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Synergy House, 1972-1991

Beta Chi Chapter House of Sigma Nu fraternity, 1910-1972

664 San Juan, Stanford California

(Synergy House Co-op relocated in 1993 to the Cooksey House, 550 San Juan, Stanford. Beta Chi of Sigma Nu is re-established in the former Delta Upsilon house)

Architects: Bakewell and Brown, 1910

Additional Articles:

The History of Synergy, by Lee Altenberg
Synergy 10th Anniversary Reunion, October 31, 1982
Application To Register The Beta Chi Chapter House of Sigma Nu, Stanford University, as a Point of Historical Interest, prepared by Lee Altenberg, 1991
County commission moves to preserve frat house, Stanford University News Service, July 16, 1991
Can Historical Status Status Save Stanford Frat House from Demolition? Press release by the Committee for the Preservation of Historic Stanford, July 12, 1991
Synergy House demolished, Stanford University News Service, November 13, 1991

(Last updated May 18, 2012)

The activist community at Stanford from 1969-1972 also brought forth several other protean groups that prepared the way for Synergy's creation:

SWOPSI: The Stanford Workshops on Political and Social Issues, 1969-1991.
Columbae House Co-op: Social Change Through Nonviolence, 1970 - present.

Some selected Synergy alumni:

Michael Kieschnick: https://www.workingassets.com/About.aspx

Brett Duval Fromson

Ted Nace: https://www.gangsofamerica.com/

Matt Haber: https://www.matthaber.com/

Robert Wenzlau: https://www.Terradex.com/PublicPages/AboutUs/AboutUsHome.aspx

Michael Shuman: https://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?page=fellows_shuman

Mark_Boyar

Nancy Lindborg: https://www.mercycorps.org/aboutus/leadership/674

Steve Bradbury: Office of Legal Counsel

Will Toor: https://www.willtoor.org/

Martha Watson: https://www.precisiontecha.com/company_board_bios.htm

Leslie Leland: https://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/Abstracts/060426.html

This was the only fraternity house ever designed by renowned Beaux Arts architects Bakewell and Brown, who also designed the City Halls for San Francisco and Pasadena, and many other buildings at Stanford. On July 10, 1991, the Santa Clara County Historical Heritage Commission voted unanimously to recommend that Synergy House be given Point of Historical Interest status. Donald Kennedy, Stanford University president, ordered the demolition of the house in November 1991 to replace it with faculty houses. He turned down an offer of a one million dollar loan from the Campus Co-op Development Corporation to repair damage from the 1989 earthquake. He refused to speak with any members of the Committee for the Preservation of Historic Stanford about the historical importance of the house. The Synergy Co-op community relocated to several other houses after the 1989 quake and today continues in the Cooksey House on the Stanford Campus. The palm trees in these photos still stand. Donald Kennedy offered his resignation from the Stanford Presidency in the midst of his decision to demolish Synergy House.

The chicken coop.

The Solar Clothes Drier

The Biodynamic/French Intensive organic garden.

A demonstration of honey from the bee hive, at the 1987 Fifteenth Anniversary Synergy Reunion.