the beta house a look inside miami by Justin Warren, SMU ’10 100 YEARS AT 200 EAST HIGH STREET THE BETA HOUSE
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The soul of Beta Theta Pi is in Oxford, Ohio, but it’s not found at the Administrative Office. The Fraternity’s soul is rooted in Alpha, and by extension a house at 200 East High Street that the chapter has called home since 1918.
THE BETA THETA PI
In that time, not only has the facility been a home away from home for most of the chapter’s 2,820 members, but it has become a mandatory pit stop for Betas of all ages making a pilgrimage to the Fraternity’s birthplace. It is a structure symbolic of the eighth day of the eighth month of the year 1839, when eight earnest young men laid the groundwork for an organization that has since grown to some 210,000 members across two countries. Yet after 100 years, two chapter closures and near-constant foot traffic, this Beta landmark looked worse for the wear. Then in 2014, Alpha alumni made a decision: If Betas at Miami were to maintain their reputations as men of integrity, intellect and high moral character, they deserved a home of matching quality. The Forever Alpha Campaign was born. With a $4 million goal, success wouldn’t come easy, but their determination was fueled by the words of our first founder: “What a few men who are united in common purpose and effort are determined to do, can be done.” — John Reily Knox, 1839, “of ever honored memory”
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