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OT: Top Ten Fraternity houses at PSU [link]

One of my sons is a Beta, and he reports that Beta (or, rather, a Beta alum) threw down $9 million for a recent renovation of the Chapter House. I have only seen it from the outside, but it has to be one of the nicer houses on the campus, I would think. (I'm talking about the structure only; I have no idea how the chapters themselves stack up, and that's a bit subjective anyway.)

Getting on a plane tomorrow morning to fly from San Francisco back to Pittsburgh, and then drive up to State College for Parents' Weekend. At least it is Parents' Weekend at my sons' fraternities (Beta and TDX). Wondering if anyone else here is gonna be in State College this weekend for a Parents' Weekend.

Also, I have been to the Tavern, the Allen Street Grille, and several of the other local restaurants, but I have never been inside the Nittany Lion Inn. Do they have a decent restaurant in there? Would welcome any recommendations..
That would have been Don Abbey. Former football player turned California real estate tycoon.
 
those are all pretty houses....but I'll throw my in the mix. plus, we had a huge backyard for monster parties. comes in handy on football weekends too for a spot to park;)


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Awkward symetry. Stone/Tudor mansions with with replacement windows don't make the cut.
 
One of my sons is a Beta, and he reports that Beta (or, rather, a Beta alum) threw down $9 million for a recent renovation of the Chapter House. I have only seen it from the outside, but it has to be one of the nicer houses on the campus, I would think. (I'm talking about the structure only; I have no idea how the chapters themselves stack up, and that's a bit subjective anyway.)

Getting on a plane tomorrow morning to fly from San Francisco back to Pittsburgh, and then drive up to State College for Parents' Weekend. At least it is Parents' Weekend at my sons' fraternities (Beta and TDX). Wondering if anyone else here is gonna be in State College this weekend for a Parents' Weekend.

Also, I have been to the Tavern, the Allen Street Grille, and several of the other local restaurants, but I have never been inside the Nittany Lion Inn. Do they have a decent restaurant in there? Would welcome any recommendations..

If you are traveling all the way from CA to State College/PSU and have never been inside the Nittany Lion Inn, you need to do it for no other reason than the tradition. I am sure others will offer their opinions regarding "better" food, etc., but if you live in the San Francisco area, you can get "better food" and "better restaurants" anytime.

Not visiting the Nittany Lion Inn would be like me going to San Francisco and not driving over the Golden Gate Bridge because "I can drive over bridges anytime". While you are there, take the short walk over the the Lion statue and go inside and look at Rec Hall - an awful lot of history in that building including the home of the women's volleyball team.
 
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I know many houses ran in cycles as different types of brothers came in the house (some cared about the house, others didn't) so I can't base my decisions on my 1983 version or else I would agree about DU. We used to call it drugs unlimited and it was a dump back then. As mentioned above I belong to #5 and very glad it made the list, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I was pledging DU my first semester at UP and heard someone in my dorm reference "Drugs Unlimited" and was taken aback ,and scratched my head. Never saw anything in my house beyond a few weed incidents and a LOT of Old Milwaukee from 86-88. Though I did hear a metric ass-ton of stories about the late 70s/early 80s... But i was more impressed/ enamored with DU's storied jock-house legacy (inc. Ed Czekaj, an Olympic steeplechase gold medalist, Galen, guys like Vin Tedesco (lax) ,John Ebersole among other NFL guys from the 50s/60s/(early) 70s... Then there was some guy from Scranton with a hot daughter - his name was Hugh Rodham Sr.) ; and the fireplace mantel chock full of Bischoff Trophies. Glad to see they finally got to put another one up there for 2014-15. To this day - i have never seen cocaine, acid, x, or any other illegal drug or drug use in my life. And I'm no Gary Burghoff.

My parents came down for parents day in April 87 and could not believe the condition of the house contrasted with their recollection of my two older brothers' fraternity houses at Hamilton College. Alumni Assoc. Has done a great job improving the house, even kicking out the entire undergrads/locking the doors about 10yrs ago when the brotherhood was more focussed on partying than operating a fraternity.Biggest ballroom of any fraternity with a genuine stage, big enough to play basketball, largest plot of fraternity-owned land east-of-the-Mississippi, the place is a compound. Alumni Assoc also has been offered xx million$ by multiple developers for the property - with offers for relocation... Ain't ever gonna happen.
 
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What happened to the ATO house? For years it was a borderline "tear-down". It looks pretty good these days. I guess putting all the shutters back on the house and painting can work wonders.
 
I was wondering if any other schools had a similar collection of stately fraternities?

Princeton has some very impressive "eating clubs" but the don't have nearly the number that we do.
Many southern schools do and they also have sorority houses. I've seen the houses at UVA and UGA. Both pretty impressive.
 
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I was wondering if any other schools had a similar collection of stately fraternities?

Princeton has some very impressive "eating clubs" but the don't have nearly the number that we do.

Many do... Cornell's fraternity houses are just plain batshit crazy as far as the mansions go... We are talking stately Wayne Manor crazy. I've been in a few of them at Cornell and the experience was surreal... Recall paying $$ at the door as no LCB laws in NYS prevented that practice. Likewise many Big12, SEC, and PAC12 schools have highly developed greek systems with mansions.... As far as Big10, at one time I believe the only greek system in the USA that was bigger than PSU's was Illinois'
 
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Great memories (or in some cases not so much). I partied at all those plus some others. Awesome times. I was Greek as well. For what it is worth, I had buddies come from OSU, OU, and Miami of Ohio visit me and hit the frat parties. They all were very complimentary of the houses and the experience. Their comments were similar to the article where PSU frat houses are over the top and could be in movies about Greek life. I am friends to this day from guys of many of these houses. Happy Times!
 
