June 25, 1924, Volume 5, Number 9 - Additional

This is a milestone issue of The Archi. Very few issues were able to welcome two new chapters to APX. Fewer still feature a new Master Architect and push the chapter installation news to the bottom of page two. That might not have been the case if The Archi didn't still depend on subscriptions for its survival.

Besides Bro. Gilbert, this issue welcomes three notable new brothers.

Raymond Everett was an instructor in Architecture and freehand drawing at Texas. Although previous issues indicated that he was a member of Iktinos, it turned out that he was actually a faculty member of Sigma Upsilon and that an initiation in Alpha Rho Chi was in order. His bookplate, above, is an example of his skill. He was also known for landscape paintings and murals. Everett stayed with Texas until his death in 1948. A couple biographies are available on UT's servers. The best of these memorials features quotations from several leading individuals familiar to Archi Names readers.

Donald B. Parkinson, with his father John, was a leading architect of Los Angeles. Union Station (above) was one of his final works. He lent his hand on many of the city's Art Deco landmarks including: LA City Hall, Santa Monica City Hall, and the Guarantee Trust Building. Bro. Parkinson's association with Andronicus may be related to his work on many core buildings at USC and - more significantly for Trojan football fans - Memorial Coliseum.

Julien E. Garnsey,* was a notable muralist. When he was initiated by Andronicus, he may have already started working decoration for the Los Angeles Central Library. He was responsible for the mosaics in the library's rotunda (above) and a lifesize freize depicting scenes from "Ivanhoe." A photo of Bro. Garnsey at work is below.

*The middle initial "A" in the chapter report was a typo.

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.

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.