Old Sigma Nu house being razed

With Joe Spiker at the controls, a Skytrak lift knocks part of the distinctive porch off the old Sigma Nu house at the corner of Anderson and Bloomington streets Friday afternoon. The old fraternity is being razed as part of a project to redevelop the intersection as a gateway to the DePauw University campus.

Friday marked the final frontier for the old DePauw University fraternity house locals have often referred to as the Starship Enterprise.

The former Sigma Nu house at 500 Anderson St. (the southeast corner of Anderson and Bloomington streets) is in the midst of being razed by Joe Spiker Excavating, Greencastle.

By 2 p.m. Friday, the building's trademark front porch -- responsible for the "Starship Enterprise" analogy with its circular roof and long square columns -- was history.

The old frat house has been vacant since Sigma Nu moved to 309 E. Seminary St. last fall. It is being razed as part of the university's redevelopment of the Anderson-Bloomington street intersection as a new gateway to campus.

"The main goal of the university was to recycle as much of the materials as possible," Spiker said between turns in the seat of the Skytrak lift used to tear down the porch.

"The university was really conscious about recycling and being green," Spiker said. "I said, 'We can do that.'"

He had eight men on site Friday, separating pieces of metal, including numerous window frames, and piling up the 25-foot aluminum columns and 2-x-12 wooden supports for reuse.

Spiker and his crew spent the previous two weeks inside the building, removing the window glass and salvaging as much of the interior as possible.

On Friday a mini-excavator was on the third floor, getting ready to knock down the interior walls that once formed the hallways of the frat house.

Before the porch was added, Sigma Nu began life as the Delta Delta Delta house.

"We couldn't touch those with a sledgehammer," Spiker said, noting that rather than drywall, those walls were constructed of wire mesh covered in a stucco finish so the fraternity boys couldn't punch holes in the wall.

"Going through all three floors, gutting them by hand was a bear," Spiker said, "but in the end it saves a lot of stuff from going to the landfill."

The structure was originally occupied by Delta Delta Delta sorority before DePauw's Sigma Nu chapter was re-colonized in 1986 and moved into the remodeled house that featured the distinctive new front porch.