FORMATION OF DKE

The fifteen founding fathers gathered after the annual selections to the existing junior societies, Psi Upsilon and Alpha Delta Phi, had been named. The selection which was normally based on scholarship, was so badly influenced by favoritism, that several of the selected gentlemen, joined with several of the non-selected gentlemen to form a new junior society. At the first meeting, that fateful night, the fifteen decided they would be known as the Phi Chapter and their open motto would be "Friends from the heart, forever." They also adopted an official badge, a fraternal crest, a secret motto, and a secret grip. Membership was to be based on more then merely academic merit. In the immortal words of Doctor Edward Bartlett, Phi '46, "The candidate we most favored was he who combined in the most equal proportions, the scholar, the gentleman, and the jolly good fellow."

Later that same year, one of the founding fathers, Elisha Bacon Shapleigh, wrote of the new organization to a childhood friend of his, John S.H. Fogg, at Bowdoin College. Fogg was so impressed by the idea that he gathered his closest friends and petitioned Phi for a charter. It was granted and on November 6 of that year Phi begat Theta at Bowdoin. From there DKE spread rapidly; in a decade there were 18 chapters, and by 1858 there were 28.

Then the fateful year of 1861 arrived; the Civil War broke out and many Dekes were embroiled in the fierce struggle. Theodore Winthrop of Phi fell leading Northern troops at Great Bethel. Despite the setbacks of the year, Phi took a gigantic leap forward. The members of Phi built a windowless tomb on High Street as a meeting place for brothers. The tomb was located on the sight of what is now Branford College and is commemorated by a cornerstone that reads, "DKE Fraternity, 1861."

Brothers of Phi met in the tomb on Thursday evenings to eat dinner and drink ale. The brothers often put on skits for one another as the theater was very popular at the time. Music, cards, cigars, and singing to women on the Yale campus were also very popular activities for the brothers of Phi. In addition to creating a gathering place for brothers, the purchase of the High Street property allowed Phi to establish a corporation under Connecticut trust laws. Thus the Winthrop Trust Corporation, named for the Phi hero of the Civil War, was born.

Before the turn of the century, the fraternities ran the Yale campus. All the political elections were controlled by the Dekes and other organizations. This domination, combined with the tendency towards rowdiness and academic slothfulness, forced the faculty to consider banning junior societies in 1861, but the movement was never enacted. DKE, along with Psi Upsilon, and to a lesser extent, Zeta Psi, were the dominant junior societies of their day; the Dekes showed notable athletic orientation in their membership selections.

In 1890, as the University continued to expand, it required that DKE relinquish it's High Street property. Therefore, an even more elaborate tomb was constructed on York Street. Meanwhile, the fraternity's financial fortunes continued to improve as Phi men began to take their places in the vanguard of American business and government.

The next chapter in Phi history begin's in the 1920's with the advent of the residential college system at Yale. The brothers of Phi were forced to sell their tomb to the University, and Saybrook College now stands in it's place. However, in the spirit of the roaring twenties, the Dekes and other fraternities moved across the street to build lavish new houses. Thus, in 1926, Phi moved to their new house at 232 York. The house contained a bar, grill, and dining room with other comforts. In the pre-World War II years, DKE thrived at Yale. The brothers were required by yale to eat at least one meal a day in their colleges, but the rest were inevitably taken at DKE. These were happy times for Phi along with the other farternities.

This period of Phi history ended with the outbreak of hostilities on the European continent and in the Pacific Ocean. In the Second World War some three hundred Dekes gallantly gave their lives. Those who returned to Phi found a much changed environment. In the post-war years the attitude of the University administration to Phi and all the other fraternities was actively destructive. The brothers were forced to pay for 21 meals a week in their colleges. This radically decreased the numbers of brothers dining in the house. As the income from meals had been the primary source of income for the fraternity, this was a harsh blow. In the early 1950's the Yale administration managed to ban pledging and most fraternity activities. The brothers of Phi routinely defied both regulations and in 1958 were fined $200 when two pledges were arrested trying to transport their handcuffed pledgemaster to New London.

Despite the number of brothers reaching its numerical pinnacle in the 1950's and 1960's, darker times were ahead for the fraternity. In the 1960's and 1970's the tide of public favor turned sharply away from fraternities. Economic and political pressure caused the fraternities at Yale to die one by one, until only Phi stood as a bastion against the rising tide of liberal hysteria that was sweeping America.

This battle was not without casualties. The greatest of which was the magnificent house on York Street. In 1973 the Phi house was sold to the University to escape foreclosure by the city of New Haven because of $40,000 in unpaid back taxes. The DKE house was acquired by the University and still stands today as the home of Yale's Alumni Association. Furthermore, the Winthrop Trust was dissolved and it was generally assumed that the proud tradition of the Phi chapter had come to an end. However, despite the loss of this edifice to the greatness of DKE, the fraternity retained it's greatest asset, approximately one hundred steadfast active brothers. The members of Phi continued on and leased an old mortuary on Chapel Street for meetings. However, after only one semester, the mortuary was also abandoned for financial reasons.

The strength of DKE held it through the interim period. Meetings were held in Yale College common rooms. The brothers of the decade after the loss of the house on York Street forged on and carried the banner of DKE until the new conservatism of the 1980's spawned a Greek revival on the Yale campus. In 1987 the fraternity purchased a run-down house on Lake Place, one block from the Yale campus. Through tireless efforts by the brothers and generous donations of the previous generations, the original beauty and physical structure of the house were slowly restored.