Register-Guard,

Eugene, Oregon
May 18, 2008


By Randi Bjornstad

The first sorority on the University of Oregon campus — the Nu chapter of Gamma Phi Beta — celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, with as many as 700 sorority sisters of all ages converging this weekend at 1021 Hilyard St. to reconnect with the venerable Tudor dowager that has housed them all.

Although the house won’t be open to the public during this weekend’s centennial events, Gamma Phi Beta alumna Cece Steers, who lived in the house in the early 1970s, said the house welcomes tour visitors during “Greek Life” week, usually in July, when prospective students and their parents begin scouting the campus for preferred living arrangements.

Except for cosmetic updates — changes to the exterior are limited because of the structure’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places — the house is much the same as when she lived there nearly 40 years ago, Steers said. About 50 young women call it home at any one time.

The evolution of the sorority began in 1904, when six women, including Leila Straub Stafford, “decided to form a society whose mission it would be to promote the highest ideal of refined and useful womanhood,” according to the voice-over from a video about the sorority.

Straub Stafford — who lived with not just one but two still well-known Lane County names: the political Straubs and the architect Staffords — and her group had the support of another famous UO name, Prince Lucien Campbell, then president of the university, who thought their efforts would help with the university’s housing problem.

At that time, the UO had 350 students and five buildings, but no dormitories. Women students had no choice but to live at home or rent rooms in private residences.

Straub Stafford and her group, who originally called themselves Tau Pi, rented their first house in 1905, on East 14th Avenue between Hilyard and Patterson streets. A year later, they’d already outgrown it and leased a larger house — bringing with them a housemother and cook — from Sigma Nu fraternity, at 749 E. 13th Ave. Two years later, in 1908, they were in a third location at the corner of Alder Street and East 13th Avenue. By then, the UO had grown to 900 students and 10 buildings.

In the meantime, one of the original Tau Pi group, Caroline Benson, daughter of Portland financier Simon Benson, for whom the Benson Hotel is named, had enrolled at Stanford University and joined the Gamma Phi Beta sorority there. Still loyal to her old chums, she helped Tau Pi win a charter for the UO, and in December 1908, the Nu chapter was officially installed, with 30 students and graduates on the membership list.

 Still growing, the group decided it needed a larger home of its own. The sorority members voted to “tax” each member $50, to be paid within five years of graduation, to raise money for a building. They also raised $10,000 via myriad bake sales, teas and bazaars.

But it wasn’t until Caroline Benson — now married and a Unander — purchased two lots next to the millrace and donated one as a building site — the sorority purchased the second lot from her a decade later for $2,000 — that the project got off the ground.

In 1925, Gamma Phi Beta borrowed $30,000 to finance their venture, and the house was ready for move-in during fall term of 1925.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1958, the sorority gave the UO a modernistic sculpture of Prometheus by Czechoslovakian artist Jan Zach, which sits north of the Museum of Art. The next year, Gamma Phi Beta added a large three-story addition to its home, including a basement chapter room, dining room and sleeping porch. About 20 years later, Straub Stafford’s architect grandson, John Stafford, updated the house’s wiring and plumbing.

The house won listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. By now, well over 2,000 women have called it home. Anyone interested in touring the house this summer during Greek Life week may contact Steers by e-mail at csteers@msn.com.