January 15, 1924 Vol. 5, No. 4, Part 2

Carl Juline is a Badass.
This is the same Carl Juline from Anthemios who moved to Los Angeles, who Brother Christen of Anthemios (it turns out), was trying to set up with his old girlfriend. Well.. Brother Juline has bought himself a fancy Christmas Present of a brand new 1924 Ford Coupe (picture above). Not to be the kind of guy with any old Ford Coup... oh no. Carl sprung for the red wheels, and further customized it with his initials on the doors. However, the coup de gras is the large letters "APX" emblazoned on the spare wheel cover.

If I were Lester Christen, I'd be looking out for my ex-girlfriend's reputation. Mr. Juline might be moving a bit to fast for that old gal. After all, the day that he showed up with the vehicle, a crowd of co-eds formed, which led to him getting 17 phone numbers.

I must say, Stanley Cundiff is one hell of an Archi Reporter. He knocks his articles out of the park every time.

January 15, Vol. 5, No. 4 - Part 1

Convention Recap!

A mere 11 days after the close of convention, the recap was already out to the masses. Being charged with the duty of putting out a similar recap for the past 6 years, their punctuality makes me blush, i have to admit.

If you have been following along with the Archi, many of the updates are old news. However, here afe a few items of business discussed at the 9th convention:

Dinocrates
A petition of the Delta Club from the University of Texas was granted approval, thus inaugurating the Dinocrates Colony. Though, they didn't necessarily call the colonies back then. This group, aptly lead by Professor & Brother Raymond Everett of Iktinos, has 11 interested bodies.

Los Angeles Alumni Group
The LA alumni group was officially recognized. Of the 3 board members, none were originally from Andronicus. Glen Ingles was initiated as Mnesicles, but transferred to USC, and thus became a member of the Andronicus Chapter (BTW, served as their WA for a period of time.)
The other oficers were David E. Postle Jr. of Anthemios (Son of Honorary Brother David E. Postle Sr.) and Chester L. Carolja of Mnesicles (former Archi Editor).

Alumni Associations
Alumni Associations, as we know them today, specific to each chapter, came to be at the 9th convention. The idea was known as "the Chicago Plan" as it was put forth by the Chicago Alumni Group. Until this time, all alumni associations were established by city. By 1924, we had alumni groups in Chicago, Minneapolis/Minnesota, Columbus, Detroit, and Los Angeles (see above). This change in structure allows for the city based organizations to remain in place, but operate purely as a social organization. Though the official plan hasn't been spelled out for us in this issue, it would seem to me that this change may have been the death knell for city based alumni groups.

The Sister Pin
The 59th convention brought out a lot of discussion about the sister pin. Funnily, 50 conventions previous, it was asserted that The Sister Pin, which in this issue is described as "A larger size of the crest than is now worn as a guard..." shall only be worn by blood relations. Are we meant to assume that giving said pin to the lady in your life was verboten by the convention? I think so..
This is not going to be the last time we see something about the Sister Pin.

Changes to the Ritual
The Grand Lecturer, Rexford Newcomb presented his revisions to The Ritual, and they were subsequently adopted. The intent of these revisions were to provide a means to which each chapter could easily provide the same show, and included blueprints, and costume drawings. Likely, this is the version of The Ritual that has been retained by the Andronicus Chapter. This is a must-read for all you Ritual-o-philes! Page 3, people.

But most fascinating is the Editorial located on page 4. Those crazy Anthemians presented a paper that proposed an ADDITIONAL 5 degrees. That's right. not a total of 5, but an addition of 5... for a total of 8. The additional 5 called for separate degrees to distinguish a brother upon graduation, upon recognition in the profession, to distinguish faculty members, and to distinguish master architects.

After the discussion at the 58th convention to incorporate an alumni oath into the ritual, I am beginning to have that sinking feeling that every new idea any of us ever had, in regards to this fraternity, may not, in fact, be new at all.

I bet you can guess how this discussion went down. but if you want to know for sure, the last line of the editorial reads: "All APX men are brothers on the same footing when initiated; let us safeguard that ideal no matter what the circumstances intervene afterwards." Well said.

January 3, 1924, Special Edition

Yay!! Convention is On!!

The 9th Convention of Alpha Rho Chi was held at the Curtis Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The image above is an image of the exterior of this hotel. Below is an image of the space in which our banquet was likely held.

