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By February Beta Sigma had 37 members and 32 pledges, making it the largest fraternity in the campus. Thirty-two of the brothers and pledges lived in the house. The chapter lead all the fraternities on the campus in activities and ranked fourth in scholarship.

This was a great day in the history of the Beta Sigma chapter. It remains important to acknowledge the invaluable work done by a few of the alumni and especially Brother Bartlett F. Carley (Class of '28). After the fire Brother Carley took the new house problem upon his shoulders, and spared no time or effort in trying to get a place for the chapter to live in. His efforts, almost alone, were responsible for getting the new house. His services to the chapter, both before and since the chapter moved, have been invaluable.

Regarding This New Location

Perhaps it is worthwhile to cover a little background regarding this new mansion and the location which it occupies. Even in the present day, far in the future past the turn of the century, our chapter resides in this same location although not in the same accommodations. We work even now to insure that we remain so situated for years to come.

In the mid-1700s the area known today as Point State Park downtown was extremely valuable. On this point the British and French erected the fortifications that protected their claims to the early West and the Indian trade. Only Fort Pitt, Fort Ligonier, and a handful of other outposts on the frontier successfully withstood the Native American attacks during the conflict know as Pontiac's War (c1763). Colonel Henry Boquet led British troops in a victory over Native American forces in the Battle of Bushy Run just 25 miles to our East, thereby lifting the siege on Fort Pitt. The supply road connecting these forts and outposts became known as Forbes Road. This passes through the area now occupied by the campus.

One hundred years later in the 1870's much of the area was partitioned into homesteads and farms. The Western edge of a 40+ acre farm owned by Alex Chambers bordered a smaller homestead owned by the Force family. The property boundary roughly follows the angled path of Morewood Avenue today although no road was present at that time. It is on this Western edge of the property that our Chapter House will one day be located. Pi Kappa Alpha, however, had just come into existence being founded in 1868. The Chambers' farm included property on the other side of Forbes Road as well.

By 1886, Alex Chambers had sold-off one half of the farm to a gentleman named Ferguson who had an interest in developing the property. Roads were cut from Fifth Avenue halfway into the property at both the East and Western edges of the parcel that Ferguson obtained. One of these would eventually become an extension of Morewood Avenue which had existed on the other side of Fifth Avenue. The new road came up to what is now the bend in Morewood just before Sigma Nu and Morewood Gardens.

Ferguson subdivided the property and by 1900 the Morewood Avenue extension would be cut through to Forbes Road. In addition a small road called Morewood Place would be cut extending to the East just some 300+ feet before Forbes. The Southeastern corner of Morewood Avenue and Morewood Place would be sold to Benjamin Thaw. The mansion was constructed sometime around 1900. Some reports are that it was built a couple of years into the century. The City Register, however, records an address at the site a couple of years prior in the late 1890's. By 1904 the Thaw Mansion was clearly depicted along with other homes on segments of property in the area. The Thaw family enjoyed their home for some 30 years.

It was roughly this same time frame in 1900 that Carnegie Technical Schools was founded. The school began to acquire property on the far side of Forbes. The population of students grew and eventually interest in fraternity life also grew.

Just 20 or so years later in 1921, the Beta Sigma Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha was chartered and took up residence on Baum Boulevard and later on Wightman Street. Once Benjamin Thaw had passed away in 1933 the family held onto the mansion for a couple of years and then had to part with it. It was a that point that our astute alumni negotiated its purchase.

Who Was Benjamin Thaw Anyway?

While Mr. Thaw had little to do with Pi Kappa Alpha and, in fact, might not have been aware of the fraternity at all, he did build a wonderful mansion. In this mansion he included a number of marvelous Italian marble fireplaces and other amazing pieces of art. Upon Benjamin's death his family divided up many of these items but some were sold with the mansion. Today, those fire places are present on the second chapter house building on the property and are enjoyed by our members. What history then did these works of art witness prior to the halls of Pi Kappa Alpha?

Benjamin Thaw belonged to one of Pittsburgh's great steel families. He was a son of William Thaw and Eliza Burd Blair Thaw. There was great wealth in the family and after public school Ben attended WUP (Pitt) and later studied at Yale. In 1886 he married Elma E. Dows and had five children who enjoyed growing up in the mansion. Note that the property in the city records show the owner as being "E. D. Thaw". The property was indeed placed in his wife's name as was the custom at the time for many businessmen. Actually, Mr. Thaw fancied himself as a "capitalist" as that is how he was listed in the 1930 census.

The mansion was constructed for $135,000 in c1900 with some $15,000 alone going into just one of the carved marble fireplaces imported from Italy and dated from the year 1500. This work of art resides today in the finished basement of our chapter house. When William Thaw died, Ben was left as executor of his father's fortune.

On June 25, 1906 a group of wealthy travelers gathered on the roof of the old Madison Square Garden in New York City to watch the premiere of a mediocre musical review. From beneath an overcoat one man produced a pistol and fired three close range shots directly into the face of another. Harry Thaw had just murdered architect Stanford White¹ in a building that White had designed. This was done in jealous rage over an affair between White and Harry's wife, Evelyn Nesbit.

The case became the century's biggest and has been rivaled only in recent times by the O. J. Simpson trial.

Benjamin Thaw was Harry Thaw's half-brother and was quite influential in the family. He no doubt had to be intimately involved with the family in these proceedings. Harry Thaw eventually avoided conviction, much like O. J. Simpson. It isn't at all far fetched to assume that at some point both Harry Thaw and his gorgeous wife Evelyn had visited the mansion, perhaps spent nights there, and even partied (as we do) in front of the Italian fireplaces.

These marble fireplaces are indeed linked to the past and perhaps of even greater value because of it. They are cherished by the Pike brothers and in the case of the large carved mantle, one can only wonder where it had been, and what it lay witness to, for the 400 years prior to the Thaw mansion.

Footnote

• 1. There is a lot of information on-line on the Internet regarding this historical murder. It is of great interest to many even today. A number of movies have depicted these events. Most notable is the movie Ragtime.

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