St. Anthony Hall
| St. Anthony Hall (Fraternity of Delta Psi) | |
|---|---|
| ΔΨ | |
 From University of Pennsylvania Record, 1873
| |
| Founded | January 17, 1847 Columbia University |
| Type | Literary and Social |
| Affiliation | NIC (former) |
| Scope | National (United States) |
| Member badge | St. Anthony's cross |
| Colors | Azure blue
Old gold |
| Patron saint | Anthony the Great |
| Publication | The Review |
| Philanthropy | St. Anthony Educational Foundation, Inc. |
| Chapters | 11 |
| Members | 400+ collegiate 30,000+ lifetime |
| Nickname | 48 The Hall |
| Headquarters |
1417 Shelby Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46203 United States |
| Website | www |
St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on January 17, 1847, the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. The fraternity is a non–religious, nonsectarian organization. In 1879, William Raimond Baird's American College Fraternities characterized the fraternity as having "the reputation of being the most secret of all the college societies." A modern writer says the fraternity is "a cross between Skull and Bones and a Princeton eating club, with a large heaping of Society and more than a dash of Animal House." Nearly all chapters of St. Anthony Hall are coed.
References to St. Anthony Hall have appeared in the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, John O'Hara, and Tom Wolfe.
History
According to Baird's, the Alpha chapter of the Fraternity of Delta Psi was founded at Columbia University in January 17, 1847 by John Hone Anthon, Sam. F. Barger, Charles Arms Budd, and William Myn Van Wagener. In The Review magazine, the fraternity says Anthon was a founder and the first leader of the fraternity. (He would later serve as grand master, i.e. president, of Freemasons in New York, for the term 1870-71.) Another source says Delta Psi was started by the fifteen-year-old Edward Forbes Travis who came to Columbia University from England "with an odd fascination for St. Anthony the Great, the gnarled fourth-century mystic." In this scenario, Travis shared "certain rituals" with a Charles Arms Budd on the Saint's feast day, creating "a sacred bond that was soon extended to others."
According to its national website, Delta Psi was founded on the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great as a "fraternity dedicated to the love of education and the well-being of its members." The fraternity developed "a literary flavor: members would spend hours reading essays to one another for general critique or amusement." By 1853, it was holding an Annual Literary Festival and Dinner. It also held evenings featuring orators and poets, often publishing the poems or speeches.
A Beta chapter was formed at New York University on January 17, 1847. However Beta was short-lived; the Columbia College's Record lists the New York University founders alongside its students. In 1879, Baird's listed seventeen chapters opening throughout the Northeast and South during the mid-19th-century.
During the Civil War, formal contact ended between the Northern and Southern chapters, and all of the Southern chapters closed. In fact, 25% of the fraternity's membership died in the Civil War, with 90 of the 109 deaths coming from the Southern chapters. In December 1865, the fraternity held its annual convention in New York City. The New York Times reported, "Attendance from all the Northern chapters was large, and measures were taken to give the most cordial assistance in response to applications for the rehabilitation of the Southern chapters in such of their colleges are again in operation."
Three of the Southern chapters resumed operations: the University of Virginia, the University of Mississippi, and Washington and Lee. In April 1867, eleven members of the Williams College chapter commissioned a life-sized portrait of a fallen brother; the portrait was displayed at the Schwabe Gallery of Fallen Heroes in Boston, along with the portraits of four other Delta Psi brothers. Members from many Southern chapters attended a commemorative dinner in New York City in December 1871.
In 1894, Yale's Sigma chapter built a dormitory building and named it St. Anthony Hall, apparently the first use of that name. The Fraternity of Delta Psi also became known as the Order of St. Anthony and St. Anthony Hall.
Following the respective traditions of each chapter, St. Anthony Hall is now self-described and referred to on its various campuses as a fraternity or coed fraternity, a secret society or literary society, or a private club. A former Yale chapter president said, "Chapters have a range of degrees of secrecy." In 2006, a Yale member said, "Our secret aspects are truly secret, and our non-secret aspects are truly non–secret"
Symbols
The 1879 edition of Baird's describes the fraternity's badge as a "Saint Anthony's cross, with curved sides. The cross bears a shield in blue enamel displaying the letters ΔΨ. On the bar of the cross are engraved four Hebrew letters, and beneath the shield the skull and bones." The badge was designed by fraternity member Henry Steel Olcott in 1850.
