Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse University on May 30, 1904 at the home of Dr. Wellesley Perry Coddington, a Syracuse University professor. It is the youngest of the Syracuse Triad, Alpha Phi, Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Gamma Delta, the three National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations founded at Syracuse University. The Alpha Gamma Delta founders are Marguerite Shepard, Jennie Titus Smith, Georgia Otis Chipman, Ethel Evelyn Brown Distin, Flora Knight Mayer, Estelle Shepard Beswick, Emily Helen Butterfield, Edith MacConnell Hickok, Grace Mosher Harter, Mary Louise Snider and Georgia Alberta Dickover.
Celebrating Founders’ Day on May 30 became difficult for chapters, especially if the chapter’s school year ended in mid-May. In 1936, the celebration of Founders’ Day was replaced by International Reunion Day (IRD). It takes place on the third Saturday of April.
Alpha Gamma Delta’s mascot is the squirrel. These squirrels are from the collection of my friend, Nann Blaine Hilyard, a member of the Alpha Gam chapter at the University of Missouri.
Founder Emily H. Butterfield was an architect and an authority on fraternity heraldry. She designed the Alpha Chapter’s home at 709 Comstock Avenue. According to the January 1931 Alpha Gamma Delta Quarterly, the home was completed in the fall of 1928. The chapter’s first two homes were rentals. The third home was purchased and “occupied until plans for the new house were executed.”
The Quarterly article gave a detailed description of the chapter’s home at 709 Comstock. The house is Georgian in design, “being of Old Virginia brick with the coping, steps and replica of the coat of arms in buff Indiana limestone. Entrance is through the heavy colonial doorway into the foyer with its high arched windows, fireplace and colorful stone floor. First to the left of the main hallway, which is two steps above the level of the foyer, is the suite of three rooms reserved for the use of the housemother. Beyond, at the right, is the arched entrance to the living room opposite the attractive stairway which leads to the second floor. The living room is spacious in its proportions and with its lovely fireplace with ceiling high built-in bookcases on either side, its creamy walls, walnut beams,oriental rugs and attractive furniture makes a charming setting for the chapter life. At one end of the living room are French doors opening into the sun porch, from which one enters the dining room through an arch. The dining room is also entered through arches from the living room and hall, which makes the entire floor wonderfully adapted for dances and other gatherings.”
The article continued, “The dining room is furnished with extensive refectory tables and narrow-backed Windsor chairs. There is also a most attractive built-in buffet. Back of the dining room is the butler’s pantry, the up-to-date kitchen, and two maid’s rooms with bath. On the main floor there are also the coatroom and large lavatory for use at parties, the attractive guest room with its private bath, and the town girls’ room, large and airy with plenty of closet space for all sorts of belongings that may need a safe and temporary housing. The large hall on the second floor is furnished as a lounging room and from it open thirteen bedrooms, each for two girls. All of the rooms differ but each has plenty of space and light and two clothes closets, one for each occupant.”
Alpha Gamma Delta, 709 Comstock Avenue
The chapter was closed in 2001 and it was recolonized nine years later. During the interim, the house was used as an all-female residence hall called Butterfield House. The chapter returned to the house after the lease with the university ended in 2011.
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