Alpha Chapter (Syracuse)
Alpha Chapter was founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, on November 11, 1874, by Founders Helen M. Dodge Ferguson, France E. Haven Moss, E. Adeline Curtis and Mary A. Bingham Willoughby. The chapter has had an unbroken existence since its founding.
Founders Day Dedication
Opening its third Syracuse home since founding of the order in 1874, Alpha of Gamma Phi Beta – mother chapter of the Sorority – dedicated its new chapter facility on the Syracuse University campus on November 11, 1938, celebrated by Gamma Phis throughout the entire country as Founders Day.
Alpha alumnae and officers from all sections of the country returned for the ceremony, at which time the chapter room in the new structure was dedicated as a shrine to the four Founders: Helen M. Dodge, Frances E. Haven, E. Adeline Curtis and Mary A. Bingham.
The house itself, situated on a double terrace overlooking Walnut Park, the University’s "fraternity row," is made of red brick, and English Georgian in design. It has accommodations for 30 women, with additional rooms for returning alumnae and guests, and is the largest Greek-letter chapter house on the Syracuse campus.
The Alpha Chapter facility on Euclid Avenue in the 1940s.
The first-floor of the building, which is air-conditioned throughout, includes a living room, pine-walled library, reception room, dining room, sorority office, pantry and kitchen as well as living suites. Basement rooms include, in addition to the chapter room, a recreation room paneled in knotty pine, a laundry room, an alumnae room, a fine arts studio and storage rooms for sport equipment and trunks.
Sleeping arrangements in the new house are semi-dormitory in style. Studies and dressing rooms, accommodating two to three women, are located on the second floor. The top floor, in addition to linen closets and guest rooms, has several dormitories, containing two to eight beds.
Since the founding of Gamma Phi Beta at Syracuse, the Sorority has established 51 chapters throughout the United States and Canada.
Excerpt from the December, Part 1 (1938) issue of The Crescent, pages 322 and 329.