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Zack Quaintance

Men are once again walking in and out of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, but instead of carrying book bags and hurrying to class, these guys are hauling tools and running back and forth to hardware stores.

After more than a year with no residents, the red brick building at 408 W. Mill St. is getting an extreme makeover this fall. The $300,000 project, expected to be completed by Aug. 7, will turn the 31-room building into five five-bedroom units and one studio apartment. Rent will cost $300 a room plus utilities.

Clyde Swanson has owned the property since 1995. During that time, Swanson leased the building to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, known around campus as the Pikes.

"The idea with the Pikes was they were going to rent it for 10 years and then they buy it," he said.

That plan ended abruptly in April 2004 with the accidental death of Brent Johnson, a 19-year-old Pike pledge who drowned during a camping trip. An autopsy determined that he had been drinking, and authorities charged a member of the fraternity with supplying alcohol to a minor. After the tragedy, the University permanently banned the group, leaving the house vacant.

Now, 15 months after the fraternity moved out, the house needs severe repairs. Every window has been shattered, leaving broken glass inside and out. Empty beer cans, fast food bags and crushed cigarette boxes lie among overgrown shrubs all along the outside. Inside, it isn't much better.

David McCrlerren, the owner of McCrlerren's Masonry of West Frankfurt, spent last week reassembling a wall that collapsed and fell through the floor. While this isn't the toughest job he has ever done, the 23 year old said it was far from easy.

"It's pretty well gutted," McCrlerren said. "Pretty well nothing but a shell."

Aside from the typical construction problems that accompany a year of neglect, renovators also have to deal with spray paint drawings all throughout the building. The shabby state of the property made it initially hard to find tenants, Swanson said.

Naci Somes, a junior from Roselle studying aviation flight and management, was able to envision what the building would eventually become, Swanson said.

"She signed the lease first," he said. "She blazed the trail. Because that place looked bad, people couldn't see what it would be, but she could."

Somes has never lived off campus, and was in the middle of a hunt for an apartment when a friend who was a current tenant of Swanson's introduced the two of them. Swanson, who rents to about 200 SIUC students, was accommodating, Somes said.

"We looked at another one of Clyde's properties that was the finished product and we had faith," Somes said. "It was beautiful. We looked at several others but we sort of dropped everything else when we started working with Clyde."

Since signing the lease, Somes has talked to Swanson at least twice a week. The building's location was appealing to her. The deck, which will be built on the west side of the building, will have a view of the Pulliam Hall clock tower.

"It's right across from Pulliam, it's right by the Strip," Somes said. "I mean, you couldn't get any better than that."

The shattered windows and spray paint graffiti leave no doubt that the building was vandalized, but Carbondale police have no leads on the culprits, officer Randy Mathis said. Shortly after the Pikes moved out last year, more than $100,000 of damage was done. There are no suspects.

"None of the prior information was able to pan out for an arrest," Mathis said. "If we run out of leads, it's hard to do anything."

Authorities wouldn't hesitate to reopen the case, and encourage anyone with new information to come forward, Mathis said.

The dilapidated state of the house and the chance of future vandalism does not worry Somes. She's going to be living with four other female aviation students, and that's a lot scarier, she said.

Before fall classes start, tenants will be too busy living in freshly painted apartments with new carpet to worry about the house's history, Swanson said.

"As years go by, hopefully people will forget it used to be the Pike house," Swanson said. While independent contractors continue the renovation, Swanson said his biggest remaining responsibility is picking a name for the complex.

Reporter Zack Quaintance can be reached at zack_quaintance@dailyegyptian.com.