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Chi Heorot was founded in 1897 as a local fraternity named Alpha Alpha Omega, and in 1902 was granted a charter as the Chi chapter of Chi Phi. In 1903, the fraternity moved to its present location, and in 1927 it sold off its eighteenth-century house and built the house that stands today. By the mid-1900s, the Dartmouth chapter of Chi Phi was having some issues with its national charter. Some of these disagreements are alleged to have regarded the admission of an African-American student into the Dartmouth chapter, in violation of Chi Phi rules. In 1968 the house finally dissociated from the national fraternity.
The house then became Chi Phi Heorot. But after several suspensions by the College in the early eighties, it re-joined the national in 1982. This was short-lived. In the winter of 1985 the brothers of Heorot attempted to turn the Great Hall on the first floor of the house into an ice hockey rink by flooding it and opening the doors to allow Hanover's subzero winter temperatures to freeze the water. The ambitious but ill-starred plan fell through, as did the floor of the Hall. The floor collapsed into the basement, resulting in costly damage that the national organization refused to help pay to fix. Because of this lack of support from the national, Chi Heorot again opted to become a local fraternity, and the college assumed ownership of the property and house.
The fraternity chose the name Chi Heorot, derived from the medieval poem Beowulf. Heorot is the great hall where warriors converge to tell their stories. Chi Heorot draws a good deal of its brotherhood from a variety of athletic teams. Ice-hockey, cross country and track, rowing, and skiing are well represented.
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