta Psi chapter houses were illustrated—Trinity, Williams, and Yale—amongst the fifteen houses depicted.[56]
The Alpha chapter originally met at the Simon DeWitt Bloodgood house. In 1879, a new building was constructed at 29 East 28th Street for the Alpha chapter and its alumni group, the St. Anthony Club of New York.[57][58][8] According to the New-York Tribune, it was "the first of the Greek letter societies to establish in New York a club which presents many of the features of the other social clubs in the city."[57] The Alpha chapter's Renaissance-inspired lodge in red and yellow brick was designed by William Hamilton Russell, a member of St. Anthony Hall and an architect with the firm of James Renwick, Jr.[49][59]The Hartford Courant wrote, "The decorations of the interior are most elaborate, and altogether it is said to be one of the most beautiful college secret society buildings in the country."[59]
In 1885, a small addition was added to the back of the building.[60] The St. Louis Globe–Democrat wrote, "The lodge room on the Delta Psi fraternity in New York is magnificently furnished in Egyptian designs especially imported from Thebes for this purpose, at the cost of thousands of dollars..."[56] In 1990, the New York Times wrote, "Old photographs show...the figure of an owl on the peaked [pyramid] roof and a plaque with the Greek letters Delta Psi over the windowless chapter room."[61] Later alterations were made by J.A. Moore in 1899 and 1918, including adding 1.5 stories that replaced the original pyramid roof; the stone shield remains between the fourth-floor windows.[49]
In 1895, Columbia University moved its campus north of the city to Morningside Heights.[62] To be closer to the new campus, the Alpha chapter purchased land on 434 Riverside Drive on March 23, 1897.[62][63] To design a new chapter house, they hired Henry Hornbostel and George Carnegie Palmer (a member of St. Anthony Hall) of the firm of Wood, Palmer and Hornbostel.[63][62] The architects' plans were filed with the city on August 26, 1898, and the building was completed in 1898.[62] The resulting five-story plus basement structure is a combination of Beaux Arts and French Renaissance revival styles.[62] It is constructed of red brick, is trimmed liberally in limestone, and has dormers covered in copper.[62][63] At the top of the building is a carved relief of the Greek letters ΔΨ.[62] The interior included reception rooms, a billiard room, a dining room, a library, and bedrooms for twenty members.[62] In 1996, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Delta Psi, Alpha chapter.[64] The chapter house is also a contributing building to the Broadway-Riverside Drive National Register Historic District.[63]
Regarded as the first purpose-built fraternity house on the University of Pennsylvania campus, the original Delta Psi house was a Florentine or Renaissance Revival style design by Wilson Eyre Jr.[50][18] It is located at 32 South 22nd Street, across the Schuykill from Penn's West Philadelphia campus.[50] It opened in January 1889, and also housed the St. Anthony Club of Philadelphia.[21] It served the fraternity from 1889 to 1908.[50][18]
In 1907, Cope and Stewardson designed the chapter's next house in the Academic Gothic style.[51]Saint Anthony is depicted in a stained glass window in the stairway landing of the first floor; as seen in the photo to the right, a stone tau cross is also above the second-story windows on the exterior.[51] This brick and limestone three-story house was added to National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as St. Anthony Hall House.[65][51] This chapter house is described and pictured in George E. Nitzsche's University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Traditions, Buildings and Memorials: Also a Brief Guide to Philadelphia.[66]
Upsilon: University of Virginia
The University of Virginia's brick chapter house with two-story tall columns and a spacious portico was the third fraternity house constructed on Grounds—although it was the first with residential use in mind.[67] Built in 1902, this Colonial Revival or Jeffersonian style house is "beautifully situated on 'Page Hill'" and blends well with the campus architecture designed by Thomas Jefferson.[68] The Upsilon chapter house was designed by J. Harleston Parker, founder of the Harleston Parker Medal.[52] It cost $20,000 to build.[69] The interior was "furnished with taste throughout", and included ten bedrooms, a library, a billiard room, and a 20 by 30 feet (6.1 by 9.1 m) reception room that was paneled in oak.[67][69] There was also electric lighting, running hot and cold water, and steam heat.[67][69] The house is included The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia" by K. Edward Lay.[52]
