Big Picture: Cold Comfort

Kappa Kappa Kappa, founded in 1842, is the second-oldest fraternity on campus but the first to have its own building. Shown here in an undated 19th-century image, the hall was built in 1860 on land near where the Hood Museum stands today. “Tri Kap” abandoned the meeting place (it was not a residence) in 1909, long before its 999-year lease lapsed. The reason was made clear in Kappa’s centennial history book, which describes the hall as “pretty uncomfortable the gas was defective [electric lights had not yet arrived in Hanover], the roof was always giving trouble and it was of a barn-like chill in winter.”