Today is St. Valentine’s Day, a holiday with creates either joy or angst in the hearts of Americans. A friend posted on Facebook, in a “where do they get these notions?” moment, that her preschooler daughter said, ‘The boys are going to be frustrated with me since all my Valentines are girl Valentines.” Another friend, WSIL morning anchor, Kevin Hunsperger, wrote about middle school Valentine’s Day angst on his blog. http://www.my123cents.com/2014/02/she-loves-me-not.html. Kevin is a founding father of the Sigma Nu chapter at Southeast Missouri State University. In keeping with a long-standing Sigma Nu tradition, his wife is an Alpha Xi Delta.
Some people say that Valentine’s Day is a “Hallmark Holiday,” created by the Kansas City based greeting card company; there is even a Wikipedia page for “Hallmark Holidays.” Do you know that one of the first companies which created Valentine’s Day cards was founded in 1879 by a woman (1879!! by a woman!!!), Mount Holyoke College alumna, Esther Howland? She is credited with popularizing the Valentine’s Day card. Her company, the New England Valentine’s Company, was founded about 50 years before Hallmark. (See http://wp.me/p20I1i-DA for more information).
Do you also know that Alpha Sigma Alpha’s exemplar is St. Valentine? Crimson is the primary color of Alpha Sigma Alpha, one of the 26 National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) groups. The color indicates loyalty.
One of the places I am most fascinated by is the Beekman Tower Hotel, the 26-story hotel built by NPC women for NPC women back in the 1920s. When it was built, it was the tallest building in the area. It is now likely one of the shortest. In putting together a Pinterest page about the Beekman Tower Hotel, I learned that the giant Beekman Tower has been completed. Designed by Frank Gehry, it is a tall, stainless steel structure, gleaming against the skyline. Please do not confuse the two buildings. (http://www.pinterest.com/glohistory/beekman-tower-hotel-built-as-the-panhellenic-by-th/)
I was also upset to find that the Top of the Tower, the small restaurant at the top of the Beekman Tower Hotel, has closed. The hotel was purchased last year and it is being converted into luxury corporate apartments. If the Becques were living in the metro New York area rather than the “exact middle of nowhere,” as I like to call it, we’d have long ago visited the Top of the Tower for Valentine’s Day. I toured the hotel on a trip in the 1990s and was able to see the daytime view from the 26th floor. It was as impressive then as it must have been in the 1920s when the women of the New York City Panhellenic Association visited the building on a regular basis.
And please have pity on my poor husband for he has a wife who loathes roses. Make mine carnations, wine (Pi Beta Phi’s flower) if possible. Five NPC groups have carnations as their flower and, in a pinch, the other colors will do. (For a visual look at the flowers of the NPC and NPHC sororities, see http://www.pinterest.com/glohistory/sorority-flowers/)
By the way, have I mentioned the Pinterest pages I created this past week? http://www.pinterest.com/glohistory/ (Thank you for indulging me! Happy Valentine’s Day).
This card, from a dear P.E.O. friend, arrived in yesterday’s mail. It made my day!
(c) Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved.