A gift of fraternity member and recent graduate Robert Habersham Coleman, the Trinity chapter's granite lodge was designed in the rusticated Richardsonian Romanesque style by J. Cleveland Cady in 1878.[70][34] Cady was also a member of Trinity's Epsilon chapter of St. Anthony Hall. This was one of the most expensive fraternity houses in America at the time and was also a "radical departure from the customary tomb-like structures of the secret societies of other campuses".[71] Added in 1985 to the National Register of Historic Places, as Saint Anthony Hall, the Epsilon chapter home is the oldest St. Anthony Hall building still in use by the fraternity.[34] It is also the oldest fraternity house at Trinity, and one of the oldest buildings on campus.[34]
Kappa: Brown University
The Brown University chapter house at 154 Hope Street in Providence, Rhode Island, was designed by Stone, Carpenter & Wilson in the Colonial Revival style in 1895.[72] The house features ogee gables and a conservatory, as well as an addition added in 1961.[72] Originally a private residence for Alice and Robert W. Taft, the brick building was later owned by Bryant University which called it Taft Hall and used it as its administration building from 1947 through 1969.[73][72] When Brown acquired the building in 1969, it was renamed King House in 1974 in honor of Lida Shaw King, former dean of Pembroke College.[74][72] Brown provides King House to the Kappa chapter as a residential student program house.[75]
Lambda: Williams College
The former Williams College chapter house dates from 1886 and was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White.[53][76] White had just designed a New York City townhouse for fraternity member Frederick Ferris Thompson, who provided White to create the Lamba chapter house.[77] The chapter house was constructed in of blue freestone and combines early Norman and Old English styles.[78][53] It has been described as "a witty paraphrase of a Dutch Colonial house, compact in silhouette and terminating in proud stepped gables. But no such Dutch house ever had such an audacious tower, tapered in the fashion of an Egyptian pylon."[77] The interior has "an elaborate interplay of crossbeams on the ceiling combined with heroically oversized fireplaces..."[77]
In 1905, an addition was added to the southwest end that had electricity and included nine bedrooms, a library, four studies, and three bathrooms.[53][76] However, the addition was destroyed by a fire in May 1926, probably the result of faulty electrical wiring.[53][76] Architect Roger Bullard and local contractors restored the wing.[53][76] However, on January 21, 1927, another fire destroyed the new southwest wing, and the dining room ceiling collapsed, blowing out the windows on the first floor.[53][76] Another addition was added to the south, but does not impact the main view of the house.[77]
Because fraternities were banned at Williams in the 1960s, Lambda chapter sold its building to the college in 1970.[76] The still-named Saint Anthony Hall now houses the college's Center for Developmental Economics.[79] The 17,540 square feet (1,630 m2)building was renovated and refurbished in 1996.[79][53] It still includes a bronze relief memorial to fraternity member Frederick Ferris Thompson, designed in 1906 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.[77]
Phi: University of Mississippi
A former Phi chapter house was subsequently a childhood home Nobel LaureateWilliam Faulkner.[citation needed] The Faulkner famlily lived there from 1912 to 1922 when fraternities were outlawed at the University of Mississippi.[citation needed] Sited where the Alumni Center Hotel now stands, this late 19th-century brick turreted house was the first building of note that incoming freshmen saw when they walked from the train station to campus.[80]
Sigma: Yale University
