Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity House

About this property

Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity House, also known as Maltese Manor, is a historic fraternity house located at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 20, 2002. In 2023, it was adapted into the Revive 314 student apartment complex. Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity House housed the Indiana Gamma Omicron chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity at Purdue University from its construction until May 2021. The Gamma Omicron chapter started as a campus dance club known as the Debonair Club in 1902. In the fall of 1903, the club rented a house on Sheetz Street and began looking for a national fraternity to join. At a meeting on October 17, 1903, the club's members decided to pursue membership in Alpha Tau Omega. The club became the Gamma Omicron chapter of Alpha Tau Omega on November 25, 1904. In 1906, the Alpha Tau Omega Chapter House Association was incorporated in Indiana; its purpose was to build a chapter house for the fraternity. In the meantime, its rented chapter house was destroyed in a fire on October 25, 1908. The fraternity rented a replacement and began actively raising funds to build a chapter house. The association purchased three lots on the corner of Fourth and Russell Streets for $3,465 in 1912. Purdue and ATO alumni oversaw the construction of Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity House in the summer of 1920 for $28,000 ($450,000 in 2022 money). Also known as Maltese Manor, the chapter house is located at 314 Russell Street in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 1994, the national fraternity revoked the chapter's charter, and the chapter house was vacant. On January 1, 1995, an arsonist set fire to the house and essentially destroyed the house. The chapter's alumni made significant donations to refurbish and restore the house in 1995 and 1996. Around 2001, the fraternity sold its chapter house and property to a fraternity brother, Mike Cates, under the business name PCM Properties LLC. PCM which leased the house to the undergraduates of the fraternity for twenty years. PCM prepared a new contract that increased the rent for the property in the fall 2020 semester at a time when the fraternity was still recovering financially from the COVID-19 pandemic. The chapter's alumni and the National Alpha Tau Omega HQ and National Board of Trustees advised the chapter not to the renew PCM contract. As a result, the fraternity stopped renting the property after the 2020–2021 academic year; the chapter house remained empty. In 2021, PCM submitted a proposal to the city to demolish the chapter house to prepare the site for 51 student apartments, retail space, and a parking garage in a $12 to $15 million project. President of the Purdue ATO chapter, Kiernan McCormick, said, "The alumni that owned our home (Mike Cates, PPC Properties owner) decided it was time to do other things with the property. This decision was not shared by the chapter, the alumni, or the National Headquarters; however, it was out of our control legally." PMC stated that it wanted to end its relationship with the fraternity, in part, for disciplinary actions. The university sanctioned the fraternity for hazing and alcohol violations twice between 2019 and 2020.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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