May 15, 1924, Volume 5, Number 8

Housing Boom

The Paeonios Chapter finally established a chapter house, located at 1020 Houston St. Manhattan Kansas. The purchased house was no small hovel. It had been the previous residence of the President of the University, W. M. Jardine. It had been designed by the university architectural department, and had been recently remodeled. It sounds like a lovely place.

Is it still there? You bet it is! It doesn't look like it changed a lick.



On Page 6, we begin to see the first discussions of a real estate development being managed by the Mnesicles alumni. The alumni purchased 5 lots across from the Minnesota Stadium that was under construction at this time. The development is being called "Fraternity Court" and 2 of those lots were reported sold to the Sigma Phil Epsilon fraternity.



That must have been quite a party!



The Andronicus Chapter held it's spring formal at one of Los Angeles's lost landmarks - the Garden of Allah. It was located on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards, on what would now be noted as the eastern end of the Sunset Strip. Initially, the property began as a mansion, built by actress Alla Nazimova, and was notorious for wild parties. The property did not develop into a hotel until 1927, so the chapter may have had shared close quarters with the famous actress, who lived openly as a lesbian.



In the 1930's the Garden of Allah was a regular stomping ground for hollwood types looking for a good time, the most notable of which was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Unfortunately, it was torn down in 1959.



E-Bay alert!

At the above-mentioned party, the female attendees were given silver bracelets mounted with the fraternity crests. If you find one online, you know what to do...



This is not always easy...

On Page 5, the final paragraph of the Mnesicles update, shows evidence of the kind of confusion this project encounters from time to time.

"Milton John Anderson, '20, who was still single at the lsat report is employed by German & Jensen, Architects and engineers
of Duluth. Milton L. Anderson, '21 often his partner in
crime, is also single but is located in Los Angeles with an architectural
office."

After being brothers for three years, you'd think this crazy coincidence would have come up by now. Instead, i had to backtrack and separate the entries for the 2 men on their middle initials.. Initials, i might add, that are NOT terribly far away from in the alphabet OR the keyboard. Shame on me for making the assumption that the editors had made some typos. Goodness knows that they haven't always been perfect....

The AIA Launches Online Historical Directory of American Architects

I just received notification about this project this morning. However, I imagine it will become a great resource as we move forward with this project.

Here is snapshot of what they have to say:

The AIA Historical Directory contains over 57,000 names of U.S. architects and firms—all AIA members from 1857-1978, plus some non-member architects and almost 6,000 historic firms. Under each name, you’ll see:
• what type of information is in the AIA Archives, along with links to files that have already been digitized
• citations and links to entries in a number of published or online reference works (the three volumes of American Architects Directory, published by R.R. Bowker for the American Institute of Architect in 1956, 1962, and 1970 are available in full on the site)
• whether the architect’s drawings and papers are known to be in another archive

To Read More: http://www.aia.org/about/history/aiab082045
Link to the archivehttp://communities.aia.org/sites/hdoaa/wiki/Wiki%20Pages/Find%20Names.aspx

Just to test it out:
Anthemios Brother, E. V. Gauger: http://communities.aia.org/sites/hdoaa/wiki/Wiki%20Pages/ahd1015499.aspx
Mnesicles Brother, Florian Kleinschmidt: http://communities.aia.org/sites/hdoaa/wiki/Wiki%20Pages/ahd1024232.aspx

this is going to be AWESOME!!

April 15, 1924, Volume 5, Number 7 - additional

Laura invited me to be a contributor to this blog, and I'm happy to join the party. (And not just mutter comments to a fern in the corner.) Since this is my second time through, I'll follow our hostess' lead as we waltz through history and let her set the pace. SPOILERS: coat of arms changed, second war in Europe, APX brother dives under North Pole, man walks on moon, chapters at 30+ schools.

In the chapter reports, Iktinos reports:

Our annual Greenwich Village Party was held on March 21-22, as planned. It was the best ever. The decorations were more informal than usual and the spirit of the evening reflected this informality.

This above party photo from Ann Arbor was taken in 1923 or 1924, so it may depict this very party. I'm not sure of the origins of the "Greenwich Village" name, but other issues mention the bohemian bent and artistic character of this tradition. The outrageous makeup on the participants is only rivaled by the extensive decorations that span the entire main floor of the house. Click on the picture for a larger view and marvel at the murals and other decorations.

