North American fraternity and sorority housing

North American fraternity and sorority housing refers largely to the houses or housing areas in which fraternity and sorority members live and work together. In addition to serving as housing, fraternity and sorority housing may also serve to host social gatherings, meetings, and functions that benefit the community.

"Frat house" and "sorority house" redirect here. For the 1998 documentary, see Frat House. For the 1939 film, see Sorority House (film).

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at Lafayette College in Easton, PA

History

The first fraternity house seems to have been located at Alpha Epsilon of Chi Psi at the University of Michigan around 1846.[1] As fraternity membership was punishable by expulsion at many colleges at this time, the house was located deep in the woods.[2]

Fraternity chapter housing initially existed in two forms: lodges that served as meeting rooms and houses that had boarding rooms.[3] The lodges came first and were largely replaced by houses with living accommodations. Lodges were often no more than rented rooms above stores or taverns. The idea of substantial fraternity housing caught on quickly but was accomplished with much greater ease in the North as southern college students had far less available money for construction.[4] The first fraternity house in the South was likely one rented by members of Beta Theta Pi at Hampden–Sydney College from at least 1856. Alpha Tau Omega was then the first fraternity to own a house in the South when, in 1880, its chapter at The University of the South acquired one.[5]

Early chapters of women's fraternities often rented houses where they could live together, usually with a chaperone. This was in a day before colleges and universities had housing available. The first chapter house built by a women's fraternity was the one Alpha Phi erected one at Syracuse University in 1886.[6]

Many colleges eventually came to support fraternity and sorority housing as they allowed increased enrollment without construction of costly dormitories. The nature of this benefit varied between campuses as some houses were paid for entirely by alumni, some were rented, and some were built on land leased from the college. It was further recognized that, while fraternities having chapter houses did not raise academic performance, it did have a tendency to keep it from falling as the chapters could not afford (financially) to have members leaving school and no longer paying for their rooms.[7]

The Inter-Sorority Congress of 1913 saw the establishment of uniform rules and regulations regarding life in chapter houses.[8]

The number of houses owned by fraternities and sororities grew from 772 in 1915 to 928 in 1920.[9]

University of Illinois, Sigma Pi house in Urbana, IL

Design

Fraternity and sorority houses range in size from three to twenty bedrooms or more. They can usually be identified by large Greek letters or flags on the front of the house. The larger houses generally have a large meeting room and/or dining room, commercial kitchen and study room. There is usually a lounge of some sort, access to which is often restricted to fully initiated members. Fraternities and sororities will also often maintain a chapter room, to which only initiates may ever be admitted and even whose existence may be kept secret. The walls of the house may be decorated with pictures of past chapter events, awards and trophies, decorative (or historic) paddles, or composite photos of members from past years.

In some fraternities or sororities, only the representatives live in the houses while in others the entire fraternity or sorority may live in the house. Other, larger fraternities or sororities may have more than one house to accommodate all of its members.

At many colleges, Greek houses are placed on the same street which is traditionally referred to as "Greek Row."[10][11]

Policies

Florida State University, Sigma Pi house in Tallahassee, FL

Fraternity and sorority houses are typically owned either by a corporation of alumni, the sponsoring national organization, or the host college. For this reason, such houses may be subject to the rules of the host college, the national organization, or both.

Due to the increase in widely publicized alcohol-related deaths on college campuses, many national organizations and host colleges have implemented dry housing policies in which the consumption and possession of alcohol is prohibited on house property.[12] Some colleges make this policy conditional on overall grade performance.

In addition to banning alcohol, many university-owned fraternity and sorority houses have smoking bans in place inside.[13]

Because of residential requirements, some college campuses and national chapter administrations also prohibit members of the opposite sex on certain floors of fraternity and sorority houses.