The original Sigma chapter house was built in 1879 and no longer exists.[81] This five-story building was said to be "the finest thing of the kind in any university in the country".[81] In 1885, the chapter built a new house, also no longer in existence, that was designed by Harrison W. Lindsley who was a member of the Yale chapter.[82][54] It was a Richardsonian Romanesque style structure built of red sandstone.[54][82] In 1894, the chapter started construction of a dormitory building designed by George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge of the firm Heins & LaFarge.[24] Located at 133 College Street, the dormitory housed 26 men and was named St. Anthony Hall—perhaps the first use of that name.[24] It was built of East Haven sandstone to match the nearby chapter house and featured large parlors, a 20 by 30 feet (6.1 by 9.1 m) library filled with books, a porch with carved stone decorations, and servants quarters.[24]
Around 1903, fraternity member Frederick William Vanderbilt commissioned a gift of two limestone residential halls adjacent to the chapter house.[54] These were constructed between 1903 and 1906.[54][83] Next, Vanderbilt hired Charles C. Haight to create a matching Neo-Gothic style chapter house which was completed in 1913 at 483 College Street.[54][2] The ornamental iron gates from the second chapter house were re-used at the corner entrance of the new octagonal tower.[54] It is believed that Rafael Guastavino Jr. built the domed ceiling in a basement room called The Crypt; Guastavino previously worked on Biltmore Estate for Vanderbilt's younger brother.[83] The Crypt "has a wonderful sound parabola, where someone standing in one corner can whisper and be heard across the room by someone standing in the opposite corner".[83] The New York Times called it "the most expensive and elaborate secret society building in the United States".[84]
The flanking residential halls are now part of Silliman College; St. Anthony Hall donated them to the university when Yale started a campus residential system in the 1930s.[4]
Tau: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The first Tau chapter house was designed by J.P. Fuller and built circa 1834–37 in the Greek Revival style. It was located at 6 Louisburg Square in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood.[38] The building also housed the St. Anthony Club of Boston.[21] This address is the origin of the nickname for the Tauchapter—the Number Six Club.[6][38] The chapter's current multi-stored structure at 428 Memorial Drive was first occupied in 1916.[38] It was designed by Boston architect Henry Forbes Bigelow, an alumnus of the Tau chapter.[55]
St. Anthony Club of New York
Designed by architect S.E. Gage, the former St. Anthony Club of New York was located at 16 East 64th Street in New York City.[85] Originally built between 1878 and 1879, Gage redesigned the building between 1902 and 1904 in the Neo-Federal style.[86][85] The five-story brownstone includes limestone columns, a detailed, wrought-iron front door and gate, a limestone and marble entry foyer, and a bronze and wrought-iron main staircase.[87][88] In addition, the townhouse boasted ornate moldings, high ceilings, skylights, oak Versailles parquet floors, and six wood-burning fireplaces.[86] The building is on a historically distinguished residential street and is included in the walking tour of 64th Street.[87]
Beginning in 1951, St. Anthony Hall used this building as an alumni city club and as headquarters for its national offices; the fraternity (Delta Psi, Inc.) purchased the building in 1952.[89] In the early 1970s, the Barnard College Club leased space in the St. Anthony Club building.[90] The fraternity closed its club and sold the building in 1990; the former club is now a private residence.[91]
Related campus buildings
Yale chapter member and benefactor Henry Prentiss Becton donated the Becton Center to Yale.[92] Designed by Marcel Breuer, the Becton Center opened in 1970.[93] Located at 15 Prospect Street in New Haven, the building's most distinctive feature is an arcade of monumental tau cross-shaped concrete columns.[93][94]
Alumni groups
Foundations
The St. Anthony Educational Foundation Inc. is a charitable entity that supports the educational and cultural programs and activities of the fraternity through grants and scholarships to its chapters.[95][96]
Graduate Chapter Organizations
St. Anthony Hall has several incorporated graduate chapter associations that exist to support its chapters and/or their buildings. The Anthony Trust association was chartered in Connecticut in 1874.[97] Known graduate chapters include:
1853 Foundation, aka the Lambda Foundation (Lambda chapter)[98][31]
Anthony Trust Association of New Haven (Sigma chapter)[99][97]
St. Anthony Association of Boston (Tau chapter) [102]
