As Sarah Ida Shaw she studied, as best she could with the resources that were available at the time, the other men’s and women’s fraternities. She was an excellent student. In 1885, she was valedictorian of her Girls’ Latin School class. She would graduate from BU as a Phi Beta Kappa. When she unveiled her plans to start a new women’s fraternity, Delta Delta Delta, her planning and preparation were clearly evident to those with whom she shared this decision. She served as Tri Delta’s Grand President from 1889-93.
She taught high school classical languages and German classes until her marriage in 1896. After her marriage, she began using Ida Shaw Martin as her name. She holds a unique place in the women’s fraternity world. Not only was she a founder of Delta Delta Delta, but she was also an influential voice in the history of several other women’s fraternities/sororities, most notably the early years of Alpha Sigma Alpha. She helped found the Association of Pedagogical Sororities which soon afterwards became the Association of Education Sororities. She was a consultant to these groups through her “Sorority Service Bureau.” She helped Alpha Epsilon Phi develop its first formal Constitution and guided the organization in formulating its Ritual.
She also authored one of my favorite books, the Sorority Handbook, which was a directory to the women’s fraternities/sororities of the day. I suspect it was a resource she started compiling many years before when she was doing her own research prior to founding Delta Delta Delta.
Yesterday was the 147th anniversary of her birth. To celebrate her birthday, albeit a day late, I offer you pictures of her home on Cobden Street. Note the two little “kitten ears” on the turret at the left of the house. There is an additional one on the back side of the house (better visible in the second picture). They are not kitten ears; they are triangles/deltas. And there are three of them. Sadly, there was a fire at the house after these photos were taken. I am not sure if the home is still standing.
This is from the Tri Delta website and it gives a little more insight:
On the corner of Cobden and Cardington Streets in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury there sits a yellow wooden home, ivy growing up the side, a turret on one side with three delta-shaped windows at the top. For 30 years, Tri Deltas all over the country received letters and correspondence from 5 Cobden Street, the home of Sarah Ida Shaw. It was here where she married William Holmes Martin in 1896. It is here where she gave her radio address to the 50th Anniversary Convention attendees who gathered at the Hotel Vendome in 1938, and it was here were she passed away on May 11, 1940.
However, if you drive up to the house today, the turret’s windows are boarded up, and the top, near the deltas, is very badly burned. The house sits empty and abandoned. If you speak to a neighbor, he will tell that the house caught fire and burned. And he will tell you when it happened: Thanksgiving 2012.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed this post, please sign up for updates. Also follow me on twitter @GLOHistory and Pinterest www.pinterest.com/glohistory/
