The house that students built

Phi Kappa Psi in the 1970s (photo: Elizabeth Crews)

In 1901, when the Northide was still largely unpopulated, U.C. president Benjamin Ide Wheeler recommended it to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity as a site for their new chapter house. The building was designed by fraternity member Harris C. Allen, a Stanford graduate who was instrumental in establishing the Berkeley chapter.

Although Allen was only 24 at the time, the building—his first— became the most admired and talked about “frat” house in Berkeley.

At its June 2006 meeting, the Landmarks Preservation Commission initiated the Phi Kappa Psi house. The public hearing on the designation proposal will take place Thursday, 3 August.

The landmark application provides the full story of this Berkeley Fire survivor.