St. Anthony Association of North Carolina Inc., also known as St. Anthony Association (Xi chapter)[103]
St. Anthony Association of Virginia (Upsilon chapter)[104]
St. Anthony Club of Mississippi (Phi chapter)[105]
St. Anthony Hall of New York, Inc. (Alpha chapter)[106]
St. Anthony Literary Association of Princeton (Theta chapter)
St. Anthony Trust of Hartford Inc. (Epsilon chapter)[107]
St. Anthony Trust of Rhode Island (Kappa chapter)[108]
Clubs and area organizations
Historically, there were several alumni social clubs associated with the fraternity—the 1890 edition of Baird's credits the Delta Psi with being "a pioneer in the development of this form of social life".[8] These clubs usually adopted the name St. Anthony Club because the fraternity's badge was a St. Anthony's cross.[8]
St. Anthony Club of New York
Founded in 1879, the St. Anthony Club of New York was the first and longest-running of these establishments.[8][9] It was the first fraternity-related club in New York City and was "flourishing" at 29 East 28th Street; a location it shared with the undergraduate chapter, by 1883.[58][8]
In 1885, the club added an addition to the rear of the building, and The New York Times gave its readers a rare peek inside the club:
The front room is a parlor with tables for cards. In cases on the mantlepiece are "Goodwood Cups," trophies of which the club is justly proud. The furniture and fittings here are in cherry, with harmonious upholstery and walls. Several fine prints are to be seen, including views of buildings of the Delta Psi at Yale, Trinity, and other colleges. A passageway, richly decorated in the baronial style of the twelfth century, leads from the office past the buffet, in a crypt under the stairs, to a large room, which, with a noble open fireplace, offers, in cosy [sic] leather cushions, in stalls in the corners and more spacious chairs, a quiet retreat. The fantastic and unique latticework of the windows attracts attention, with the bold and artistic studding of the ceiling, and ornate chandeliers especially manufactured emit their jets of gas from imitation candles...This is the smoking and lounging room.[60]
The club also included a billiard room with high oak wainscotting and walls of a blueish-green with hints of gold, an entire floor dedicated to its library, and a national fraternity office decorated with illustrations of the temptations of St. Anthony.[60] It was also noted that the membership and dues were low, "so as to prevent no one who is eligible from joining".[60] Membership was limited to alumni of the Delta Psi fraternity, and no others could gain entry.[60] In 1893, St. Anthony Hall was referred to by the New-York Tribune as "the most exclusive organization of the kind in the United States".[109]
On July 4, 1912, the St. Anthony Club purchased the house of Edith S. Logan, widow of John A. Logan, located at 17 West 56th Street in New York City.[57] The club used its 1879 Alpha chapter house as a partial payment to Logan.[57] In 1929, the club purchased the Junior League's five-story clubhouse at 133–35 61st Street, selling 17 West 56th Street in 1931.[110] In 1936, the club and the fraternity's office were jointly housed in a penthouse of the Berkshire Hotel at 21 East 52nd Street.[111] The club relocated to an apartment at 270 Park Avenue in 1944.[111] However, by the early 1980s, the club was located in a brownstone at 16 East 64th Street and was no longer financially sustainable.[85][89] With the city's property boom, by 1988 the brownstone was worth $3.5 million versus $1 million in 1984. The fraternity decided to close the club and liquidate the asset to free funds for other projects.[89] In 1989, the fraternity borrowed money to fix structural problems and other issues with the building.[91] The St Anthony Club of New York building sold in 1990 for $3,250,000, although the net to the organization was significantly less because of debts, stockholder payouts, and taxes.[91]
Other historic clubs
Known as the St. Andrews Club, the alumni group in Detroit, Michigan, started meeting annually in 1883.[112] The St. Anthony Club in Philadelphia was established before 1888 when it shared a new building with the undergraduate chapter.[113][21] There was also a St. Anthony Club in Rochester, New York prior to 1890.[8] The St. Anthony Club in Boston was established before 1898 and shared a building in Beacon Hill with the undergraduate chapter at MIT.[114][21] The St. Anthony Club of the Northwest was organized in 1890 after having semi-annual dinner gatherings.[115][116] In 1904, the St. Anthony Club of Bar Harbor, Maine gathered for its annual dinner.[117] There was also a St. Anthony Club of Bermuda.[9]
