St. Anthony Hall
St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. The fraternity is a non-religious, nonsectarian organization. In 1879, William Raimond Baird's "American College Fraternities" characterized the fraternity as having "the reputation of being the most secret of all the college societies." A modern writer says the fraternity is "a cross between Skull and Bones and a Princeton eating club, with a large heaping of Society and more than a dash of  Animal House." Nearly all chapters of St. Anthony Hall have gone coed. References to St. Anthony Hall have appeared in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, and Tom Wolfe. History. According to "Baird's", the "Alpha chapter" of the Fraternity of Delta Psi was founded at Columbia University in by John Hone Anthon, Sam. F. Barger, Charles Arms Budd, and William Myn Van Wagener. In an article in its "Review" magazine, the fraternity says Anthon was a founder, the first leader, and an important Mason. Another source says the fraternity was started by the fifteen year old Edward  Forbes Travis who came to Columbia University from England "with an odd fascination for St. Anthony the Great, the gnarled fourth-century mystic." In this scenario, Travis shared "certain rituals" with a Charles Arms Budd on the Saint's feast day, creating "a sacred bond that was soon extended to others." The fraternity says it was founded on the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. However, according to its national website, St. Anthony Hall originally began as a "fraternity dedicated to the love of education and the well-being of its members." The fraternity developed "a literary flavor: members  would spend hours reading essays to one another for general critique or amusement." By 1853, the fraternity was holding an Annual Literary Festival and Dinner. A "Beta chapter" at New York University was also formed of January 17, 1847. However "Beta" was short-lived; the Columbia College's "Record" listed the NYU founders alongside its own students. In 1879, "Baird's" listed seventeen chapters opening throughout the Northeast and South during the mid-19th century. During the Civil War, formal contact ended between Northern and Southern chapters, and all of the Southern chapters closed. The fraternity's history states, "Many members  wore their badges into battle, serving with distinction on both sides, and were often reunited in both pleasant and antagonistic situations throughout the war." In fact, 25% of the young fraternity's membership died in the Civil War, with 90 of the 109 deaths coming from the Southern chapters. After the war, contact was restored between remaining and re-founded chapters. In 1894, Yale's "Sigma chapter" built a dormitory building and named it St. Anthony Hall, apparently the first use of that name. The Fraternity of Delta Psi also became known as the Order of St. Anthony and St.  Anthony Hall. In accordance with the respective traditions of each chapter, St. Anthony Hall is now self-described and referred to on its various campuses as a fraternity or coed fraternity, a secret society or a literary society, or a private club. A former Yale chapter president said, “Chapters have a range of degrees of secrecy." In 2006, a Yale member said, “Our secret aspects are truly secret, and our non-secret aspects are truly non-secret” Chapters. There are 11 active chapters of Delta Psi, including the following (chapters noted in bold are active, chapters noted in "italics" are  dormant). Note that the now-dormant Delta Psi fraternity at the University of Vermont (1850–2004) was always unrelated. There have been rumors that the "Lambda chapter" operates underground; Williams College banned all fraternities in the 1960s, phasing them out by 1970. In 2003, "The Williams Record" reported that the fraternity began operating as the coed Vermont Literary Society as early as 1973. At that time, the Vermont Literary Society was meeting outside of Williamstown at a place in Vermont referred to as "The Barn.". The college offered amnesty to any students who came forward; however, none took advantage of the  offer. Again in 2020, there were reports that the Vermont Literary Society was still active as an underground "Lambda chapter". "The Williams Record"'s investigation noted that Williams College graduates from 2016 were serving on the board of the "Lambda Chapter"'s alumni association. However, the paper later reported that the group disbanded in August 2020. Symbols. The 1879 edition of "Baird's" describes the fraternity's badge as a "Saint Anthony's cross, with curved sides. The cross bears a shield in blue enamel displaying the letters . On the bar of the cross are engraved four Hebrew letters, and  beneath the shield the skull and bones." The badge was designed by Henry Steel Olcott in 1850. This is different from the flat topped crest illustrated in the 1873 University of Pennsylvania "Record," although the Greek letters are present. (See infobox for illustration). The yearbook illustration also shows a tau cross or Saint Anthony's cross, a skull, a sword, a key, a floating triangle, and four Hebrew letters. The sword and the key are crossed, with the skull on top. In his 1960 novel "Ourselves to Know", John O'Hara refers to "a Delta Psi Tea Company gold charm on  his watch chain…" In 1860 when the Civil War seemed inevitable, fraternal