Kappa Kappa Gamma House

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some houses just sit there on a lot and let the years roll over them. Others carry a little more weight, a little more story.

The Kappa Kappa Gamma house on the University of Texas campus, it falls in that second category. The Beta Xi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity was chartered at the University of Texas in 1902. That's the seed of the whole thing right there, planted at the turn of the century.

But a chapter and a house are two very different things, and for a good while, the house was still a dream. Then 1936 comes around, and the Beta Xi house association gets formed. That's the moment folks decided to stop dreaming and start planning.

Two years later, in 1938, construction begins on a three-story Georgian Revival sorority house, and they didn't hire just anybody to draw the plans. They brought in Birdsall P. Briscoe, a noted Houston architect, and the man delivered something worth talking about.

Two-story central entry porch. Ionic columns and pilasters. Greek details worked right into the roof cornices.

Now think about that for a second. A sorority house, rooted in Greek tradition, with Greek architectural details carved into the very bones of the building. Briscoe knew what he was doing.

The result is a structure that doesn't just shelter a chapter, it announces one. And it's been standing there ever since, keeping watch over its corner of Austin, doing exactly what a good building ought to do.

What the marker says

The Beta Xi chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity was chartered at the University of Texas in 1902. The Beta Xi house association was formed in 1936, and construction of this three-story Georgian Revival sorority house began in 1938. Designed by noted Houston architect Birdsall P. Briscoe, the house features a two-story central entry porch, ionic columns and pilasters, and Greek details on the roof cornices. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1989