The History of the Lambda Chapter

Current ZBT House ZBT at Case Western Reserve University began as two separate chapters- Zeta Chapter at Case Institute of Technology and Lambda Chapter at Western Reserve University. Lambda Chapter was founded by Maurice W. Bruml, Sidney L. Geiger, Jay B. Goodman, James Z. Sands, Louis T. Schulman, and Morris Wirtschafter on Saturday, May 15, 1909. Zeta Chapter was founded on Monday, November 8, 1909.
Chapters of several fraternities at CIT and WRU have also merged with ZBT due to the merging on the national level. Kappa Nu founded their Lambda Chapter at WRU in 1919 which merged into Phi Epsilon Pi in 1961. Phi Epsilon Pi founded their Alpha Kappa Chapter at WRU in 1933 and they merged with ZBT nationally in 1970, though it appears they did not merge locally until 1971. A Phi Alpha Chapter was also located on the WRU campus and they merged with Phi Sigma Delta in 1958. Phi Sigma Delta founded their Kappa Chapter at WRU in 1918 and they merged with ZBT nationally and locally in 1969. It seems likely that one more local fraternity has merged into Lambda Chapter, though the name of the fraternity is unknown.
The Lambda Chapter is currently the second oldest active chapter of Zeta Beta Tau; Delta Chapter at Cornell is the only older chapter.

Locations of our Chapter House

Lambda Chapter at Western Reserver University and Zeta Chapter at CIT lived in the same house even before the official merge of the two universities into Case Western Reserve University. We had lived in ten different houses over the years. Here is a list of the dates and locations for each house:
Date Address
1913-1914 2258 Cummington Rd.
1914-1919 2115 Cornell Rd.
1919-1921 Dorms
1921-1924 2101 Adelbert Rd.
1924-1926 11447 Euclid Ave.
1926-1927 2552 Keniworth Rd., Cleveland Heights
1927-1928 1624 E. 115th St.
1928-1931 2099 Cornell Rd.
1931-1934 2069 Abington Rd.
1934-1949 2073 Abington Rd.
1949-Present 11327 Bellflower Rd.
The houses on Abington Rd. and Cummington Rd. have been demolished to allow for the expansion of the University Hospitals. Our current house is apparently the only one that still stands. Our current house was originally known as Wager Mansion. The house was donated to us by Francis Wager, the widow of Mars Wager. Mars Wager built the house in 1903. He was killed on October 31, 1944 while crossing at the intersection of Ford and Bellflower.

Historical Facts

  • The first president of Lambda Chapter was Louis T. Schulman
  • Lambda Chapter founded three other ZBT chapters
    1. Nu Chapter at Ohio State University
    2. Phi Chapter at the University of Michigan
    3. Upsilon Chapter at McGill University
  • We were one of the first chapters to respond to the national decision to eliminate pledging by instituting the Brotherhood Program in the Spring of 1989, one semester before the policy became mandatory
  • Former Chapter President, Rob Stadler, initiated new brothers of ZBT at Beta Tau Colony at Penn State-Behrend in Erie, PA on November 10, 1989.