Pi Phi groundbreaking
MC to hold May 15 ceremony on site of new house
An architect’s rendering of the new Pi Beta Phi chapter house
As part of commencement weekend activities at Monmouth College, a groundbreaking ceremony for a new chapter house for the Pi Beta Phi women’s fraternity will be held on May 15 at 3:30 p.m. The $2 million facility will be constructed on the northwest corner of Ninth St. and Euclid Ave.
The 15-bed house has been designed in the Greek Revival style to reflect the architecture of Monmouth’s historic Holt House, where two of the founders boarded and planned the organization. It will be available for Pi Phi members in the spring of 2016.
Founded in 1867 as I.C. Sorosis, Pi Beta Phi was the first national women’s fraternity in the United States. Speakers who will help acknowledge Monmouth College’s status as the birthplace of the modern women’s fraternal movement and celebrate the beginning of construction will include Harold “Knap” Knapheide III of Quincy, Ill., Monmouth College president Clarence Wyatt and Pi Beta Phi chapter president Amber Berge, a junior from Port Byron.
In honor of their late mother, Mary MacDill Knapheide, Knapheide and his sister, Vicki Knapheide Wood of The Woodlands, Texas, made a lead gift of $1.2 million to Monmouth College last year to support the project.
Also participating in the groundbreaking ceremony will be representatives from the architectural firm of Klingner Associates, the construction firm of Russell Construction and the national office of Pi Beta Phi.
Information about supplementing the lead gift with contributions to the college is available from associate development officer Jeri Candor by phone at 309-457-2151 or by e-mail at jcandor@monmouthcollege.edu.
The 15-bed house has been designed in the Greek Revival style to reflect the architecture of Monmouth’s historic Holt House, where two of the founders boarded and planned the organization. It will be available for Pi Phi members in the spring of 2016.
Founded in 1867 as I.C. Sorosis, Pi Beta Phi was the first national women’s fraternity in the United States. Speakers who will help acknowledge Monmouth College’s status as the birthplace of the modern women’s fraternal movement and celebrate the beginning of construction will include Harold “Knap” Knapheide III of Quincy, Ill., Monmouth College president Clarence Wyatt and Pi Beta Phi chapter president Amber Berge, a junior from Port Byron.
In honor of their late mother, Mary MacDill Knapheide, Knapheide and his sister, Vicki Knapheide Wood of The Woodlands, Texas, made a lead gift of $1.2 million to Monmouth College last year to support the project.
Also participating in the groundbreaking ceremony will be representatives from the architectural firm of Klingner Associates, the construction firm of Russell Construction and the national office of Pi Beta Phi.
Information about supplementing the lead gift with contributions to the college is available from associate development officer Jeri Candor by phone at 309-457-2151 or by e-mail at jcandor@monmouthcollege.edu.
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