medallions were made for the brothers to attach to their uniforms so they would be recognized at a member of Delta Psi on the battlefield. A photograph of a medallion in the fraternity's archives shows a round, gold coin with a skull as its central figure. Beneath the skull is a crossed sword and key. Encircling the outer edge of the medallion is a list of each chapter's Greek letter and date of founding. Members. In 1961, Yale's chapter was the first fraternity on campus  to admit a person of color. The chapters at the University of North Carolina (1967) and Ole Miss were also the first fraternity on their respective campuses to admit African-American members. In 1969, the Yale chapter was the first to go coed, also becoming the first Yale society to accept women. Additional chapters subsequently turned coed, include Columbia University, MIT (1969), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1971), and Trinity College (1985). Other chapters were reestablished as coed including, Brown University (1983), Princeton University (1986), and the University of Rochester (2010). The University of Pennsylvania, the University  of Mississippi and the University of Virginia chapters remain all-male. Activities. St. Anthony Hall members pursue their literary mandate through different programs at the various chapters. The "Brown chapter" publishes a literary and visual arts magazine called "The Sketchbook". The "UNC chapter" hosts open mic nights, poetry readings, and art shows. The "Delta chapter" at the University of Pennsylvania hosts an annual lecture series with nationally significant speakers. The "MIT chapter" hosts a scholarly lecture series."Yale's chapter" sponsors a public series of Sigma Seminars every two to three weeks on literature, poetry, art and current affairs; a  recent speaker was Pap Souleye Fall, a Senegalese-American interdisciplinary and comic artist. The "Trinity chapter" hosts its annual Clement Lectures. The "Trinity chapter" endows a St. Anthony Professorship in Art History, several annual prizes for Trinity students, and the annual Martin W. Clement lecture. In 1970 when it went coed, the "Yale chapter" endowed a Yale scholarship for women. The "Yale chapter" also offers the St. Anthony Hall Chase Coggins Fellowship, a summer traveling grant, and two other endowed scholarships. Chapter houses and buildings. Many of the St. Anthony Hall chapter houses were designed by well-known 19th and  early 20th century architects such as J. Cleveland Cady, Cope and Stewardson, Wilson Eyre Jr., Heins & LaFarge, Charles C. Haight, Henry Hornbostel, J. Harleston Parker, William Hamilton Russell, and Stanford White. In an 1891 newspaper feature on American college societies, three Delta Psi chapter houses were illustrated—Trinity, Williams, and Yale—amongst the fifteen houses illustrated. Section::::"Alpha": Columbia University. The "Alpha chapter" originally met at the Simon DeWitt Bloodgood house. In 1879, a new building was constructed at 29 E. 28th Street for the "Alpha chapter" and the its alumni group, the St. Anthony Club of New York. According to  the "New-York Tribune", it was "the first of the Greek letter societies to establish in New-York a club which presents many of the features of the other social clubs in the city." The "Alpha chapter"'s Renaissance-inspired lodge in red and yellow brick was designed by William Hamilton Russell, a member of St. Anthony Hall and an architect with the firm of James Renwick, Jr. "The Hartford Courant" wrote, "The decorations of the interior are most elaborate, and altogether it is said to be one of the most beautiful college secret society buildings in the country." In  1885, a small addition was added to the back of the building. The "St. Louis Globe-Democrat" wrote, "The lodge room on the Delta Psi fraternity in New York is magnificently furnished in Egyptian designs especially imported from Thebes for this purpose, at the cost of thousands of dollars…." In 1990, the "New York Times" wrote, "Old photographs show…the figure of an owl on the peaked [pyramid] roof and a plaque with the Greek letters Delta Psi over the windowless chapter room." Later alterations were made by J.A. Moore in 1899 and 1918, including adding 1.5 stories which replaced  the original pyramid roof; the stone shield remains between the fourth floor windows. In 1895, Columbia University moved its campus north of the city to Morningside Heights. To be closer to the new campus, the "Alpha chapter" purchased land on 434 Riverside Drive on March 23, 1897. To design a new chapter house, they hired Henry Hornbostel and George Carnegie Palmer (a member of St. Anthony Hall) of the firm of Wood, Palmer and Hornbostel. The architects' plans were filed with the city on August 26, 1898 and the building was completed in 1898. The resulting five-story plus basement  structure is a combination of Beaux Arts and French Renaissance revival styles. It is constructed of red brick, is trimmed liberally in limestone, and has dormers covered in copper. At the top of the building is a carved relief of the Greek letters . The interior included reception rooms, a billiard room, a dining room, a library, and bedrooms for twenty members. In 1996, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Delta Psi, "Alpha chapter". The chapter house is also a contributing building to the