One of my sons is a Beta, and he reports that Beta (or, rather, a Beta alum) threw down $9 million for a recent renovation of the Chapter House. I have only seen it from the outside, but it has to be one of the nicer houses on the campus, I would think. (I'm talking about the structure only; I have no idea how the chapters themselves stack up, and that's a bit subjective anyway.)

Getting on a plane tomorrow morning to fly from San Francisco back to Pittsburgh, and then drive up to State College for Parents' Weekend. At least it is Parents' Weekend at my sons' fraternities (Beta and TDX). Wondering if anyone else here is gonna be in State College this weekend for a Parents' Weekend.

Also, I have been to the Tavern, the Allen Street Grille, and several of the other local restaurants, but I have never been inside the Nittany Lion Inn. Do they have a decent restaurant in there? Would welcome any recommendations..
Coming in from Tennessee. My daughter is a DG and their sorority is having a party Saturday night at BETA so perhaps I will see you at PSU Saturday evening. I was in same house as mt. Nittany coming in at #2, chi phi.
 
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I'm really enjoying this thread. Good work everybody. I was in a couple Penn State frat houses for parties during the '94-'95 school year, though I couldn't possibly remember which ones. I know I saw Kyle Brady at a party at one of them.
Did I read correctly that there are no sorority houses at PSU? Why would that be?
 
I'm really enjoying this thread. Good work everybody. I was in a couple Penn State frat houses for parties during the '94-'95 school year, though I couldn't possibly remember which ones. I know I saw Kyle Brady at a party at one of them.
Did I read correctly that there are no sorority houses at PSU? Why would that be?

What I always heard was that there were sororities off campus however during the war WWII...they all moved back on campus when the men left overseas...and just never returned to their old residences.

Not sure how accurate this story is...but its what I was told a long time ago...
 
What I always heard was that there were sororities off campus however during the war WWII...they all moved back on campus when the men left overseas...and just never returned to their old residences.

Not sure how accurate this story is...but its what I was told a long time ago...

Your version seems to be a mix of a few reasons I've heard. The most common reason given is that an old PA or old State College law stated that if more than X number of unrelated females lived in a house, it was automatically classified as a brothel.

CLICK HERE for a more through explanation of when there were sorority houses, and why they are no longer such at PSU.
 
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those are all pretty houses....but I'll throw my in the mix. plus, we had a huge backyard for monster parties. comes in handy on football weekends too for a spot to park

I also thought Lambda should have been listed in the top 10.

Been a strange year for those guys. They had to kick out a number of members in the fall. This semester they have gotten a lot of attention for the pet goat they have.
 
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Pi Kapp...and frankly...shocked the ban did not happen sooner. Have not been back to the house in years...many many funny stories...but not sure I'd let my kids join a fraternity now...maybe things have changed?

The place...was crazy...and fun...
I'm a Pi Kapp, too, and I can tell you that the Alpha Mu Chapter richly deserved the three year suspension it got. Hate to say that, but you can't give everyone (IFC, Chapter Advisor, Housing Corp, and National Fraternity) the finger - repeatedly - and expect no consequences.
 
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Pi Kappa Alpha Class of 1970. Those were the days--shades of Animal House.
 
For those that were in Pi Kappa Phi (Pi Kapp as my best friend called it) what years? If you were there from 99-03 you definitely know people I know.
 
If you are traveling all the way from CA to State College/PSU and have never been inside the Nittany Lion Inn, you need to do it for no other reason than the tradition. I am sure others will offer their opinions regarding "better" food, etc., but if you live in the San Francisco area, you can get "better food" and "better restaurants" anytime.

Not visiting the Nittany Lion Inn would be like me going to San Francisco and not driving over the Golden Gate Bridge because "I can drive over bridges anytime". While you are there, take the short walk over the the Lion statue and go inside and look at Rec Hall - an awful lot of history in that building including the home of the women's volleyball team.

Assuming you are allowed in Rec Hall these days. I think it's off limits now like the IM building without an ID, unless an event is taking place.
 
I also thought Lambda should have been listed in the top 10.

Been a strange year for those guys. They had to kick out a number of members in the fall. This semester they have gotten a lot of attention for the pet goat they have.

yeah, a bunch of knuckle heads up there right now.....i'm just glad i still have a house to visit.
 
Was back in State College last weekend and spent a fair amount of time at Theta Delta Chi ("TDX"). They redid their roof deck, and it is a really nice place to hang out.

Got to try "Tequila Luging." Fun, but you can't do that for very long or you'll be a chocolate mess.
 
Coming in from Tennessee. My daughter is a DG and their sorority is having a party Saturday night at BETA so perhaps I will see you at PSU Saturday evening. I was in same house as mt. Nittany coming in at #2, chi phi.
My dad was a Chi Phi back in the 50s. That house has gone through a few major "re-births". He was heavily involved in a fund raising campaign in the 90s that led to big renovations in the house only to have the active brothers trash it. He swore that was the last time he would contribute. I remember around that timeframe driving by a few times (across from my house ... Sigma Chi) and it was all closed up. It is a beautiful house and I'm glad to hear it is alive and kicking.

I still remember rushing there as a freshman (legacy) and going to a party where there was a tall guy in the corner surrounded by several young ladies. I asked a brother who it was and he said "Oh, that is Todd Blackledge". I liked the brothers there but ultimately picked the house where I was a better fit.
 
Your version seems to be a mix of a few reasons I've heard. The most common reason given is that an old PA or old State College law stated that if more than X number of unrelated females lived in a house, it was automatically classified as a brothel.

CLICK HERE for a more through explanation of when there were sorority houses, and why they are no longer such at PSU.
I'm sending this to my daughter in Alabama, she'll get a kick from the article...I don't know the sorority she belonged in 90?
 
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