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​On October 10, 1872, ten outstanding women at Syracuse University founded the Alpha Phi Fraternity. Clara Bradley Wheeler Baker Burdette, Hattie Florence Chidester Lukens, Martha Emily Foote Crow, Ida Arabella Gilbert DeLamanter Houghton, Jane Sara Higham, Kate Elizabeth Hogoboom Gilbert, Elizabeth Grace Hubbell Shults, Rena A. Michaels Atchison, Louise Viola Shepard Hancock, and Clara Sittser Williams were 10 of the first 20 women admitted to Syracuse, and saw a need for a social center for women. They decided that a tie of sisterhood that would unite a circle of friends, and thus they created Alpha Phi.  Because of their exceptional leadership and guidance, Alpha Phi has flourished and grown to include over 150 chapters throughout the United States and Canada, and remains the strong sisterhood that our founders intended it to be.