Modern clubs
Known modern alumni social groups include the Paris St. Anthony Hall Association, the St. Anthony Association of New Jersey, the St. Anthony Association of Nova Scotia, the St. Anthony Association of Rhode Island, the St. Anthony Association of Southern Arizona, the St. Anthony Association of Washington, D.C., and the St. Anthony Club of Philadelphia.[118][119][120]
In popular culture
The exclusive Hamilton House from the television show Gossip Girl was based on St. Anthony Hall's Columbia chapter.[28][5][121]
The "St. Ray's" fraternity in Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons is modeled after the University of Pennsylvania chapter where Wolfe attended a cocktail party in 2001 while conducting research for the book.[7]
The cover art of rock band Vampire Weekend's first album is of the Columbia chapter's ballroom chandelier, taken at one of the band's early shows.[5][121]
In June 1971, Vogue magazine featured the newly coed University of North Carolina chapter in an article called "Vogue's Eye View on Girl Power".[122]
The society tabloid Gawker said "In the constellation of collegiate societies—fraternities, sororities, eating clubs, final clubs, and the like—few are more exclusive, and WASPy, as St. Anthony Hall, or St. A's as it is commonly known..."[123]
The Official Preppy Handbook says, "St. A's appeals to the 'cool element' of Preppies at Yale; this means Preppies who don't iron their shirts. It isn't rowdy: parties there conform to the intellectual self-image Yalies hold dear."[124]
The University of Mississippi chapter house is said to be haunted by a brother, Jim Bridges, who died in a car wreck on the way back from a LSU football game in 1964.[125]
During a fellowship on campus in December 1967, California Governor Ronald Reagan was filmed by public television informally debating Yale students at St. Anthony Hall. Nancy Reagan is also present, as the Yalies quiz the governor on Vietnam and various social justice issues.[126]
During the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897, Jack London befriend two mining engineers who were members of the Yale chapter—Marshall Latham Bond and Louis Whitford Bond.[128] They designated their cabin a chapter house, and let London camp by it for six weeks.[128] Buck, the canine protagonist of London's Call of the Wild, was inspired by the Bond brother's dog.[128] The Bond's father, Judge Hiram Bond from California, is lightly fictionalized in Call of the Wild as Judge Miller.[128]
John O'Hara, in his 1960 novel Ourselves to Know, uses St. Anthony Hall membership in the characterizations of the protagonists:
"'Did you join a fraternity at Penn?' I said. 'Yes I did. St Anthony–Delta Psi. But I think they were sorry that they invited me.' ...I happened to know, because I had seen it, that he had a Delta Psi Tea Company gold charm on his watch chain, but the reason he did not show it was one of delicacy; in 1908 they had not accepted his resignation but he kept the insigne hidden..."
"He and Robert quickly looked at each other's watch-chain and the Delta Psi charm and smiled."
F. Scott Fitzgerald refers to the Pump and Slipper, an annual party at the Yale chapter since 1911, in several of his short stories:[2]
"May Day" in Tales of the Jazz Age: "'My name's Dean, Philip Dean,' he said cheerfully. 'You don't remember me, I know, but you used to come up to New Haven with a fellow I roomed with senior year, Gordon Sterrett.' Edith looked up quickly. 'Yes, I went up with him twice—to the Pump and Slipper and the Junior prom.'"
"Bernice Bobs Her Hair": "Warren was nineteen and rather pitying with those of his friends who hadn't gone East to college. But, like most boys, he bragged tremendously about the girls of his city when he was away from it. There was Genevieve Ormonde, who regularly made the rounds of dances, house-parties, and football games at Princeton, Yale, Williams, and Cornell; there was black-eyed Roberta Dillon, who was quite as famous to her own generation as Hiram Johnson or Ty Cobb; and, of course, there was Marjorie Harvey, who besides having a fairylike face and a dazzling, bewildering tongue was already justly celebrated for having turned five cart-wheels in succession during the last pump-and-slipper dance at New Haven."
