By Kelly Higginson, For The Miami Student
The renovated Phi Gamma Delta, or FIJI, fraternity house located on High Street is gearing up for its complete opening Oct. 3. The historic house, built in 1828, burned down from arson in May 2013. The identity of the pereptrator remains a mystery.
According to FIJI member Ross Chaifetz, FIJI Nationals immediately planned to demolish and rebuild the home and have students living in the house by the fall 2015 semester.
Besides the historical front pillars of the house, everything inside is renovated. The old house had community showers, bathrooms and about 35 bedrooms. The new house has around 48 bedrooms, a kitchen, common areas, jack-and-jill style bathrooms, storage closets on each floor, laundry services, a library and a new chapter room.
Chaifetz was one of the fraternity members living in the house during the summer of 2013 when he and his friends noticed from an above rooftop blocks away that the house was engulfed in flames.
"We called 911 right away, but it took them 20 minutes to get there, and by then the house was not salvageable," Chaifetz said.
According to City of Oxford Mayor Kevin McKeehan, the fire started in the storage room, which was used for students' mattresses and room furniture over the summer.
McKeehan said when the planning began for the new structure, the first goal was to make the house less prone to catching fire again.
"The entire structure has sprinkler systems around if anything like that were to happen again," McKeehan said.
Once planning began for the new house, funding became another issue for the members of the fraternity. According to Chaifetz, only some of the damage was covered by insurance and FIJI Nationals, but the rest was up to the members.
"We did more alumni and fundraising events to raise money for it than I've ever done in years past," Chaifetz said. "We only had so much time to raise enough or the house was going to get sold."
Popular donut shop, Dunkin' Donuts, was one of those potential buyers, but the FIJI fraternity managed to raise $1.5 million and the planning began in fall 2013.
Although FIJI members are excited to be back in their own house, some miss the tradition that the old house had. The old house, just like many historical places, had stories connected to every room that FIJI alumni in generations past had lived.
"The old house was so unique and had so much tradition with it," Chiafetz said. "Now we have to completely restart everything in this house that just feels like a cookie cutter house that no one has lived in."
Chaifetz and around 40 other members have moved into the house this fall and the final tweaks are being made.
"There's only a few things left until the official opening ceremony for Oct. 3," McKeehan said. "It's going to be a big weekend for alumni and the current fraternity boys."
In addition to the opening of the house, Bill Isaacs, a FIJI alumnus and former head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), will speak about his career with the FDIC.