(File the mural on the left under "(in)sensitive topics." Party over.)

Photo source:

flickr.com/photos/31303631@N00/ CC BY-NC 2.0

Database Project - Into the Looking glass

Greetings!! and We've Been Published!!

Welcome to all the brothers who were notified about this project through the Winter 2009-2010 issue of The Archi! I admit, I wrote the press release myself, but still.. you can see it on page 29.

If you have a google account, please sign up to follow me! I currently have 5 followers, and I'd like my breadth and influence to span further... so to speak.

Where We Stand Today:

The Archi Staff of the 1920's were quite meticulous in their reporting. I am confident when I say that I have an entry for every brother to have initiated into this fraternity for the first 10 years. I also have non-brothers who are employers, wives, parents, buddies, visiting lecturers, and even four-legged house mascots accounted for in our database.

We are now 15 issues in.
The database now holds 869 unique names.

The chapter breakdown is as follows:
Anthemios - 155
Iktinos - 163
Mnesicles - 132
Demetrios - 138
Andronicus - 41
Kallikrates - 20
Paeonios - 37
Dinocrates - 12
Polyklitos - 15

Non-Brothers-156
Dog-1 (Spike - anthemios's dog)

A Brief Diversion - Andronicus Photo Boards

At the Andronicus Alumni Meeting on 8/22/09, a number of historic boards were nearly destroyed by a leaky shower. Luckily, they were saved from harm, and are currently being restored by April Sommer & Michael Rabanera.
I had my camera with me, and I'd like to share the photos with you.
Be sure to click the images to get a close-up look!

First - The engraved announcement of the chapter installation...



The Very First Andronicus Chapter House, on Hobart Blvd...


Brothers at Work...
Recognize any names? Stanley Cundiff - the Archi Correspondent Extrordinaire? And there are 2 women in studio.

The students of 1923, and a little history of the program....

More brothers.. and another picture of Dorothy Witchers...

Another, more comprehensive group photo...

What an incredible find!!

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.

Database Progress

Just an update on the progress of the database itself.
I'm only 6 issues in, and already there are 443 names on the database. It's started to get unweildy to scroll from name to name, so I've started with the old "find" command. The last issue I entered, 12/1/1922 didn't have a lot of unique names in it.

So far, our most popular guy is Harold R. Peterson. It makes sense, since he's the Worthy Grand Scribe, AND the head of the Archi Board

What is The Archi Names Project?

Alpha Rho Chi Fraternity has (as of today) a rich 95 year history. Of that history, we only truly know the tip of the iceberg.
Over the past year, Worthy Grand Scribe Emeritus, Rick Jenkins started posting scanned copies of our fraternity's Newsletter/Magazine, offering for the first time, all the primary resource information in our fraternity's history.. in the same place.. so it could be read from start to finish.

And one day, that's what I started to do. Starting from the beginning, I read each issue. I began to notice certain names coming up over and over again. Some of them are names we all recognize. Dwight Palmer "Pop" Ely... George A. "So" Whitten.

But there were more obscure brothers; brothers who did not end up on the Grand Council who also began showing up over and over. It made me wish we had some sort of index.

So this, the creation of an index of names from our past issues of the Archi is what the Archi Names Project is.

What does this have to do with this blog?
As I am reading through these issues and articles, I have been making sometimes noteworthy.. sometimes interesting and sometimes shocking observations.
The blog is intended to be a narrative of these observations as I go along.

How will this work?
I intend to read every issue of the archi, and add it to an excel spreadsheet. After each issue, I will create a blog entry and noting anything interesting that happened while I was reading. Maybe I'll feel compelled to do a little "where are they now?" or draw some connections between separate issues.

Why are YOU doing this?
Well.. Let's see.. If you look at the date of this post, you might notice that July 20 marks the date AFTER the Grand Council's 2009 Summer Meeting.. and this was the final summer meeting I attended as the WGAA. I had kicked this idea around my head for a little while, and while it would have been logical to share this vision at the meeting, I didn't say a word. I've always truly believed that with Alpha Rho Chi, you can do whatever project you want without getting permission from anyone.. the GC, your Chapter, or you AA.. assuming that this project does not depend on funds from those organization. This is such a project. I'm just doing this. I love this fraternity, I love our alumni and I love our history. I'm going to love every second of this.