Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Robert Maes / Daily Lobo La Estufa, a 100-year-old building on University Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, is used by the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

The small, unassuming structure on University Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue is shrouded in mystery to most people.

Some think it houses the campus water sprinkler system, while others mistake it for a storage shed.

But the real purpose of the building is known to only 30 male students on campus.

The Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity is the caretaker and user of the building known as La Estufa, said Sean Kesani, the fraternity's president.

He said the building represents a bond between members of the fraternity, past and present.

But he can't talk about anything else, he said. Whatever may exist behind the door will remain a mystery to everyone outside the fraternity, he said.

"I can't tell you what is inside. I can't tell you how to get into it. I can't tell you where the door is," he said. "It is more about integrity of the chapter and your respect for your brothers - if you were to say something, you would probably get kicked out of the chapter."

But that has never been a problem. Fraternity brothers respect the sanctity of La Estufa as if it were a church, member Ronnie Garcia said.

"It is a special place for all of us to know that each and every person that has ever entered that building shares the same bond - each other," he said. "They have all gone through the same things, the same processes, the same initiation rites."

University Archivist Terry Gugliotta said she understands why the members are so secretive about La Estufa.

"It is very important to them, and maintaining ownership is a source of pride - and it should be," she said. "It is the most important building to this university and its history."

The fraternity members will celebrate the building's 100-year anniversary in May, but Gugliotta said the celebration is two years too late.

"People get a little loosey-goosey with the dates, and the official date is not always what they abide by," she said. "They are just convinced that it was built in 1908, and I don't exactly know why."

Gugliotta said it was built in 1906, and so does the plaque outside the structure.

But Kesani said 1906 is when construction of the building began.

"The history that we live by and that we teach our younger members is that it was 1906 to 1908," he said. "We just go by what our alumni have told us, that is what it is said to be and what we have all known."

Gugliotta said the look of the University can be attributed to one man: President William Tight.

"The Estufa is a product literally of his hands, and I find it so amazing that we still have the beginning of the history of the style of architecture that we have here on this campus," she said. "It is right there."

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