Sigma Chi brothers of all ages gathered at their house on Lasuen Mall Friday afternoon to celebrate recently completed renovations, a happy contrast to the fraternity’s situation four years ago.

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John Shen

Sigma Chi dedicated their house this weekend with a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception for alumni.

In 2002, Sigma Chi was on the verge of losing its house to the University. School officials demanded that the fraternity bring its Row House up to the standards of the Stanford Capital Improvement Program, and the University offered to make the necessary improvements in exchange for the deed to the house. Unlike other fraternities and sororities, Sigma Chi owned its house outright, and its members were not about to hand control over to the University. Aside from the issue of pride, ownership gave the fraternity perks like being able to stay in their rooms over winter and spring break and renting out rooms over the summer to raise money.

Instead, the fraternity chose to pay for renovations to the house — built in 1939 — itself. Over the next few years, the group raised cash for the construction project, primarily through alumni donations. At Friday’s ceremony, current brothers thanked the alumni for their contributions, which included a gift of $250,000 from 1946 alum Henry Segerstrom. Stanford booster John Arrillaga, a member of the class of 1960 and whose son was once president of the chapter, joined the construction project last spring.

Construction took place over the summer, with work crews making final touches and adding sod during the first days of autumn quarter. All of the surfaces in the house were redone with new carpet and paint. Other changes included landscaping around the barbeque, the installation of new ceiling fans and the replacement of carpet with hardwood floor.

Friday’s celebration was a reunion of sorts, with brothers trading anecdotes and inside jokes, and alumni marveling at the house’s new appearance.

“It is far better now than when I was here,” said 1966 grad Gary Jacobson. “It was pretty beat up even in the 1960s.”

Current brothers expressed appreciation for the financial support of alumni and singled out Arrillaga’s contributions as crucial to the project’s success.

“His involvement saved us a lot of construction costs,” said senior Paul Dreyer. “He offered to do it at a discounted rate and his company did a phenomenal job of finishing a huge construction job in the space of three months. He was a catalyst for getting this all done.”

Along with the new features, the house now tried to strengthen links to previous residents. An old tradition sent pledges on a nighttime mission to the foothills to drag a boulder back to the house — rocks that are worked into the backyard landscaping. Scurry Johnson, a 1995 graduate, recalled one such evening.

“In the middle of the night we were up there coming down Campus Drive with this rock being towed by 20 pledges and the police stopped us and asked us if we had permission to be there,” he said. “We said we did and they let us finish. It was a big tradition and built unity among the pledge class.”

Still, Chuck Armstrong, a 2004 graduate, said that the current brothers will need to make the house their own.

“It’s a bit sterile at the moment,” said Armstrong, who is also a former Tree. “It will take a little while for the character of the house to make itself known.”

Some alumni expressed little doubt that the house would stay sterile for long.

“It will be very interesting,” Jacobsen said, “to see what it looks like two years from now.”