Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

The Night the Fraternity House Went Up in Flames

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I graduated from the University of Maryland on May 20, 1993, and for the last two years of college, I lived in the Pi Kappa Alpha house at 4340 Knox Road.

The house was far from perfect, but it was home, and I was sad to move out and on to the real world. And then, a month after I graduated, the national fraternity took away our charter and sold the house. It was the end of an era, and it sucked.

“Now you can tear a building down

But you can’t erase a memory

These houses may look all run down

But they have a value you can’t see…”

– “Open Letter (to a Landlord)” by Living Colour

I’d go back to College Park to visit friends, and we usually ended up back on the porch of our old house, drinking a 40 of Private Stock. Some guys would sneak in and do some urban exploring, but mostly we just wanted to visit our old friend.

Sitting on the old steps one last time

That old house had a lot of personality and so many memories from over the years. Sure, there was usually no hot water, and I didn’t have a thermostat in either room I lived in. I lived on beds and couches passed down by guys graduating.

And our house smelled like stale beer, puke, weed, and industrial cleanser. There was no air conditioning, lots of roaches and rats, and the bathrooms were straight out of a crackhouse, but it sure was charming in its own way. Plus, we could see how long the line was to get into the Vous from the front porch.

PiKA in the snow

Even though our chapter, Delta Psi, of Pi Kappa Alpha, had lost the charter in 1993, I held out hope that one day the chapter would recolonize and buy back the house, so we’d all have a place to gather and visit for Homecoming and other occasions.

While there were some bad days there as a pledge, the house held so many good times, smiles, friends, and love. It was too special to just go away for good.

“I’ll tell you this – I’m gonna get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames!”

– Jim Morrison, The Doors

But the house was gone for good on Wednesday, March 29, 1995. A “suspicious fire” tore through the house, and it took about a dozen fire departments and 80 firefighters to extinguish it. That was the official end.

The Diamondback newspaper on March 30 1995

This house, which meant so much to so many for generations, was just gone one day. The whole thing was erased to make way for a generic apartment building for rich kids.

The empty lot at 4340 Knox Road

It didn’t seem real. This house that I was scared to walk into during rush in the fall of 1988, and then, scared again for where my future was taking me, when I walked out for the final time in May 1993. It was just gone like it never existed.

“This is the house we used to live in

This is the place I used to know

This is the house we used to live in

Where I felt I could always go

House that we used to live in

House where I left my heart

House that we used to live in falling apart”

– “House We Used to Live In” by The Smithereens

But it will always be standing there in the hearts of so many of us. RIP Buzz Parker.

Originally published at https://shawncollins512.substack.com.

Cajoling to Keep the Fraternity House Open

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Each year, our fraternity house in College Park, MD, had to undergo city inspections to ensure compliance with housing and life safety codes. These inspections were conducted by the City’s Department of Public Services.

The list of things to repair in the house was long. If I remember correctly, we’d have around one-hundred or more items to fix or replace around the house to pass inspection. It was an onerous and expensive list every year.

One year, when I was the fraternity vice-president (or IMC, as we called it), I came up with an idea to massage the city manager’s ego, hopefully making our inspections go more smoothly. So, I created a raffle for a “basket of cheer,” with the proceeds going towards the inevitable bills to fix the house.

I approached Don Byrd, the City Manager of College Park, MD, who oversaw the house inspections, and I asked if he would be willing to select the winner of our raffle. I explained that we had a vote among the brothers to determine which local official we respected most, and that Don Byrd was the winner. He was very flattered by that vote that never happened.

Shawn Collins and Don Byrd drawing a winner

We sold lots of raffle tickets and raised money for the house, which was definitely helpful, but the biggest benefit for us was that the city took it way easier on us during the inspection that time around.

Don was proud that a bunch of hooligan frat boys respected him, and we were all happy to have a doable list to fix things and pass inspection. And, the winner of the “basket of cheer” was happy to get the prize. There wasn’t an actual basket, but there was a lot of cheer.

Karen Wells winning the Basket of Cheer

This was one of the most important lessons I learned in my five years of college. And it’s very simple… the Law of Reciprocity, the Golden Rule, Quid pro quo, or whatever you prefer to call it. The end result is that when someone does something for you, you feel obligated to reciprocate.

It doesn’t always work out that way, but it did in this case.

Originally published at https://shawncollins512.substack.com.