This 1 page Archi is a special edition noting the immediate highlights of convention. In fact, if this issue was written in the middle of convention, considering the event was scheduled for January 2-4, 1924. The majority of the reporting is on the opening dinner dance, and is followed by items yet to be covered.

I wonder why they did this? Is this the closest the 1924 version of us had to instant messaging?

God Bless the Archi Staff to not only list all of the attendees, but also the ladies who accompanied them as their dates. It makes me wonder how each of these Lady Golden Gophers were assigned to each of our brothers. Were they matched up by height? Was there a lady-auction a la Pirates of Carribean? Why didn't Norman Palmquist of Paeonios get a date? Poor Norman.

We are also graced with the banquet menu, which was probably really fancy, but reminds me of an Anthemian Sunday Night Formal Dinner. In fact if we switched out the ice cream and cake or pie with "nilla wafers and pudding" it would be almost exactly the same.

Special thanks to Rick Jenkins in sleuthing out these photos.

December 15, 1923, Volume 5, Number 3

This issue of the Archi is a nice precursor to the impending convention, which will begin on Janury 2nd at 10am in Minneapolis Minnesota. This would mean that many of our brothers spent the new year in transit.

Just as Anthemios brother Fred G. Rounds gave us a little bit of foreshadowing by accepting a position as an instructor at Washington State University, in this issue, Paeonios Faculty Brother C. F. Baker has accepted a position as the head of the architecture department at the University of Cincinnati.

The Balance of the issue contains the Grand Council Directory, which contains every known brother and pledge, living & dead. It's fascinating to look and see that even back in 1923, our brothers were often flung far from their home universities to embark upon their architecture careers.

A number of our brothers had taken up residence at their local YMCA, undoubtedly a common option with few innuendoes at this time. According to the YMCA, the organization, which was founded in England, began including dormitories in their facilities around 1880. These dormitories were incorporated in the programs for all new YMCA facilities until the late 1950's. The photograph above, taken in 1915 is the YMCA in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Database Project - Post GC Directory

The 12/15/23 issue of The Archi includes the Grand Council's Directory, containing all brothers and pledges known to them at that moment. It's amazing to think that at one point, our entire membership could be printed on 6 pages!
Comparing what was in the database previously, here is where we now stand:

We are now 10 issues in. We now have 753 unique names.

The chapter breakdown is as follows:
Anthemios - 151
Iktinos - 161
Mnesicles - 122
Demetrios - 124
Andronicus - 40
Kallikrates - 20
Paeonios - 34

Some observations,

• Paeonios is HUGE for a chapter that has been active for less than a year.
• Iktinos went from 90 to 161, which to me, means they hadn't been specifically mentioning brothers by names in their updates. Let's see if that continues.
• There are a large amount of siblings who have joined the fraternity. It's interesting to me how during this time period, architecture in a lot of cases, was viewed as a family business. I wonder if that was because many young men were not granted the opportunity to choose their own destinies?

Database Progress

At this time, we are 9 issues in. In the database, there are 635 unique names.
The chapter breakdown is as follows:
Anthemios - 139
Iktinos - 95
Mnesicles - 108
Demetrios - 116
Andronicus - 30
Kallikrates - 19
Paeonios - 19

Those numbers do not add up to 635 because there is a great deal of brothers who have been mentioned but I couldn't determine which chapter they were from. Also, there are a great deal of non brothers mentioned; faculty, lecturers, employers, wives & parents. Though they are not brothers, I've committed to keeping them in as well. In many instances, those non brothers are initiated as honorary members, and those wives assist in many chapter events. Also, you'd be surprised at some of the influential parents some of our brothers had.

The next issue, dated 12/15/23 consists primarily of a Grand Council Database, and should round out all the members of the fraternity to date. I'm excited for the project. I'm not excited for my eyes and fingers. It will take a while, so please bear with me.

November 15, 1923, Vol. 5, No. 2 Part 2

Andronicus: Home Away from Home

Some things never change. A repeating theme in the Archi's thus far is the fact that the Andronicus Chapter continuously welcomes brothers from all over the country who visit, transfer, or settle down in the Los Angeles Area. It's nice to see that Andronicus has always had an "open arms" policy, especially since I have been on the receiving end of one of those Andronican Hugs for the last 7 years.

