Chi Heorot - History

History

Heorot was founded in 1897 as a local fraternity called Alpha Alpha Omega. In 1902 it was granted a charter as the Chi chapter of Chi Phi. Soon after, the fraternity moved to its present location on East Wheelock Street, and in 1927 sold off its eighteenth-century house and built the house that stands today. By the mid-1900s, the Dartmouth chapter of Chi Phi was having some issues with its national charter. Some of these disagreements are alleged to have regarded the admission of an African-American student into the Dartmouth chapter, in violation of Chi Phi rules at that time. In 1968 the house finally dissociated from the national fraternity.

The house then became Chi Phi Heorot. After several suspensions by the College in the early eighties, it re-joined the national in 1982. However, in the winter of 1985 the brothers of Heorot attempted to turn the central hall on the first floor of the house into an ice hockey rink by flooding it and opening the doors to allow Hanover's subzero winter temperatures to freeze the water. This caused the floor to fall through into the basement, resulting in costly damage that the national organization refused to help pay to fix. Because of this lack of support from the national, Heorot again opted to become a local fraternity, and the college assumed ownership of the property and house.