A historic Detroit fraternity is receiving pandemic relief funding to restore its 100-year-old house in Brush Park.
The City Council provided $200,000 to the Gamma Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha. The funding can be used to address minor architectural, structural, and building systems needs.
The Alpha House is the oldest occupied and the longest continually owned fraternity house of any Alpha chapter. The building has been maintained and occupied for 82 years since being purchased.
The Alpha House was originally a single-family residence built in 1912, and the fraternity has remained there since 1939. It was listed as a Michigan Historic Site in 1977 and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2021.
Members of the Alpha Phi Alpha chapter at the University of Michigan started moving to Detroit in the 1910s and became active in civil life. The Gamma Lambda Chapter was formed in 1919 by 13 men who were influential in supporting Black communities.
Henry S. Dunbar, manager of Detroit’s Brewster Housing Project, was president of the Detroit chapter in 1939 when members decided to purchase a house. The fraternity raised $1,500 dollars within 10 days and paid for the house on 293 Eliot Street in full.
The house provided an important space at a time when very few public, and no private, dining and entertainment facilities in Detroit admitted Black residents. It served as an organizing space to mobilize community leaders against inequities in employment, housing and education.
The Alpha House was also a safe haven Black residents seeking refuge from violence during the riots of 1943 and 1967.
Thank you for highlighting our chapter and our work in the community since 1919.
Harry C. Todd
Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc.,
President-Gamma Lambda chapter
Let’s think about this: A private structure, not open to the public, by supposedly an august body of successful people, of one gender, and the Council sees fit to give it give $200,000. One of the most inappropriate uses of public money yet by the City Council. I’m actually surprised that this isn’t totally illegal.
It’s a historical landmark. Did you even read the article? If anything supporting our history is one of the utmost importance in Detroit and the state. If you call that inappropriate you must have a very prude view of the world.