The Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity was founded on February 19, 1852 at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. The founders, William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore, began the Fraternity with the goal of creating a brotherhood that existed based on our maxim The Great Joy of Serving Others.

DePauw University hosts the 19th oldest chapter of Phi Kappa Psi which has chartered over 160 groups across the country. The Indiana Alpha chapter was installed on January 24, 1865 and was the first Phi Psi chapter installed in Indiana. Since then, the chapter has initiated over 2,200 members and is currently the fourth oldest, uninterrupted Phi Psi chapter.

Indiana Alpha was formed in 1865 by non-fraternity students and dissatisfied members of Beta Theta Pi and Phi Gamma Delta. Thirteen men were voted into membership by the Ohio Alpha chapter. First known as “Phi Kaps” or Phi Kappas,” these men were initiated into the National Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi on January 24, 1865.

As with many fraternities, the first chapter room was a rented hall on the second floor of a downtown office building. The chapter rented houses at several locations before deciding shortly after the start of World War I to build on the site of the present location. The house was damaged by fire in 1916 and from 1916 until 1923, when the new house was completed, the Phi Psis rented a house on East Anderson Street. An addition, dedicated to the 11 Phi Kappa Psi members who were killed during World War II, was built in 1958.