Prior to the establishment of the Chicago Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, there existed the Chicago Graduate Chapter, which consisted of the Alpha Delta Phi alumni from other chapters who were living and working in Chicago. Fifty of these men had organized the Chicago Graduate Chapter in 1881 in the Pacific Hotel Appellate Courtroom for the purpose of holding an annual reunion. The organization was chiefly social in orientation, and its banquets were widely covered in the society pages of the newspapers of the day, and many locally and nationally prominent men in government, law, business, and education were members. By 1901, membership totaled 218 men, the large majority of whom were from the Peninsular and Amherst Chapters. The Chicago Graduate Chapter eventually became reorganized as the Chicago Society of Alpha Delta Phi, a group of Chicago Alumni which owns the physical plant and land at 5747 South University and oversees the undergraduate chapter’s fraternal and financial integrity.
At the annual reunion of the Chicago Graduate Chapters in 1893, the subject of a chapter at the University of Chicago was brought up. H.W. Austin, William’s, 1888, and a University of Chicago official reported that practically nothing had yet been done toward establishing a chapter there owing to the adverse action of the faculty which was largely against the establishment of fraternities. However, following remarks made by other University officials who were Alpha Delta Phi (notably George S. Goodspeed and A.K. Parker), a committee was appointed to investigate the possibility of establishing a chapter.
Meanwhile, a group of University of Chicago students got together on December 17, 1894 in room 21 of Snell Hall, then a men’s residence. The group called themselves The Lion’s Head and was soon put on the University’s secret list of secret societies, which up to that point included Delta Kappa Epsilon, Phi Kappa Psi, Beta Theta Pi, and Sigma Nu. The Lion’s Head had the objective of bringing together a congenial group of men. The membership included ten: Joseph E. Raycoft, Henry M. Adkinson, James Scott Brown, Harry D. Abells, Fred Day Nichols, Forest Grant, Carr Baker Neel, Nott W. Flint, Clarence B. Herschberger, and Cecil V. Bachelle. The majority of the members played on the University Baseball Nine. Joseph E. Raycroft, the president and chief organizer of the club, was quarterback on the University Football Team. Carr Baker Neel was Western Intercollegiate tennis champion in singles.
However, these men not only held athletic prowess, but were leaders in every area of the University. Among other achievements, Raycroft was President of the University Colleges; Adkinson was President of the University Republican Club and Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Maroon; Brown was treasurer of the Academic Colleges; Abells was President of the YMCA; Nichols was President of the University Glee Club and Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Weekly; Grant was a University Marshal and head artist of the Cap and Gown. As a recommendation from Thomas W. Goodspeed, uncle, fraternity brother, and colleague of George, S. Goodspeed, affirmed, "These men are the first men of the University; in the confidence and respect of the faculty and students there are none before them. Not one is a below average scholar, and their athletic records simply happen to accompany their estimable qualities." Thus, the group was an excellent examples of Samuel Eells’ ideal of the "entire man," both as a whole and as individuals. They were well-suited to the brotherhood of Alpha Delta Phi.
Though they had all rejected the fraternities previously, these men saw Alpha Delta Phi as representative of their own ideals. With encouragement from the Chicago Graduate Chapter, they submitted a petition setting forth the advantages of the University of Chicago as a place for a new chapter early in 1895. The petition was approved at the National Convention that year. It was then referred to the individual chapters for ratification, the last necessary vote being received in December.
On the night of March 20, 1896, the Lion’s Head dissolved as the ten men became charter members of the Chicago Chapter. The Chicago Graduate Chapter revealed its selectivity and pride by remarking, "The conditions for the starting of … a chapter have not hitherto been regarded as favorable in any of the institutions of learning in and about the city." The new Alpha Delts carried on their records of achievement and all but two entered graduate study at the University of Chicago. Raycroft became assistant to Amos Alonzo Stagg in the Department of Physical Culture for a time, and all became very active in the graduate association. The presence of Alpha Delt alumni on the University faculty and administration, as well as in the graduate schools, aided the Chicago Chapter avoiding many of the usual problems of a new chapter in its earliest years.
The first chapter house was located at 57th and Monroe (now Kenwood). Affectionately known as Old Llally House, it was small and did not afford ample space for a dining room. Still, a certain amount of prandial spirit was secured by acquiring a room for Chapter use at a boarding house. After five years, the Chapter moved to 5772 Kimbark and stayed until this house burned down in the winter of 1903. The men then used an apartment at 5826 Ingleside for gathering at meals. Fortunately, they found a new house soon at 975 East 60th Street (now 600 E. 60t), where they remained until the fall of 1914, when they returned from across the Midway to settle at the present site. During World War I, the house on University was empty due to number of men in service, and it was rented to a family for a year. In 1926, the Chicago Society decided to build a new home at 5747 South University that would be "so substantial that it would harmonize with and be as permanent as the buildings of the university and so adequate and complete that it would serve as the home of Alpha Delta Phi at Chicago for many years to come." In the fall of 1929, the new house was completed, though a red brick colonial style had been proposed, it was decided to build the plain Gothic design and face the structure in Indiana limestone so as to be more in harmony with the architecture of the quadrangles.
The Chicago Chapter weathered the Depression well. As one of the most popular established fraternities of the then 32 on campus, it had little problem finding good men to pledge and fill the house, despite Brother Robert Maynard Hutchins’ (Yale 1921) 1930 injunction against pledging freshmen. In those days, the fraternity was very active athletically, claiming more varsity team captains as members than any other. Also the fraternity was very active as a literary organization, its chief literacy hallmark being the presentation of an annual play which was quite popular on the campus as a whole for many years. In addition, graduate seminars were often organized by the alumni and held in the living room.
For almost a decade after World War II, when Hutchins finally prohibited the existence of any undergraduate fraternity, the Chapter operated successfully as the only graduate unit in the Fraternity, taking many members from the Law School and the Divinity School. The transition, with its attendant difficulties, required insight and devotion to the University and to the Fraternity; the Chapter and the Alumni demonstrated both.
With the return of fraternities in 1954 to undergraduate life at Chicago, and the curriculum changes which had brought about a return to the four-year bachelor’s degree, the Chapter was once again an undergraduate chapter.
In the 1960’s much anti-establishment feeling hurt the fraternities, which were often seen as snobbish, racist, sexist, and perpetuation of the ‘old boy network." Alpha Delta Phi took a very reforming stance during this period, though it still had difficulties in forming a cohesive brotherhood at times. It made a conscious effort to recruit minorities, and adopted a resolution encouraging the initiation of women as members. This resolution stood until the spring of 1981, since which time no women have been initiated. The coed issue remains alive at a few chapters, notably Columbia, Brown, Middletown, Bowdoin, and Stanford. These chapters withdrew from Alpha Delta Phi International at the 160th Convention in 1992. These coeducational chapters are now an independent entity, Alpha Delta Phi Society, but still share the same ideal and traditions which bind all members of the Fraternity.
The Chicago Chapter has hosted four of the International Conventions; the 72nd in 1904, the 101st in 1933, the 126th in 1958, and the 165th in 1997. The chief attraction of the 1933 Convention was the Chicago World Fair, A Century of Progress. As this Chapter approaches its second century, it looks back on its glories and its disappointments, but can honestly admit to having furthered the progress of its individual members, the Chapter, and the Alpha Delta Phi as a whole.