Alpha Kappa Lambda was founded at the University of California, Berkeley on April 22, 1914. It was the first fraternity to be founded west of the Rockies.
Alpha Kappa Lambda’s roots go back about eight years before that. Four men who helped with the cleanup after the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake talked about forming a house club. This desire was expressed during a YMCA conference when friends discussed the need Christian men had for an affordable place to live and study. House clubs were common in the days before colleges and universities provided college or university housing and meal plans. In 1907, they came together as “Los Amigos” house club.
One of the Founders, Reverend Gail Cleland, later said, “When we organized Los Amigos as a house club…house clubs and fraternities were dime a dozen. They came, they lived for a few months or a few years, then they went out of existence again. But Los Amigos did not go out of existence.” Seven years later, spurred on by a suggestion from the University’s President, the men became a fraternity of one chapter. In 1920, another chapter was founded at nearby Stanford University.
