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.

October 15, 1923, Vol. 5, No. 1 Part 1

Thank you to the Prelinger Archives for this clip.

Page 6 of this issue includes an article by Berkeley Hardman, Demetrios, that vividly describes the Berkeley Fire of 1923. I find it interesting that a man named Berkeley ends up living in Berkeley. Was it predestined?

The clip is strikingly similar to the description supplied by Brother Hardman.


Changes to The Ritual?

See the letter on Page 5 from Grand Lecturer Rexford Newcomb, which outlines his thoughts about The Ritual. Many explanations can be drawn for the way in which our ritual is currently played out. Keep in mind, the fraternity was only 9 years old at this point, and the secret works may not have been viewed so much like "Gospel" as it we tend to do today.

April 1922, Vol. 3, No. 1, Part 1

If you ever wondered how our fraternity dealt with the way architectural education shifted from a 4 year program to a more solidified professional degree, look no further than the article by Rexford Newcomb, called "Tendencies in the Architectural Education World. At first blush, it looks like a boring article about education, but don't be fooled. It is focused directly on Alpha Rho Chi. And what i find interesting is that the questions that he posed are questions we are still asking ourselves today: Who Are We? What are Allied Arts? How do we deal with some chapters having a 5 year program, while others have a 4-2 program? Quoting him:

"The Fraternity may find itself face to face with the difficulty of reconciling a double-headed condition, we may find ourselves eventually with chapters in which the men remain four years, other chapters in which they remain six years, and still others in which the period of study covers six years with the later four only given over to what may be called professional work."

Just this past weekend, at the summer meeting, we held a pretty tense discussion how to classify graduate students in a 4-2 program; does the member become an alumnus before or after the M.Arch?

For an Honorary Member, Brother Newcomb took a lot of care when writing this paper. It's inspiring whenever I see a faculty member develop a passion for this fraternity.

The majority of this Archi is dedicated to the 7th National Convention held January 2-3 in Champaign, Illinois.

This is the convention where Kallikrates AND Andronicus join the fray. Kallikrates sent two members (who we would today call colonists) where it appears they were promptly given their pledge pins (in ceremonious fashion, of course), and given a seat at the convention table. Later, they were incorporated into the Anthemios pledge class and made brothers. It is indicated that they would go back to UVA and with the help of the Grand Lecturer, initiate the rest of the members of the Kallikrates Club.

The Andronicus Club was approved to become a chapter. This decision was endorsed by Rexford Newcomb, as it was revealed that he taught at USC before coming to teach at the University of Illinois. (This little parallel between Rex and myself, I admit, has filled me with glee.)

This is also the convention where the distinction was made between Faculty Brother and Honorary Brother, and Cass Gilbert was approved to become a Master Architect.. Take note that this approval took place prior to the death of Nathan Clifford Ricker, which happens in 1924.

It is also reported that Dave, the father of Anthemians Dave & G.R. Postle, was initiated as an Honorary member. It didn't take that long for us to get some legacies, did it?

The Formal Banquet took place at the Beardsley Hotel, which was located on Neil Street, just north of Main. Apparently, it was the nicest hotel in town at the time. Photo provided above, thanks to the University of Illinois Archives.