If you haven't figured it out, I'm completely in love with my hometown of Los Angeles, and one of the things that I love most about it is its cultural diversity; the blurring of Mexican, African American, Korean, Armenian, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Chinese, Greek, Peruvian, Russian, and so many more cultures. It's the reason why the hottest thing in LA right now is something called the Kogi Taco, which is a Korean Barbecue on a Taco, that is served from a roving catering truck. http://kogibbq.com/

In a way, Andronicus has always been the Kogi Taco of Alpha Rho Chi, mixing their fabulous weather and excellent football with Anthemian, Daedalan, Cossutian, Satyran, and Hadrian cultures. This point is illustrated by the fact that at the Sostratus Installation last April, people from 10 different chapters were present for the festivities. Half of the active chapters were represented!

In 1923, Andronicus was visited by brothers from Iktinos, Demetrios & Mnesicles. At the time, we had 6 chapters, so percentage wise, they had us beat.

Los Angeles in 1923

The Bimini Bath's Incident...
A Curious incident at the Bimini Baths - Andronicus Pledge was injured saving a young lady at the Bimini Baths. Having never heard of it, I did a little research.
The baths were located on the western edge of LA at the time, in the area that is now considered Koreatown. The western edge of the city is now considered the ocean, which is a good 15 miles further west of this site. The photograph below is a photo of the site. The baths could be accessed easily by our brothers using the Red Car, whose tracks can be seen in the photograph. Currently very little of this site remains. (Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library)

Thanks to the LA Eco Village Blog which already did the excellent footwork on this research project. http://laecovillage.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/ride-the-streetcar-to-the-bimini-baths/

The Hall of Justice...
Brother Roy Boxmeyer, Mnesicles, came to Los Angeles with the specific purpose of working on the new Los Angeles Hall of Justice. It was built as part of a massive overhaul to the Los Angeles Civic Center. In the photo below, the Hall of Justice is shown completed; the square building on the right. It is accompanied by the Los Angeles County Courthouse (center) and the Los Angeles Hall of Records, (Left) (Photo from the USC Digital Archives)


The Hall of Justice is the only 1 of these three buildings that remain. The building houses a series of courtrooms, jails and is capable of performing autopsies. It is historically known for jailing and trying notorious criminals such as Charles Manson & Sirhan Sirhan. Also it is known to have been the site of Marilyn Monroe's Autopsy. In popular culture, the building is extensively featured in television shows such as Dragnet, (which is about to get its own postage stamp), Get Smart & CHiP's.

The building was heavily damaged in the 1994 earthquake, however, it is currently undergoing extensive renovations and repairs, which is slightly visible in the current photo below. (Photo from the Los Angeles Public Library)

November 15, 1923, Vol. 5, No. 2 Part 1

Expansion: 1920's Style.

The early attempts at expansion for this fraternity seems to be dominated by brothers of a certain chapter becoming faculty at another university. The "new" chapters at USC, UVA & KSU were all initiated by faculty members who were brothers at other chapters.
At this stage in the project, less than 10 years since the foundation of the fraternity, we have faculty planted at North Dakota Agricultural College, North Carolina State College, Washington State College (that's right.. in Pullman), Harvard University, Iowa State University & New York University. However, most interesting of all are the brothers who are teaching at the University of Texas in Austin (Raymond Everett, Iktinos,), and Oklahoma A & M College (Joseph J. Patterson, Anthemios, '17).

We have the benefit of knowing that both of these chapters were established in 1925, and on page 3 of this issue, there's an indication that a chapter may be in the works at Texas. Knowing that Cass Gilbert was the master planner at this university and a Master Architect during this time period puts it all into deeper perspective.

For the Betterment...

A curious editorial on page 4 of this issue notes that many of our chapters have been planning events on the Sabbath. What's worse is, they're planning events on Saturday nights that go into the wee hours of the morning, therefore also violating the Sabbath. Tsk Tsk.
No disrespect from me, of course, for any brother or person who is observant of their particular sabbath. I would hate for anyone to sully the fair name of Alpha Rho Chi by holding events on the Sabbath. And Kudos to Mnesicles for instead holding their initiations and "oriental night" on one of the "other 6 days of the week."

oh sweet irony.