"A Short Trip Home", Saturday Evening Post, January 17, 1927: "There was talk of the Pump and Slipper dance at New Haven and the Princeton Prom, and then, in various moods, we four left and separated quickly outside."
Scandals and controversies
In 1889, a death was reported in a hazing incident at the Yale chapter.[129] According to the news report, a pledge was placed in a coffin and lowered outside a window with a rope.[129] When the coffin was pulled up, the pledge, who was of a "nervous temperament", was found dead.[129]
In 1896, the fraternity revoked the charter of the University of Rochester Iota chapter without warning.[130] Apparently, the fraternity had concerns about the University of Rochester, which had declined in its estimation, rather than the chapter.[130] The Iota Chapter did not reopen until 2010.[6]
In 1901, there was a kidnapping attempt of member R. H. Rogers of the Williams chapter.[131][132] He was rescued from the kidnapper's carriage by another student who had a revolver.[131][132]
In October 1961, members of the University of Virginia chapter chartered an airplane to Connecticut to try and stop the Yale chapter from admitting the fraternity's first black member, Wendell Mottley.[134] However, Yale University warned that a fraternity showing discrimination "would not be welcome on the Yale campus".[134] Mottley became a member of St. Anthony Hall.[135]
In the 1960s, fraternity member Jeff MacNeely was commissioned to create a painting of the Carolina Inn which was next door to the UNC chapter's house.[136] MacNeely would go on to fame for his comic strip Shoe, and the painting disappeared from the inn in the 1970s.[136] The painting was found at a yard sale in 2009 and made its way back to the Carolina Inn.[136]
In 1990, a member from the University of Pennsylvania chapter was kidnapped by members of Psi Upsilon (Castle).[137][138] As a result, Castle was banned from the university.[137]
On January 11, 2003, the fraternity held a private black-tie dinner-dance at the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D.C.[139] According to The Washington Post. the $38,000 event "turned into a bacchanal" with same-sex dancing, the theft of decorative items, under-aged drinking, and sexual encounters in the locker rooms.[139] The Metropolitan Club suspended Charlie Ingersoll and Jack Shaw, the members who sponsored the event, for one month.[139] The letter sent to Shaw and Ingersoll by the Metropolitan Club president said, "The behavior was grossly inappropriate and offensive to many of the staff who worked during the event and violated the standards of our Club."[139]
In September 2005, the UNC chapter was charged with running "a speakeasy of sorts".[140] The fraternity's president and the bartender were charged with selling alcohol without a State permit.[141] However, the president was cleared of charges because the law enforcement officer failed to read her the Miranda rights.[142]
In 2011, St. Anthony Hall alumni Walter Perry was convicted of embezzling $650,000 from the Columbia chapter.[5] He served two years in prison and was ordered to pay restitution.[5] Perry was also drummed out of the fraternity.[5]
^In addition to St. Anthony Hall, Yale's other old-line Eastern fraternities (~junior societies) named their buildings with "Hall" nicknames by which they wished to be known on campus: thus the Theta Xi chapter was Franklin Hall, Phi Sigma Kappa's Epsilon chapter adopted the name Sachem Hall, Chi Delta Theta (local literary honorary) established the Manuscript Society, Sigma Delta Chi (local) was renamed the Cloister Club which soon became Book and Snake. Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) was Vernon Hall which later became Myth and Sword, Chi Phi was York Hall, Psi Upsilon became the Fence Club, and finally, similarly-named Delta Phi was known at Yale as St. Elmo's. Delta Psi's St. Anthony Hall nickname spread throughout its chapters. A.T. Burrows, ed. (January 1935). "Chapter News: Yale Fraternities Face Oblivion". The Signet, a magazine for members of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity: Vol XXVII, No. 3, pg 112.
^ abcLandmark Preservation Commission. "Notice of Public Hearing"(PDF). New York City. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 26, 2007. Retrieved March 2, 2007.
