Headquartes Established
Having active chapters in each section of the country, Sigma Nu was now in every sense a national fraternity. Expansion proceeded at an orderly rate, and by 1915 there was a need for centrally located administrative offices with full-time officers. Heretofore, the various Sigma Nu officers maintained their files and records at their own homes or places of business. Fire had once destroyed many of the Fraternity's records, and there was a lack of coordination in general.
Following the Denver Grand Chapter in 1915, the High Council approved the establishment of the central administrative system first proposed by Regent Francis V. Keesling (Beta Chi, Stanford). The plan, adapted by Walter J. Sears, converted the High Council into a board of directors elected by the Grand Chapter; all executive and administrative duties previously exercised by members of the High Council and committees were lodged in a single official - the General Secretary (now Executive Director) - appointed by the High Council and subordinate to its direction.
Indianapolis was selected as the location of the Fraternity's headquarters, and on November 1, 1915 the General Offices were opened there temporarily in the Lemcke Annex before moving into the main building. Bixby Willis (Lambda, Washington and Lee), a past Grand Treasurer of Sigma Nu, was employed as the first General Secretary. In 1926 the central office was moved to the Illinois Building in Indianapolis.
Indianapolis served as the Fraternity's headquarters for forty-two years, during which time fifty-five new chapters were added to the roster of the Legion of Honor.
Founders Join Chapter Eternal
Founder James Riley, who had served ten years (1869-79) as the Fraternity's first Regent, entered the Chapter Eternal on May 6, 1911, in St. Louis, Missouri. Members of the Fraternity carried his remains to a burial plot purchased in Bellefontaine Cemetery by the St. Louis Alumni Chapter in fraternal affection for the Founder.
The life of James Frank Hopkins ended on December 15, 1913, and he was laid to rest in the village cemetery at Mablevale, Arkansas, beside his sweetheart from cadet days and devoted wife, a native Lexingtonian, Jennie Barclay Hopkins. In 1920 an impressive memorial was dedicated at the gravesite. Greenfield Quarles, the only Founder still living, offered a tribute to Alpha 1:
The love of our Brother for his fellow man was only excelled by his love of God. His example has instilled into the hearts of us all the principles which guide us now, and these principles will go down in future generations for all time. His life has been an inspiration to all youth. All that was mortal of Brother Hopkins lies buried here; but his immortal spirit will live forever.
Six months later, the last of the three Founders was taken from living contact with the Fraternity. Judge Greenfield Quarles entered the Chapter Eternal at his home in Helena, Arkansas, January 14, 1921. He had lived a life of noble service.
Educational Foundation
In 1945, Brother William P. Yates (Beta Rho, Pennsylvania), inspired the formation of the 'Sigma Nu Inc., Educational Foundation' with a handsome bequest. Its name was changed in recent times to the 'Sigma Nu Educational Foundation, Inc.' The foundation has been instrumental in assisting collegiate members with financial aid supplements, and the General Fraternity in the development of the LEAD Program, (LEAD is an acronym for leadership, ethics, achievement, development). The Foundation continues to support the exclusively educational programs of the Fraternity.
Return to Lexington
Even before Sigma Nu's first central office was organized in Indianapolis, some dreamed of the day when the Fraternity would have an appropriate shrine at Sigma Nu's birthplace, but it took nearly four decades before the first step was taken. That step was the appointment of a Headquarters Committee in 1954. It compared rent with ownership and ultimately recommended the latter in a college town where a Sigma Nu chapter thrived. Inevitably Sigma Nu history and tradition pointed to Lexington.
Regant James W. Bradley (Epsilon Epsilon, Oklahoma State) and his High Council took the historic step in 1957, purchasing without mortgage or lien a singularly appropriate property, a large, a large home ideally suited for conversion and development. The land, conveniently located on the highest hill in the corporate limits of Lexington, Virginia, and on a seven-and-one-half-acre tract overlooking VMI and Washington and Lee University, enjoys the Blue Ridge Mountains as a backdrop to the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west. The land was originally owned by the son of General Frances H. Smith, the first superintendent of VMI, who inspired Hopkins in the founding of Sigma Nu; the house, built by the grandson of Superintendent Smith, came to Sigma Nu directly from the Smith family. Milton L. Grigg, a renowned Virginia architect and participant in the famous Williamsburg Restoration, was contracted to restore the building. The Headquarters facility was occupied in 1958 and officially dedicated June 9, 1960.