$4 million Farmhouse house renovation prepares fraternity for the future | News

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URBANA — For the members of the Farmhouse Fraternity at the University of Illinois, this fall semester has been a homecoming, but thanks to chapter alumni, it’s been a whole lot more than that.

Current brothers moved out of the long-time home of the fraternity last December and spent the Spring 2025 semester in a rental house.

It was a fine house, but not ideal, President Jack Jungmann and recruitment chair Cooper Nelson agreed, but it was worth it.

“We just had to recruit on culture and the guys in the house,” Nelson said. “We promised there’s a renovated house — it’s been in the back of my mind for the entire recruitment process, and now we’re here.”

Farmhouse alumni have been working for the last few years to raise funds to renovate the 100-plus-year-old house, and their efforts finally paid off.

In just a few months, the house saw renovations throughout, from generally sprucing up the dining room to completely redoing the top floor.

Up until now, the third floor has been an open space where all of the first-year members slept in one big room. Now, new members will have dorm-style rooms like those in the rest of the house.

Both Jungmann and Nelson were also thrilled about some more casual “quality of life” updates, too: brand-new bathrooms and showers and, for the first time, central heating and air conditioning.

But they didn’t need all of that to recruit, and they didn’t need it to love Farmhouse. Both are seniors, and both are passionate about their fraternity — which was recognized with a “Greek Oscar” for “Outstanding Greek Certified Housing Facility” last year, right as they were preparing to renovate.

“It’s like finding that happy medium of guys who have big aspirations of what they want to do at this university, but also want that small-town feel that you have 60 guys behind you when you leave this house, no matter what,” Jungmann said.

It might be a few more than 60 guys.

Farmhouse Alumni Board President Bruce Frank said that when the Alumni Board started considering raising funds for renovations, they had a firm perform a study to see how many alumni would be willing to donate.

Of the 50 surveyed, 95 percent said yes.

The study suggested that the board would be able to raise up to $3.5 million. They set a $4 million goal and have blown past it to around $4.23 million; they had $2.9 million raised before officially making the campaign public.

“Our experience when we were in school was such an amazing experience, we want to continue that tradition on and really honor not only our brothers that had been there in the past, but also make sure that there’s a facility and we can build towards the future,” Frank said.

Everyone seems united on the idea of building: since Fall 2023, Jungmann said membership has tripled, bringing the total to 57, most of whom live in the house.

The guys currently in the house have also been hands-on with the renovations where they could be, taking charge of moving furniture in and out, down to lugging a huge boardroom table through a window to fit it inside.

Frank said that there had been some consideration of replacing the house entirely, but it would have been even more expensive, and just not what the alumni wanted.

“That facility has a lot of memories. It has a lot of sentimental value to people,” Frank said. “It’s great to see that we’re able to provide that for the guys and the future guys that will live there.”

Alum Kirk Builta said that after moving from a small town to attend UI, having a group to join that shared many of his experiences and values was a relief.

“Over the years, you just become so close to some of these men that you live with for four years, and eventually you’re in their weddings, and meeting their kids and all this, it just becomes a part of who you are,” Builta said.