DELTA KAPPA EPSILON FRAT HALL

View north, circa 1925 (via UNC)

View north east (via UNC Postcard collection)

Circa 1960 (via HSANC)

Delta Kappa Epsilon (D.K.E.), Beta Chapter was the first fraternity founded at the University of North Carolina on April 5, 1851. The early chapter meetings were held in the house of John W. Carr. Due to the Civil War, the chapter was dissolved in 1861. The Chapter was revived on March 19, 1887.

This D.K.E. "frat hall" was the first fraternity hall/house built on the UNC campus (in all of North Carolina, actually), in 1894. The building somehow escaped the January 8, 1919 fire on Fraternity Row that burned the adjacent buildings.

D.K.E. moved out in the 1920s, and Chi Phi moved in. In 1932 Chi Phi moved out and it became a boarding house. Then it was the District Health Building (serving Person, Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties). From 1935 to 1936 the upstairs was the offices of the Hospital Saving Association of North Carolina.

It was still being used in the 1960s, and the 1975 aerial photo of the area seems to still show it in place.