320 North 22nd Street - DZ (Frederick Augustus)

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1986 - present: Delta Zeta (ΔΖ)

The earliest reference we can find for this residence is that one Rudolph Trinkle, shoe manufacturer and "hotelman," was living there until his death in 1931. The home changed hands, passing through the Oakes and Doern families, until it was purchased by George and Jean Lieberman in June 1958. George was a principle at Lieberman Associates, an Allentown advertising firm. 

The College purchased the home in 1968 to serve as a residence hall, and it retained the name "Lieberman House" until it was renamed in honor of a Muhlenberg family member, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, at the time of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.

In the fall of 1975, after efforts that reached to the state level, women moved into Lieberman House for the first time. The previous year, a cohort of women had applied to live in the house as part of a "small house" program offered by the Dean of Students office. The women were told that for safety reasons, they must live in a house closer to the heart of the campus, and Lieberman House was assigned to male students. The women claimed that this was discrimination on the basis of sex and appealed to the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission, which affirmed their position. A compromise was reached before public hearings were held.

By the late 1970s, the "Frederick Augustus" House had become one of the "special interest" houses on campus, one which switched between male and female students each year. In 1986, after the somewhat controversial decision on the part of the administration to convert the special interest housing to sorority housing, the sisters of Delta Zeta moved in. 

Visit Origins of Sororities at Muhlenberg to learn more.