Discuss Detroit » Archives - January 2008 » UMich frat house that burned « Previous Next »
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 4412
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 12:39 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

was a 1903 Albert Kahn
http://blog.mlive.com/annarbor news/2008/05/historic_universi ty_of_michiga.html
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Mauser765
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Username: Mauser765

Post Number: 2839
Registered: 01-2004
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 6:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

This is right next to the former MC5 houses on Hill Street. Down the road a bit is where Iggys "Fun House" used to be. (i think theres a bank there now)
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Mackinaw
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Username: Mackinaw

Post Number: 4837
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 8:57 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I woke up to all the smoke and chaos yesterday morning, as this is on my current street.

Really, really sad. Just a beautiful house. The exterior walls are still standing, and are not damaged beyond recognition. I think it could be rebuilt.
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The_rock
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Username: The_rock

Post Number: 2387
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 9:32 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I agree, Mackinaw. My wife's sorority house (AGD) is located right across the street,and my old fraternity house (Sig Ep) suffered the same fate a few years ago at the corner of Hill and State. I attended a few parties in the D.U. house. Lovely old home.

It is so sad to see these historic homes literally go up in flames. I know that back in my time in AA during the 50's, fraternities and sororities were really going strong,but several houses received citations from the City for failing to have wiring up to code, etc. But the housing shortage was so acute, they did not enforce the Ordinances. I understand that things have toughened up since.
I see that the AA News has a video on the fire, although the cause of the blaze, at least as of yesterday, was still under investigation.
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9936sussex
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Username: 9936sussex

Post Number: 124
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 12:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I spent a lot of time at a frat house in Ann Arbor back in the 70's. It was a lovely old house from a distance but it was pretty dumpy when you got close (and when you entered). I thought it was a firetrap, but loved it. The sorority houses, on the other hand, that I was in were much nicer.
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The_rock
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Username: The_rock

Post Number: 2388
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 1:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Good point 9936--from the outside those old fraternity houses looked more appealing then when you got inside. The boys did not always take as good care of them as they should have. Scruffy, but during pledge week, they were put back into pretty decent shape to appeal to the potential pledges that filed through.
The sorority houses were better maintained and the girls kept them a lot neater. I bussed dishes at the ADP house on Forest ( around the corner from the DU fire), and the gals kept the place looking quite nice and clean inside. The sororities all had house mothers, and that probably added to the cleanliness. Ms. Ufer (the late and great Bob's Mother) was the housemother at the ADP house and she was a stickler for keeping the house looking spick and span. She would even make an occasional(unannounced) appearance in the kitchen to make sure that every pot and pan, silverware and dishes were clean and tidy.
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Mackinaw
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Username: Mackinaw

Post Number: 4839
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 1:36 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Oh there's no comparison, the sorority houses are palaces and the frat houses (while often featuring fantastic architecture) are in beat-up condition. The beating they constantly take is certainly not an incentive for putting money into them, but I'm not suggesting that this may be related to the fire, and I am not familiar with the condition of DU. Even from the exterior, it was one of the better-maintained frats.

Whereabouts at Hill-State was the now-gone Sig Ep house, Rock? Where the Ford School now stands? They are now right next to the Union and ADPhi ("Shady-Phi") in a poorly-maintained house.

Rock, after a year here on Hill Street and three years on campus, I'd have to say that the Greek system is going extremely strong right now. Although Beta got thrown out. The AEPhi sorority was kicked out but they're back with a house in Burns Park.
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Lilpup
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Username: Lilpup

Post Number: 4417
Registered: 06-2004
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 3:46 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Where the Ford School now stands?"

Yes. For four years I lived a couple of doors down State St. at the co-op (Nakamura) across from the barber shop.
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Steelworker
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Username: Steelworker

Post Number: 1098
Registered: 02-2004
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 4:05 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pi Kappa Alpha from WSU our house was beat up bad on the inside but we spend a lot of time fixing it up but within a couple years it was back to crap. I have never seen a frat house that was nice on the inside.
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Crawford
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Username: Crawford

Post Number: 246
Registered: 10-2006
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 4:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Cornell has some gorgeous frat houses. They are like mansions inside. Sigma Phi and Chi Psi (I think) were the nicest.
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The_rock
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Username: The_rock

Post Number: 2390
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 4:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yes, the Sig Ep house occupied the NE corner of Hill and State for several years, 'til they got thrown off campus for a hazing incident. So the house was rented to whomever and then taken over by vagrants in the summertime, then a fire and that's all she wrote. Ford School looks very impressive on the former site where Sig Ep won the Homecoming float contest in 1954 featuring Mr. McGoo sitting in old Ferry Field supposedly watching a football game while the actual game was being played in Michigan Stadium behind him.
Their present house next to the Union was the former Sigma Xi house. I guess those guys and the "Shady-Phis" also got into trouble for hazing incidents.
Next to the old Sig Ep house on Hill was a Jewish fraternity. They partied like hell all the time until final exams and then you would not see them til exams were over. They were a lot of fun and we got along quite well. Maybe that's why I am so tolerant of jjaba and all the guff he constantly gives me.
Good memories, and I am sure there are a lot of very sad DU's around the country today.
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Kathleen
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Username: Kathleen

Post Number: 2875
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 6:55 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Here's a Detroit News article with a photo of the house, which "was designed by noted architect Albert Kahn and was the oldest built specifically for a fraternity at U-M" and is "listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20080531/S CHOOLS/805310358/1026
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Wolverine
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Username: Wolverine

Post Number: 470
Registered: 04-2004
Posted on Saturday, May 31, 2008 - 11:23 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

It can be rebuilt. The red brick Phi Delta Theta house on Washtenaw and South U experienced a devastating fires that gutted the two top floors, but the house interior was reconstructed.
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Mackinaw
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Username: Mackinaw

Post Number: 4846
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Sunday, June 01, 2008 - 8:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I would not have guessed that by looking at it from the outside, Wolverine. That gives some hope.

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