The Chi Psi Lodge...

Where is The Lodge?

The Current Lodge
257 South Pugh Street
State College, PA 16801

Why is it called The Lodge?

Chi Psi was founded in 1841 and at this time the organization was simply a group of men who had similar values and beliefs. Greek organizations of this time where not accepted, but rather restricted from most university campuses. Not in the lavish "houses" that we know Greeks to live in today. So in 1855, near Ann Arbor, Michigan and the University of Michigan the group of men known as Chi Psi left the campus grounds because of differing beliefs with the university.  They entered the nearby Black Woods and there found an abandoned hunting lodge.   The men of Chi Psi inhabited this hunting lodge and it soon became the central location of Chi Psi at the University of Michigan.  This was also the first "house" that any of the Chi Psi's nationwide lived in at the time.

Eventually Greek letter societies became more widely accepted on college campuses and the brothers of Alpha Epsilon of Chi Psi at the University of Michigan no longer had to hide from the university administration. Although the brothers of Chi Psi moved out of their hunting lodge in the Black Woods, the name "Lodge" stuck with all Chi Psi living spaces as it represented the first Chi Psi fraternity house and always brings to mind the story of how the men at Michigan survived the rude gaze of public scrutiny.