The Women’s College of Baltimore, today known as Goucher College, was founded in 1885 and graduated its first class in 1892. It was one of the few women’s colleges hosting chapters of national women’s fraternities. There is evidence of local women’s fraternities at women’s colleges including Smith College, Mount Holyoke College and Wellesley College (Martin, 1907; “Legenda,” 1903; Solomon, 1985), but in those instances, the college administrations forbade national organizations from organizing on campus. Goucher College was an anomaly, with at one time, eight active chapters of women’s fraternities.
Alpha Phi’s Zeta chapter was installed on December 1, 1891, with 11 charter members. Blanche Caraway and Cora Allen McElroy, members of Alpha Phi’s chapter at Northwestern University, installed the chapter (McElroy, 1913).
In 1891, Delta Gamma once again entered a women’s college with its Psi II chapter. It took this name, in part, because it was south of the Mason-Dixon line and was located at a woman’s college. Psi had been the name of the founding chapter at the Lewis School; that chapter closed two years earlier.
In 1893, the Zeta chapter of Gamma Phi Beta was installed. Five charter members were contacted by the Alpha chapter and on March 24, 1893, the Zeta chapter became a reality (McCurley, 1913). It was followed by the Alpha Delta chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta in 1896.
The Maryland Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi was organized by Elizabeth K. Culver, from the University of Colorado chapter, Helen and Elizabeth Lamb, from the Swarthmore College chapter, and Loe Mary Ware, from the Nebraska Methodist College chapter. It was installed by Florence P. Chase [Cass], Grand Secretary, on January 9, 1897 (Helmick, 1915).
The Xi chapter of Delta Delta Delta was founded as a local organization, Tau Delta. It was, according to Haller (1988), “the first of Tri Delta’s southern chapters” (p. 503). The institution was also the first women’s college to host a Delta Delta Delta chapter. Xi chapter was installed on November 25, 1898. In 1942, Delta Delta Delta was the first NPC group to leave campus when the university made overtures that the fraternities would not be welcome when the college moved to Towson (Haller, 1988).
Although Tri Delta was the first to leave the campus, all the women’s fraternities, including two additional ones installed after 1902, Alpha Gamma Delta in 1908 and Kappa Kappa Gamma in 1933, were disbanded in the 1940s and 1950s. When the college moved from downtown Baltimore to suburban Towson, Maryland, the administration told the NPC groups that they would no longer be welcomed on campus (Musser, 1990). My husband’s mother, an Alpha Phi, was a student a Goucher when the campus made the move. The Alpha Phi chapter closed prior to her graduation.
Kappa Kappa Gamma chapter members enjoying a sunny day, circa late 1930s/early 1940s (courtesy of Kappa Kappa Gamma Archives)
Goucher College was also one of the few campus without housing for women’s fraternities. According to Musser (1990) the group’s physical facilities “usually consisted of little more than a rented floor and a furnished clubroom in a nearby townhouse where members could meet and hold dances and parties” (p. 133). However, in providing a central meeting spot for members, interaction was fostered between on-campus students and commuters. This benefit of the women’s fraternities was not recognized until after they were abolished (Musser, 1990).
Goucher is no longer a women’s college. Its trustees voted in 1986 to admit men.
May Lansfield Keller was a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the Women’s College of Baltimore (Goucher College). She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg. Dr. Keller was the first dean of Westhampton College (lovingly known as the “Iron Dean”), the University of Richmond’s coordinate college, and she had a leadership role in the Southern Association of College Women, a forerunner of the American Association of University Women. Consequently, she played an integral role in the education of women in the south. She also served as Pi Beta Phi’s Grand President from 1908-1918 and attended several NPC meetings as Pi Beta Phi’s delegate.
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com. Much of this information is from my dissertation, Coeducation and the History of Women’s Fraternities, 1867-1902.
