Phi Rho Sigma Fraternity, 1929

220 North Ingalls Street

Phi Rho Sigma Fraternity, 1929
Creator: Pugh, Myron E.

In 1949 the directors of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital notified the local chapter of Phi Rho Sigma, a medical fraternity, that it "coveted their land for a hospital expansion." The chapter agreed to move to a new site and, according to a 1981 article in the fraternity's journal, "The entire house was lifted off its foundation and moved, intact, across Catherine Street to rest on a new foundation at 220 North Ingalls. Here it stands today, sturdy as ever. Word has it that the transition was so smooth that chinaware left in the cupboards during the move was not broken."

Organized in June of 1897 at the home of Roy Bishop Canfield, the fraternity has always been located close to the hospitals and other medical buildings of the university. It occupied various buildings on Cornwell and Huron Streets until it was able to purchase the Stevens property at the northeast corner of Catherine and Ingalls Streets. After remodelling the house they had purchased, the fraternity moved into it in 1911.

By 1929 enough money had been saved to build a new house and the fraternity hired architect Myron E. Pugh to design their new home in the English Tudor style. The 84-foot long building is mostly of sandstone laid in a random ashlar pattern. Gables are faced with wood half-timbers and tapestry brick and the roof is of rough slate. Other features of the Tudor style include leaded glass, oriel windows and quatrefoil designs. With joists of steel and walls of stone, brick and hollow tile, this structure was built to last.

With the admission of women into the formerly all-male fraternity in 1975, the Phi Rho Sigmas made the transition from a medical fraternity to a medical society. Their coed living arrangement continues to be satisfactory to all parties.