Broadway-Riverside Drive National Register Historic District. Section::::"Delta": University of Pennsylvania. Regarded  as the first purpose-built fraternity house on the University of Pennsylvania campus, the original Delta Psi chapter house was a Florentine or Renaissance Revival style design by Wilson Eyre Jr. It is located at 32 South 22nd Street, across the Schuykill from Penn's West Philadelphia campus. It opened in January 1889, and also housed the St. Anthony Club of Philadelphia. It served the fraternity from 1889 to 1908. In 1907, Cope and Stewardson designed the chapter's next house in the Academic Gothic stye. Saint Anthony is depicted in a stained glass window in the stairway landing of  the first floor; as seen in the photo, a stone tau cross is also above the second story windows on the exterior. This brick and limestone three-story house was added to National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as St. Anthony Hall House. This chapter house is described and pictured in George E. Nitzsche's "University of Pennsylvania: Its History, Traditions, Buildings and Memorials: Also a Brief Guide to Philadelphia". Section::::"Upsilon": University of Virginia. The University of Virginia's brick chapter house with two-story tall columns and a spacious portico was the third fraternity house constructed on Grounds —although it was the first with residential use in mind. Built in 1902, this Colonial Revival or Jeffersonian style house is "beautifully situated on 'Page Hill'" and blends well with the campus architecture designed by Thomas Jefferson. The "Upsilon chapter" house was designed by J. Harleston Parker, founder of the Harleston Parker Medal. The interior was "furnished with taste throughout," and included ten bedrooms, a library, a billiard room, and a 20 x 35 foot reception room. There was also electricity and steam heat. The house is included "The Architecture of Jefferson Country: Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia"" by K.  Edward Lay. Section::::"Epsilon": Trinity College. A gift of fraternity member and recent graduate Robert Habersham Coleman, the Trinity chapter's granite lodge was designed in the rusticated Richardsonian Romanesque style by J. Cleveland Cady in 1878. Cady was also a member of Trinity's "Epsilon chapter" of St. Anthony Hall. At a cost of $40,000, this edifice was one of the most expensive fraternity chapter houses in America at that time. It was also a "radical departure from the customary tomb-like structures of the secret societies of other campus." Added in 1985 to the National Register of Historic  Places, as Saint Anthony Hall, the "Epsilon chapter" home is the oldest St. Anthony Hall fraternity building still in use. It is also the oldest fraternity house at Trinity, and one of the oldest buildings on campus. The building has recently undergone extensive interior restorations. An exterior addition, in harmony with the original construction, has been added to comply with local building code requirements. Section::::"Iota": University of Rochester. The "Iota chapter" at the University of Rochester built a three-story brick house at 7 North Washington Street which was described as "a desirable residential neighborhood." Section::::"Kappa": Brown University. The Brown  University chapter house at 154 Hope Street in Providence, Rhode Island, was designed by Stone, Carpenter & Wilson in the Colonial Revival style in 1895. The house features ogee gables and a conservatory, as well as an addition added in 1961. Originally a private residence for Alice and Robert W. Taft, the brick building was later owned by Bryant University who called it Taft Hall and used it as its administration building from 1947 through 1969. When Brown acquired the building in 1969, it was renamed King House in 1974 in honor of Lida Shaw King, former dean of Pembroke College . Brown provides King House to the "Kappa" chapter as a residential student program house. Section::::"Lambda": Williams College. The former Williams College chapter house dates from 1886 and was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White White had just designed a New York City townhouse for fraternity member Frederick Ferris Thompson, who provided White to create the "Lamba chapter" house. The chapter house was constructed in of blue freestone and combines early Norman and Old English styles. It has been described as "a witty paraphrase of a Dutch Colonial house, compact in silhouette and terminating in proud stepped gables . But no such Dutch house ever had such an audacious tower, tapered in the fashion of an Egyptian pylon." The interior has "an elaborate interplay of crossbeams on the ceiling combined with heroically oversized fireplaces..." In 1905, an addition was added to the southwest end that had electricity and included nine bedrooms, a library, four studies, and three bathrooms. However, the addition was destroyed by a fire in May 1926, probably the result of faulty electrical wiring. Architect Roger Bullard and local contractors restored the wing. However, on January 21, 1927, another fire destroyed the new southwest wing and the  dinning room ceiling collapsed, blowing out the windows on the first floor. Another addition was added to the south, but does not impact the main view of the house. Because fraternities were banned at Williams in the 1960s, "Lambda chapter" sold