The 1873 University of Pennsylvania yearbook illustration (see infobox above) shows a tau cross or Saint Anthony's cross, a flat-topped shield with the letters ΔΨ, a skull, a sword, a key, a floating triangle, and four Hebrew letters. The sword and the key are crossed, with the skull on top.
In 1860 when the Civil War seemed inevitable, fraternal medallions were made for the brothers to attach to their uniforms so they would be recognized as a member of Delta Psi on the battlefield. A photograph of a medallion in the fraternity's archives shows a round, gold coin with a skull as its central figure. Beneath the skull is a crossed sword and key. Encircling the outer edge of the medallion is a list of each chapter's Greek letter and date of founding.
Chapters
There are eleven active chapters of Delta Psi, including the following active chapters noted in bold. Inactive chapters are noted in italics. Note that the now-inactive Delta Psi local fraternity at the University of Vermont (1850–2004) was never affiliated.
| Name | Chartered date
and range |
Institution | Location | Gender | Housing | Status | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha | January 17, 1847 | Columbia University | New York, New York | Coed | Residential, off-campus | Active | |
| Beta (Prime) | 1847–1853 | New York University | New York, New York | Male | Moved, Reissued |
||
| Gamma | 1848–1850 | Rutgers College | New Brunswick, New Jersey | Male | Inactive | ||
| Delta (Prime) | 1849–1854 | Burlington College | Burlington, New Jersey | Male | Moved | ||
| Epsilon | 1850 – July 23, 2023 | Trinity College | Hartford, Connecticut | Coed | Residential, on campus | Inactive | |
| Eta | 1850–1861 | South Carolina College | Columbia, South Carolina | Male | Inactive | ||
| Theta | 1851–1853, 1986 | Princeton University | Princeton, New Jersey | Coed | Active | ||
| Iota | 1851–1895, 2010 | University of Rochester | Rochester, New York | Coed | Nonresidential, off-campus | Active | |
| Kappa | 1852–1853, 1983 | Brown University | Providence, Rhode Island | Coed | Residential, on campus | Active | |
| Lambda | 1853–1970 | Williams College | Williamstown, Massachusetts | Male | Inactive | ||
| Sigma (Prime) | 1853–1861 | Randolph-Macon College | Ashland, Virginia | Male | Inactive, Reissued |
||
| Delta | 1854 | University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Male | Residential, on campus | Active | |
| Xi | 1854–1861, 1926 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, North Carolina | Coed | Residential, off-campus | Active | |
| Phi | 1855–1861, 1870–1912, 1926 | University of Mississippi | Oxford, Mississippi | Male | Residential, on campus | Active | |
| Psi | 1858–1861 | Cumberland University | Lebanon, Tennessee | Male | Inactive | ||
| Upsilon | 1860–1861, 1866 | University of Virginia | Charlottesville, Virginia | Male | Residential, on campus | Active | |
| Beta | 1860–1888 | Washington and Lee University | Lexington, Virginia | Male | Inactive | ||
| Sigma | 1868 | Yale University | New Haven, Connecticut | Coed | Nonresidential, on campus | Active | |
| Tau | 1889 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, Massachusetts | Coed | Residential, off-campus. | Active |
There have been rumors that the Lambda chapter operates underground; Williams College banned all fraternities in the 1960s, phasing them out by 1970. In 2003, The Williams Record reported that the fraternity began operating as the coed Vermont Literary Society as early as 1973. At that time, the Vermont Literary Society was meeting outside of Williamstown at a place in Vermont referred to as "The Barn". The college offered amnesty to any students who came forward; however, none took advantage of the offer. Again in 2020, there were reports that the Vermont Literary Society was still active as the underground Lambda chapter. The Williams Record's investigation noted that Williams College graduates from 2016 were serving on the board of the Lambda chapter's alumni association. However, the paper later reported that the group disbanded in August 2020.