Founding and affiliation with Delta Upsilon Delta Psi was founded at the University of Vermont in 1850 by
John Ellsworth Goodrich and eight other freshmen
classics students. It was the third fraternity organized at Vermont, after
Lambda Iota and
Sigma Phi. The following year, in 1851, Delta Psi joined the
Anti-Secret Confederation (A.S.C.) that had been convened by several independent northeastern fraternities. The confederation later changed its name to Delta Upsilon. Nonetheless, Delta Psi's policy of pledging freshmen helped quickly grow the chapter and pressured Lambda Iota and Sigma Phi into opening themselves to underclass students. In 1884, the fraternity incorporated “for the purpose of promoting useful knowledge, [and] intellectual, social, and aesthetic culture." As a local fraternity, Delta Psi experienced substantial growth under the leadership of then student
Charles H. Heath, becoming the largest fraternity on campus by the mid-1900s.
Chapter house Delta Psi did not become a residential fraternity until 1903 when it acquired its first house with the assistance of its aging founding father, Goodrich, by then a professor of Latin at the university. In 1924, Delta Psi purchased and moved into a new home at 61 Summit Street, continuing to use it until the fraternity's undergraduate organization was shut down.
Delta Psi's new facility was a magnificent
Queen Anne structure built in 1892 by Burlington businessman Edward Wells.
Collapse By the late 1990s, Delta Psi had started a slide into neglect. In 2003, the undergraduate organization reported only five active members. The heating system failed in the house in December 2003, resulting in frozen water pipes. In 2005, the house lost its property tax exempt status due to lack of student occupancy. ==Notable members==