Kappa Pi Kappa (ΚΠΚ), also known as Pi Kap[1] and formerly known as Kappa Kappa Kappa (colloquially as Tri-Kap) and briefly as Kappa Chi Kappa, is a local men's fraternity at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fraternity was founded in 1842 and is the second-oldest fraternity at Dartmouth College.[2] Pi Kap is the oldest local fraternity in the United States.[citation needed] It is located at 1 Webster Avenue, Hanover, New Hampshire.
History
Kappa Kappa Kappa was founded on July 13, 1842 by Harrison Carroll Hobart and two of his closest companions, Stephen Gordon Nash, and John Dudley Philbrick, all Class of 1842.[3][4] The society was based on the principles of democracy, loyalty to Dartmouth, and equality of opportunity. Originally a literary and debate society, Pi Kap officially became a social society in 1905 and has remained so ever since, making it the oldest extant local fraternity in the country.[4][5]
Pi Kap was the first student society at Dartmouth with its own meeting place, a building called The Hall, which was originally where the Hopkins Center for the Arts is today. Opened on July 28, 1860, the Hall served as Tri-Kap's home until the society moved into the Parker House in 1894.[6] Parker House was where the modern-day Silsby Hall is. In 1923, the society moved into 1 Webster Avenue, where it resides to this day.[4][7]
Due to the similarity of the society's Greek initials with the Latin/English initials of the unaffiliated Ku Klux Klan, Kappa Kappa Kappa changed its name to Kappa Chi Kappa (ΚΧΚ) for a period from April 1992 to October 1995, at which point the name changed back to Kappa Kappa Kappa.[8][9]
Following a period of consensus-building among the brotherhood's alumni, on May 18, 2022, Kappa Kappa Kappa again changed its name, this time to Kappa Pi Kappa (ΚΠΚ).[10]