the building to the University in 1970. The still-named Saint Anthony Hall now houses the college's Center for Developmental Economics. The 17,540 square foot building was renovated and refurbished in 1996. It still includes a bronze relief memorial to fraternity member Frederick Ferris Thompson, designed in 1906 by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Section::::"Phi": University of Mississippi. A former  Phi chapter house was subsequently a childhood home Nobel Laureate William Faulkner. The Faulkners lived there from 1912–22 when fraternities were outlawed at Ole Miss. Sited where the Alumni Center Hotel now stands, this late 19th century brick turreted house was the first building of note that incoming freshmen saw when they walked from the train station to campus . Section::::"Sigma": Yale University. The original "Sigma chapter" home was built in 1879 and no longer exists. This five-story building was said to be "the finest thing of the kind in any university in the country." In 1885, the chapter built  a new house, also no longer in existence, that was designed by Harrison W. Lindsley who was a member of the fraternity, Yale class of 1872. It was a Richardsonian Romanesque style structure built of red sandstone. In 1894, the chapter started construction of a dormitory building designed by George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge of the firm Heins & LaFarge. Located at 133 College Street, the dormitory housed 26 men and was named St. Anthony Hall—perhaps the first use of that name. It was built of East Haven sandstone to match the nearby chapter house and featured large  parlors, a 20' x 30' library filled with books, a porch with carved stone decorations, and servants quarters. Around 1903, fraternity member Frederick William Vanderbilt commissioned a gift of two limestone residential halls adjacent to the chapter house. These were constructed between 1903 and 1906. Next, Vanderbilt hired Charles C. Haight to create a matching Neo-Gothic style chapter house which was completed in 1913 at 483 College Street. The ornamental iron gates from the second chapter house were re-used at the corner entrance of the new octagonal tower. It is believed that Rafael Guastavino Jr. built the domed  ceiling in a basement room called The Crypt; Guastavino previously worked on Biltmore Estate for Vanderbilt's younger brother. The Crypt "has a wonderful sound parabola, where someone standing in one corner can whisper and be heard across the room by someone standing in the opposite corner." The "New York Times" called it "the most expensive and elaborate secret society building in the United States." The flanking residential halls are now part of Silliman College; St. Anthony Hall donated them to the university when Yale started a campus residential system in the 1930s. There is a photograph of the current  Sigma chapter house on the Yale University website. Section::::"Tau": Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The first "Tau chapter" house was designed by J.P. Fuller and built circa 1834–37 in the Greek Revival style. It was located within at 6 Louisburg Square in Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood. The building also housed the St. Anthony Club of Boston. This address is the origin of the nickname for the "Tau" "chapter"—the Number Six Club. The chapter's current multi-stored structure at 428 Memorial Drive was first occupied in 1916. A two-story annex was added in the back in the 1940s. A  fourth floor was added to the main house in 1975, along with a new four story annex. St. Anthony Club of New York. Designed by architect S.E. Gage, the former St. Anthony Club of New York was located at 16 East 64th Street in New York City. Originally built between 1878-1879, Gage redesigned the building between 1902 and 1904 in the Neo-Federal style. The five-story brownstone includes limestone columns, a detailed, wrought-iron front door and gate, a limestone and marble entry foyer, and a bronze and wrought-iron main staircase. In addition, the townhouse boasted ornate  moldings, high ceilings, skylights, oak Versailles parquet floors, and six wood-burning fireplaces. The building is on a historically distinguished residential street and is included in the walking tour of 64th Street. Beginning in 1951, St. Anthony Hall used this building as an alumni city club and as headquarters for its national offices; the fraternity (Delta Psi, Inc.) purchased the building in 1952. This is only one of several Manhattan locations that have served in this capacity since the founding of the fraternity. In the early 1970s, the Barnard College Club leased space in the St. Anthony Club. The building  sold in 1990 and is now a private residence. Related campus buildings. In 1873, Trinity member Josiah Cleaveland Cady designed and built North Sheffield Hall, the Yale Sheffield Scientific School's first new building, on what had been the gardens of the Town-Sheffield mansion. This was followed by his Winchester Hall (1892) and Sheffield Chemical (1894–95). Only Sheffield Chemical is still standing, now renovated and renamed Arthur K. Watson Hall. Yale chapter member and benefactor Henry P. Becton donated the Becton Center to Yale. Designed by Marcel Breuer, the Becton Center opened in 1970 and replaced Winchester Hall and  North Sheffield, mentioned above. Breuer conceived