The Delta Kappa Epsilon
house, built in 1916 and the oldest fraternity house on campus, will be
demolished at the end of the school year to make room for an entrance
way to Bryant-Denny Stadium, a DKE official said Sunday.
Gorgas Hall, currently used by the UA Police Department, will be torn
down in early November to make way for a new DKE house, which will be
ready by fall 2006, said DKE House Corporation adviser John McNeil.
The site of the old DKE house will be used as a part of the new grand
entrance for Bryant-Denny, McNeil said.
He said the University will compensate the fraternity for the value
of the original house and allow it to lease the land Gorgas Hall is on,
but the fraternity will also need to raise about $3 million to pay for
the new house.
McNeil, a former DKE and 1979 UA graduate who now works at McNeil,
Jackson, Ahrens Financial Group in Mobile, said initially many of the
fraternity's alumni opposed losing "the mansion on the hill,"
but they eventually agreed not to stand in the way of the University's
progress.
McNeil said UA administrators were helpful and easy to work with
during the process and that a special marker will be placed on the site
after the stadium's grand entrance was finished to commemorate the house
and its history.
The fraternity's new house will have better living arrangements,
McNeil said. While only 14 students can live in the current house, which
has very small rooms and community showers, the new house will have room
for 30 to 34 people with larger rooms, private baths and high-speed
Internet access.
McNeil said the fraternity will soon kick off a fund-raising campaign
directed specifically at alumni to get the money needed for the new
house.
A few DKE members who were tossing a football on the house's lawn
Sunday afternoon said they will miss the house after it's demolished.
John Turner, a senior majoring in telecommunication and film, said he
will miss it for its tradition at the University.
The new house won't have the same character, said Will Alpaugh, a
senior majoring in healthcare management. But it will develop its own
character over time, he said.
"I'd definitely rather stay here," Alpaugh said. "But
I guess the next best thing is to move there."
