Corner House
The Corner House was the duplex located on the southwest corner of West Knox St. and South West St., across from Casa Latina, was once known as the Corner House. Until 2006, the house had never been owned by or formally associated with Knox College. It is now the Sigma Chi house.
History[edit]
Until 1999, TKE would host an annual party called "Hedonism". Hedonism was an orgy, in a very classical sense of that word: debauchery, sex, gluttony, mania, general running amok. After the 1999 Hedonism party, TKE was suspended by the administration, and its members kicked out of the TKE House.
After the 1999 expulsion of Old TKE, many of the then homeless TKEs took to living in a tent city on campus. As a result, tents are no longer allowed on campus. (Some attribute this change in campus policy to a complaint from '02 alumna Miriam Timmer.) Some of these TKEs also managed to be allowed to live off campus. During the subsequent academic year, four TKEs moved to the Corner House, as it was a cheap and proximal alternative to actual campus living, while still providing many of the same freedoms that the Old TKE House did, and became, for some, the hub that the Old TKE House once was.
From 1999 through 2002, tenancy of the house was passed down among TKEs.
Condemnation[edit]
Despite a charming interior layout, the Corner House was generally considered to be slum housing.
Over time conditions worsened in the Corner House.The kitchen sink on the North side of the house overflowed with filth and maggots. Once deemed unusable by residents, rather than being cleaned, it was simply covered with cardboard and duct tape, and disregarded. Broken windows, failed "chemistry experiments", and blackened carpeting were the norm. One past resident of the house, a non-Knox person known only as "Eric", once smashed a 40 all over Sean Underwood in a paranoid fit.
Though this climate originally allowed the Old TKEs to flourish, the state of the house eventually fell into such disrepair that first the North side, and then the South side of the duplex were both condemned, and all tenants given the boot.
Current Status[edit]
After being condemned, the Corner House was bought by one Sigma Chi member's family, renovated, and then sold to Knox for use as the Sigma Chi house.