the building "as a wall that folded horizontally and vertically, with pipes and ducts located in the folds…." Located at 15 Prospect Street in New Haven, the building's most distinctive feature is an arcade of monumental tau cross-shaped concrete columns "designed to invite pedestrians." Alumni groups. Foundations. The St. Anthony Educational Foundation Inc. is a charitable entity that supports the educational and cultural programs and activities of the fraternity through grants and scholarships to its chapters. Graduate Chapter Organizations. St. Anthony Hall has a number of incorporated graduate chapter associations that exist  to support their chapter and/or its building. The Anthony Trust association was charter by Connecticut in 1874. Know graduate chapters include: Clubs and area organizations. Historically, there were several alumni social clubs associated with the fraternity—the 1890 edition of Baird's credits the Delta Psi with being "a pioneer in the development of this form of social life." These clubs usually adopted the name St. Anthony Club because the fraternity's badge was a St. Anthony's cross. St. Anthony Club of New York. The St. Anthony Club of New York was the first and longest running of these  establishments. Founded in 1879 by "Alpha chapter" member William Greene Ward, it the was the first fraternity-related club in New York City. By 1883, the club was "flourishing" at 29 East 28th Street in New York City; a location it shared with the undergraduate chapter. In 1885, the club added an addition to the rear of the building, and "The New York Times" gave its readers a rare peek inside the club: The front room is a parlor with tables for cards. In cases on the mantlepiece are "Goodwood Cups," trophies of which the club is justly proud. The  furniture and fittings here are in cherry, with harmonious upholstery and walls. Several fine prints are to be seen, including views of buildings of the Delta Psi at Yale, Trinity and other colleges. A passageway, richly decorated in the baronial style off the twelfth century, leads from the office past the buffet, in a crypt under the stairs, to a large room, which, with a noble open fireplace, offers, in cosy ["sic"] leather cushions, in stalls in the corners and more spacious chairs, a quiet retreat. The fantastic and unique latticework of the windows attracts attention, with the bold and  artistic studding of the ceiling, and ornate chandeliers, especially manufactured emit their jets of gas from imitation candles. ..This is the smoking and lounging room The club also included a billiard room with high oak wainscotting and walls of a blueish-green with hints of gold, an entire floor dedicated to its library, and a national fraternity office decorated with illustrations of the temptations of St. Anthony. It was also noted that the membership and dues were low, "so as to prevent no one who is eligible from joining." Membership was limited to alumni of the Delta Psi fraternity, and  no others could gain entry. In 1893, the St. Anthony was referred to in a newspaper as "the most exclusive organization of the kind in the United States." On July 4, 1912, the St. Anthony Club purchased the house of Edith S. Logan, widow of John A. Logan, located at 17 West 56th Street in New York. The club used its 1879 "Alpha chapter" house as a partial payment to Logan. In 1929, the club purchased the Junior League’s five-story clubhouse at 133-35 61st Street, selling 17 West 56th Street in 1931. In 1936, the club and  the fraternity's office were jointly housed in a penthouse of the Berkshire Hotel at 21 East 52nd Street, in New York City. The club related to an apartment at 270 Park Avenue in 1944. However, by the early 1980s, the club was located in a brownstone at 16 East 64th Street in New York City and was no longer financially sustainable. With the city's property boom, by 1988 the brownstone was worth $3.5 million versus $1 million in 1984. The fraternity decided to close the club and liquidate the asset to free funds for other projects . In 1989, the fraternity borrowed money to fix structural problems and other issues with the building. The St Anthony Club of New York sold in 1990 for $3,250,000, although the net to the organization was significantly less because of debts, stockholder payouts, and taxes. Other historic clubs. Known as the St. Andrews Club, the alumni group in Detroit, Michigan, started meeting annually in 1883. The St. Anthony Club in Philadelphia was established prior to 1888 when it shared a new building with the undergraduate chapter. There was also a St. Anthony Club in Rochester, New York prior to 1890 . The St. Anthony Club in Boston was established before1898 and shared a building in Beacon Hill with the undergraduate chapter at M.I.T. The St. Anthony Club of the Northwest organized in 1890 after having semi-annual dinner gatherings. In 1904, the St. Anthony Club of Bar Harbor, Maine gathered for its annual dinner. There was also a St. Anthony Club of Bermuda. Modern clubs. Known modern alumni social groups include the Paris St. Anthony Hall Association, the St. Anthony Association of New Jersey, the St. Anthony Association of Nova Scotia, the St. Anthony Association of Rhode Island, the St. Anthony  Association of Southern Arizona, the St. Anthony Association of Washington, D.C., and the St. Anthony Club of Philadelphia.