In October 1920, a small group of Purdue students who were interested in developing higher standards of living in college resolved to form a new fraternal organization on the Purdue campus and began to meet regularly. Early meetings were held in the University Library while a building association was being organized to find a suitable location for a chapter house. Early December 1920, the group chose the name Theta Pi Alpha and used this designation on their petition sent to the faculty for approval. It was learned in April of the next year that the petition had never been brought before the faculty for consideration because the proposed organization bore a Greek Letter name. The group changed their name to Pirathon (Ancient Greek for Leadership), a new petition was sent to the faculty, and a charter was granted to Pirathon after faculty approval.
The fraternity had its first home at 135 Sheetz Street during the 1921-22 school year before moving to 131 Pierce Street, where the Sherman men's co-op is now located. Pirathon's early house rules were stricter than most Purdue fraternities since no member drank, no members smoked in the house, and all were church members and were required to attend at least one service each week. Scholarship and activities were stressed in addition to the moral requirements.
Pirathon investigated several national fraternities not represented at Purdue and affiliated with Delta Alpha Pi, a small national fraternity, in 1924 as the Gamma Chapter. Gamma of Delta Alpha Pi purchased a house at 27 Russell Street in 1927 from the Crowell Construction Company of Madison, Wisconsin, who remodeled the house after having received it from Theta Chi Fraternity as partial payment for the new Theta Chi house Crowell had built. A major portion of Delta Alpha Pi's colonial style house was destroyed by fire on March 13, 1931 when flames forced many of the Brothers to escape from the dorm on sheets tied together and dropped from the windows. None of the Brothers were injured, but almost all of the House furnishings and personal belongings in the house were lost. The Brothers were taken in by other fraternities until three days later when a house was found at 110 South Street which enabled the thirty-two members and pledges to remain together for the semester. The house at 27 Russell Street was fully covered by insurance and was promptly rebuilt and refurbished in time for the start of the fall semester.
In 1935 the national fraternity of Delta Alpha Pi merged with Phi Mu Delta. At the October alumni meeting of the Purdue chapter, the merger proposal was rejected and it was decided to return to local status as Pirathon and investigate other merger proposals. Pirathon was considered a very fine fraternity and many nationals were anxious to establish themselves at Purdue through merger with Pirathon. Pirathon investigated many offers of nationalism and petitioned Alpha Chi Rho national fraternity in June 1936. A charter was granted to Pirathon at the Madison Convention in September of that year. Formal installation of the Alpha Phi Chapter of Alpha Chi Rho was held December 4th, 5th, and 6th, 1936. Forty-three graduates and undergraduates were initiated as Charter Members of Alpha Phi, including these four members of Purdue faculty who had been members of Pirathon: George Harold Enfield (Agriculture), Oakel Fowler Hall (Head of Education Department), Frank Charles Hoskema (Assistant to the President), and Wilbur French Graham (Agriculture).
Twenty-three Brothers prominent in the national life of Alpha Chi Rho came to Purdue to serve as the installation team. Also in attendance were these Purdue faculty members who were members of other Chapters of Alpha Chi Rho: Robert B. Stewart (Phi Omicron at Wisconsin, Controller of Purdue and a member of the National Council of Alpha Chi Rho), William A. Boddin (Phi Omicron, Auditor of the University), William Henderson (Phi Alpha at Lafayette, Professor of Civil Engineering), and Melvin G. Nellon (Phi Iota at Allegheny, Professor of Chemistry).
Twenty-one Postulants were pledged after the initiation of the forty-three Charter Members. The Chapter House had a capacity of thirty-four and maintained its own dining room. Reorganizing Pirathon’s Chapter Building Association was complicated by the laws of the State but was finally accomplished to create the Alpha Phi of Alpha Chi Rho Building Corporation.
In 1943 it became evident that World War II would continue to draw men from campuses making it impossible to keep the Alpha Phi Chapter of Alpha Chi Rho open at Purdue. Plans were made to close the Chapter House after the spring semester and return the Charter to the national office for the duration of the war. The house was rented to Purdue to house military units during training on the campus until April 1944 when a rental contract was signed with Phi Mu sorority which continued until the spring of 1946 after a one year renewal was signed in 1945. A group of returning servicemen attending summer school occupied the house, working long and hard to ready the house for the fall term when twenty-seven Actives and Postulants returned. A formal re-activation banquet was held November 3, 1945 when National Secretary Wilbur M. "Curly" Walden presented a duplicate Charter to Alpha Phi President Dick Bucholz since the original Charter was misplaced during the war.
The fall Postulant class of 1950 converted a storage room in the basement into a den for relaxation, appropriately called the "Passion Pit." The Passion Pit was later converted into today's A-Room. The House President in 1952 was Quentin Debras who was succeeded by Duane Repp. The National Convention was held at Purdue for the first time in the fall of 1953. In March, 1957 work was started on a $150,000 remodeling job to completely remodel the White House, including the addition of the third floor, before the start of the fall semester.
The spring of 1983 brought more major renovations. New aluminum siding and all new windows were installed in the house in addition to renovations made in the living room and library. The A-Room has since been converted into a library for Brothers. The summer of 1986 saw the beginning of construction to our $330,000 addition. The addition consisted of seven new rooms, a modified kitchen, a new dining and snack area, a sunken dance floor and many other modifications. Six rooms in the old part of the house were made into three larger rooms. Construction ran late and the addition was not fully completed until the beginning of that October. This delay meant many brothers had to live in three and four man rooms. Some even made temporary rooms in the cold air dorm. The idea and completion of our addition is largely responsible to Building Corporation and especially to the aspirations of brother Tim Eckenrode. Funding for the addition came from long-term loans and an Alumni Phone-a-thon which raised tens of thousands of dollars. The phone-a-thon was held in the old dining room and the phones were manned by both undergraduates and alumni. The entire addition is dedicated to the memory of Brother Mark 'Wally' Aracker. Wally was tragically killed in a car accident on September 6, 1986 while transporting stopwatches for our Midwest Triathlon. The fall Postulant class of 1987 converted a storage room into a brother's bar. It was popularly referred to as Wally's Pub.
In the early 1990's, Alpha Phi's dedication to the Landmarks began to falter, along with the academics of the chapter and the new Brothers' respect for the prosperous alumni of Alpha Phi. This slide continued until the spring of 1995. Alpha Phi Chapter had already been placed on social probation for the semester, and when the chapter violated their probation during Grand Prix week, the alumni decided that it was time for a new start. The Chapter was closed, several Brothers were expelled from the fraternity, and the few Brothers that had consistently followed the Landmarks were placed on alumni status.
Alpha Phi of Alpha Chi Rho began its rebirth in January of 1996. A hand-full of dedicated alumni decided to re-open the chapter as a substance-free house and quickly began contacting undergraduates. By mid-January a new Postulant class had begun. The new Postulants quickly completed their scheduled program and 15 Postulants were initiated into colony status on Friday, February 29th, 1996, the day before Spring Break was to begin. Following Spring Break an additional 16 Postulants were recruited and initiated into the colony. The colony received its Charter the following fall on Homecoming Day, October 18, 1996.