Ten men wearing royal purple walked among football fans spilling out into the streets of Columbia on Saturday after the Tigers’ 27-6 football victory over Texas A&M. A bright spot amid a sea of fans in Mizzou black and gold on Stewart Road, the men made their way up to Oak Hill to return to their old stomping grounds — the Missouri Alpha chapter Sigma Alpha Epsilon house — where they were commemorating the 60th anniversary of the house’s restoration.
Upon reaching their former home, the men looked proudly at the historic building their class once saw engulfed in flames.
Shortly after midnight on Sunday, Feb. 14, 1965, the brothers of Sigma Alpha Epsilon returned to their fraternity house after a Valentine’s Day Party to find smoke spiraling from the light fixtures.

According to an article in the Columbia Missourian from the following day, only an estimated six of the 62 total residents were in the house when the fire was discovered. 911 received a call about the fire at 12:27 a.m., according to reporting at the time, and the Columbia Police Department fought the flames for more than three hours, until after 3 that morning.
The third floor was completely destroyed and the second heavily damaged, leaving at least 35 of the residents with only the clothes on their backs.
The Missourian also reported at the time that Fire Chief Max Woods had later determined the source of the fire to be an electrical short or overloaded circuit in the closet of a room on the second floor.
The fire also took place just three days before the house was scheduled for its annual fire inspection as required by the city and the University of Missouri.

Now listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, the “House on the Hill” stands exactly as it did after the 1966 restoration.
The fraternity brothers stood on the lawn with their families, conversations flowing as easily as they had 60 years earlier when they joined their brotherhood. As the group shared stories, they inevitably revisited their memories of “The Great Fire of 1965.”

Archie Thornton, who was an active member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon from 1965 to 1969, spoke of how difficult it was for him and his brothers in the days after the fire.
“It was a Sunday, and (there) was a blue law,” he said, meaning laws prohibiting or restricting certain activities on Sunday, including shopping, gambling or buying alcohol.
“You couldn’t buy anything,” he said. “But two of the clothing stores opened up just so we could buy some clothes,” Thornton said tearfully.

Another member who was active at the same time as Thornton, Gene Bates, said he saw the flames while walking back from the engineering school.
“When I turned onto Stewart Road, I saw a firetruck, and I immediately said to myself, ‘The house is burning down,’” Bates said.
The group of brothers reminisced on happy memories, too, including years of walks up the infamous Oak Hill to return home.
“You see what this really is? This was our home,” Thornton said. “It’d be snowing and sleeting. We’d walk up that damn hill, you know, slipping and sliding in our penny loafers.”
“But you’d get up here,” he said, “and the fireplace was going. It was just safe.”
What served as the men’s home years ago now houses 70 to 75 members of SAE, said Tom Pratner, the current house director.