In 1883 Tennessee Beta was chartered at Sewanee; within a year the chapter had erected the first Phi chapter house.

Arthur Ben Chitty, late historiographer at the University of the South, once called the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity House a “little gem of a building.” Modern day owners Mishoe Brennecke and Fred Croom have re-vitalized this Victorian structure.

Its history includes it as a one-time, school and later a fraternity house then private residence. The distinction of the house being the “first house to be built by any fraternity in the South.”

“The original structure contained only two rooms and a porch for it was designed as a meeting and recreation site rather than a home for full-time occupancy.”