219 E. FRANKLIN ST. / PI KAPPA PHI FRAT HOUSE / TANKERSLEY HOUSE / KAPPA DELTA SORORITY HOUSE
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- Sat, 04/17/2021 - 2:06pm by SteveR
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Pi Kappa Phi house, View north, 1917 (via UNC's Yackety Yack)
1915 Sanborn Map excerpt (dwelling at #99)
Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brothers reading on the porch (Thomas Wolfe at center); view east, 1920 (via UNC)
Built as a dwelling sometime between 1911 and 1915 on the site of an earlier dwelling (known as the "bat house" because of bats that lived in the chimney) that had been built (likely) in the 1870s. This property was part of the 1915 Walter Grimes property subdivision.
The Kappa Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity rented and moved into this house sometime between 1915 and late 1918. The fraternity moved into a new house in late December 1918, but had to move back into this house after a fire that took place January 8, 1919 burned their "new" house. This was the future author Tom Wolfe's fraternity from late 1918/early 1919 to 1920. Of the fire, he wrote "Kappa was not daunted by this. The next day we moved back into the house we occupied last year, where we have been comfortably located since." However, due to increased membership, the fraternity soon began raising funds in order to build a new house they were hoping to start construction of later in the year (1919).
By 1921 Pi Kappa Phi moved out of the structure and the property was purchased by Frances "Fannie" Adele Tankersley. In 1924, the structure was greatly enlarged and Frances and her son William L. Tankersley (a dry goods merchant/real estate dabbler) moved into the house.
1925 Sanborn Map excerpt (dwelling at #99/216)
After William Tankersley died in 1931 and his mother Frances moved to Lexington, NC, a Mrs. C. R. Weaver is said to have moved into this house (as a renter?). The property sale or sales is/are a bit murky after 1927, but in December 1938, this property and several adjacent properties were sold to the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company.
The property was purchased in December 1938 by Virgil Jenkins (and family). Purchased in March 1946 by M. J. Dawson (and others). Purchased in January 1949 by Eloise Antley Huryes.
It was purchased in August 1952 by Kappa Delta Sorority, Inc. It is hard to tell what (if much or any) of the original structure exists under the combinations and additions that have made since the 1950s..
From the 2015 NRHP Chapel Hill Historic District Boundary Increase and Additional Documentation:
Kappa Delta house, view north, August 2019 (via Google Streetview)
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