Notable large houses

Rank	Square Footage	Fraternity or Sorority	University Affiliation	Location	Year Completed
1	55,500[14]	Phi Gamma Delta	Indiana University	Bloomington, Indiana	2016
2	46,356[15]	Kappa Kappa Gamma	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, Arkansas	2013
3	42,000[16]	Pi Beta Phi	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, Arkansas	2016
4	40,352[17]	Delta Chi	Florida State University	Tallahassee, Florida	2005
5 (tie)	40,000[18]	Alpha Chi Omega	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2014
5 (tie)	40,000[19]	Delta Upsilon	University of Missouri	Columbia, Missouri	2015
5 (tie)	40,000[20]	Gamma Phi Beta	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2015
8	39,500[21]	Pi Kappa Alpha	Florida State University	Tallahassee, Florida	2005
9	39,444[22]	Phi Mu	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2016
10	39,264[23][24]	Sigma Pi	Florida State University	Tallahassee, Florida	2005
11	38,853[25]	FarmHouse	Oklahoma State University	Stillwater, Oklahoma	2012
12	36,884[26]	Pi Kappa Alpha	Indiana University	Bloomington, IN	2016
13	36,818[27]	Alpha Gamma Rho	Oklahoma State University	Stillwater, Oklahoma	2015
14	35,000[28]	Phi Kappa Psi	University of Kansas	Lawrence, Kansas	2005
15	34,800[29]	Delta Gamma	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2012
16	33,783[30]	Alpha Tau Omega	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2011
17	33,557[31]	Chi Omega	University of Missouri	Columbia, Missouri	2013
18	32,445[32]	Beta Theta Pi	University of Missouri	Columbia, Missouri	2012
19	32,400[33]	Delta Tau Delta	Iowa State University	Ames, Iowa	2015
20	32,000[34]	Pi Kappa Alpha	Oklahoma State University	Stillwater, Oklahoma	2017
21 (tie)	31,000[35]	Pi Kappa Phi	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2014
21 (tie)	31,000[36]	Phi Kappa Psi	Indiana University	Bloomington, Indiana	2014
23	30,534[37]	Kappa Alpha Theta	Oklahoma State University	Stillwater, Oklahoma
24 (tie)	30,000[38]	Pi Kappa Alpha	Missouri Science & Technology	Rolla, Missouri	2007
24 (tie)	30,000[39]	Alpha Omicron Pi	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, Arkansas	2009[40]
26	29,100[41]	Kappa Sigma	University of Oklahoma	Norman, Oklahoma	2014
27 (tie)	29,000[42]	Phi Gamma Delta	University of Oklahoma	Norman, Oklahoma	2008
27 (tie)	29,000[43]	Alpha Tau Omega	Kansas State University	Manhattan, Kansas	2013
29	28,500[44]	Kappa Sigma	Missouri Science & Technology	Rolla, Missouri	2011
30	28,070[45]	Sigma Sigma Sigma	University of Missouri	Columbia, Missouri	2012
31	28,051[46]	Sigma Nu	University of Oklahoma	Norman, Oklahoma	2017
32 (tie)	28,000[47]	Pi Kappa Alpha	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, Arkansas	2015
32 (tie)	27,000[48][49]	Pi Kappa Alpha	University of Illinois	Champaign, Illinois	2011
32 (tie)	27,000[50]	Sigma Chi	University of New Mexico	Albuquerque, New Mexico	1951
35	26,600[51]	Alpha Chi Omega	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, Arkansas	2018
36	26,500[52]	Sigma Chi	University of Alabama	Tuscaloosa, Alabama	2012
37	26,000[53]	Phi Sigma Kappa	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	Troy, New York	2011
38	25,814[54]	Phi Gamma Delta	University of Arizona	Tucson, Arizona	2004
39	25,425[55]	Sigma Alpha Epsilon	University of Cincinnati	Cincinnati, Ohio	1925
40	25,000[56]	Kappa Sigma	University of Arkansas	Fayetteville, Arkansas	1931

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