The social calendar at 55 West Broadway has been part of Gettysburg College life since the chapter’s earliest days. From the first White Rose Formal in the 1950s to the legendary Roaring Twenties Parties that became annual campus institutions, Sigma Nu has always known how to bring people together. The traditions have evolved. The spirit hasn’t.
Today, the chapter’s social calendar is built on the same foundation it always has been: events that strengthen brotherhood, welcome the broader campus, and create the kind of memories that last long after graduation. What happens at 55 West Broadway doesn’t stay there. It becomes part of who you are.
Annual Tradition
The White Rose Formal
No event on the Sigma Nu calendar carries more weight than the White Rose Formal. Held each year since the chapter’s earliest days at Gettysburg, the White Rose is the premier social occasion of the fraternity year: A formal evening that honors the traditions and symbolism of the white rose in Sigma Nu history.
Within the heart and mind and soul of every loyal Knight,
Must dwell the purest thoughts and goals, symbolized by White.
And as he rides into his war against his sundry foes
To show his sundry ladies fair, he sends the whitest rose.
And once each year these loyal Knights relieve the great crusade
And celebrate with merriment the journey they have made.
So as our ladies fair we send our fairest rose to you
And with the whitest rose we send the love of Sigma Nu.
The White Rose of Sigma Nu
Campus Institution — Est. 1975
The Roaring Twenties Party
First held in 1975, the Roaring Twenties Party became one of the most anticipated events on the entire Gettysburg College social calendar. The concept was simple and brilliant: transform the gothic stone rooms of The Castle into a full 1920s speakeasy with period costumes, horse racing boards, blackjack tables, craps, roulette, a prize auction, and the kind of atmosphere that no other house on campus could possibly recreate. Brothers dressed as gangsters and bootleggers. Dates arrived in flapper dresses. The dining room became a casino floor. The living room became a speakeasy. The whole house became the stage.
— Zeta Sigma Chapter History, 1989
Horse racing, craps, blackjack, and roulette, the Roaring Twenties Party across the decades
A Man of Legend
Thanksgiving Dinner & The Lamb Roast — “Mom” Dubbs
No account of social life at 55 West Broadway is complete without Allen “Mom” Dubbs, who arrived at the house in 1964 as cook and culinary engineer and became, over the next four decades, as much a part of Sigma Nu at Gettysburg as the limestone walls themselves. Dubbs fed, cared for, and quietly anchored generations of brothers through every party, formal, and late-night gathering the house ever saw.
Two events defined the Dubbs era above all others. The first was Thanksgiving Dinner: An annual feast that brothers still describe in terms that border on reverence, the best meal many of them had during their entire time at Gettysburg. The second was the Lamb Roast: a whole lamb on a spit over an open fire in the backyard of The Castle, brothers and alumni gathered around as smoke rose past the stone walls behind. It was the kind of thing that only happens at a place with a real house, a real yard, and a man like Dubbs running the show.
In 1981, Allen Dubbs, after what brothers affectionately called “the longest pledge period in history” at seventeen years, was formally initiated as Zeta Sigma #427 with unanimous approval from Sigma Nu’s High Council. It was one of the most celebrated nights in the chapter’s history. Rest in peace, Mom.
Left: “Mom” Dubbs in the dining room · Right: The legendary lamb roast, backyard of The Castle
Left: Dubbs in his kitchen, command center of the house · Right: The Hawaiian Party, complete with palm trees and the ΣN letters
Campus Competition
Greek Week: We Show Up
Sigma Nu brothers have always brought the same energy to Greek Week that they bring to everything else: A full effort, no excuses. In 2025, the chapter won the overall Greek Week championship, the first time Gettysburg has hosted a structured Greek Week in years. A tradition that goes back to at least 1989, when brothers lined the stadium bleachers with their hand-painted banner. The bed races, the field events, the competitions: Sigma Nu competes to win, and usually does.
Greek Week 1989: Brothers in the Gettysburg stadium bleachers with the hand-painted Sigma Nu banner
A Milestone Reunion
55 at 55: Fifty-Five Years at 55 West Broadway
In 2025, the chapter celebrated a milestone that no other fraternity at Gettysburg could claim: 55 years of ownership at 55 West Broadway. To mark the occasion, the chapter brought together brothers from every era of the house’s history for the 55 at 55 reunion. A day of homecoming, stories, and the unmistakable feeling of standing in front of a house that belongs to you and has for half a century.
Brothers who pledged in 1970 stood alongside men who were initiated last semester. Alumni who attended in blazers joined actives who still live in those rooms. More than 55 brothers showed up, which, given the occasion, felt exactly right.
The 55 at 55 reunion: Brothers spanning five decades, all home again at The Castle
The alumni dinner: 55 at 55, 2025
The Full Calendar
There Is Always Something Happening
The formals and signature parties are only part of the story. The weekly rhythm of life at the house is equally important, and the list of traditions, both old and new, is long.
The weekly Thursday social is a chapter staple, a night that brings brothers together mid-week and keeps the house alive with energy between weekends.
A more refined affair, brothers and guests dressed well, drinks served properly, conversation flowing in the rooms of The Castle the way they were meant to be used.
The house gets transformed: Palm trees, tiki decorations, and the ΣN letters flanked by tropical greenery. Brothers and dates in Hawaiian shirts and sundresses. A full escape, one block from campus.
An all-campus theme party. High energy, fully committed to the theme, and guaranteed to fill the house from the front door to the back.
The basement is a natural dance floor. The Dance Hall events transform the lower level into a proper venue with music, lights, and the whole campus invited in.
Exactly what it sounded like, and exactly the kind of thing that only happens at a house that has been lived in long enough to develop a personality of its own.
Joint events with Gettysburg’s sororities that build some of the best cross-Greek friendships on campus. Sigma Nu brothers are known for being good hosts and even better guests.
The fall semester’s send-off, a semiformal evening before finals and winter break, a chapter tradition since the earliest Sigma Nu years at Gettysburg.
One of the great spectacles of Greek Week: Brothers competing in the bed races with the same intensity they bring to everything. A tradition the whole campus comes out to watch.
A bus full of brothers headed to a hockey game is, by definition, a good time. The annual hockey trips have produced some of the chapter’s most retold stories, on the bus, in the arena, and on the way back.
A whole lamb on a spit over an open fire in the backyard with the stone walls of The Castle rising behind it. Only a chapter with its own house and its own yard can pull this off.
Smaller, memorable evenings and brotherhood trips, including the annual pilgrimage to Lexington that take Sigma Nu off campus and build bonds that outlast college.
Brotherhood in the halls of The Castle, this is where the good get better.
Brotherhood After Graduation
Alumni Gatherings, Wherever Brothers Live
The social calendar doesn’t end at graduation. Alumni of the Zeta Sigma Chapter gather in cities across the country: Dinners, happy hours, and informal get-togethers that bring brothers back together years and decades after they last walked through the door at 55 West Broadway. Whether it’s a group from the class of 1988 meeting for dinner in Philadelphia or recent graduates grabbing drinks in New York, the conversation picks up exactly where it left off.
For the biggest milestone events, like the 55 at 55 reunion, brothers travel from across the country to come home. But the local alumni hangouts matter just as much. The brotherhood doesn’t require a formal occasion to be real.
Brothers from the 1980s era, the friendships made at 55 West Broadway last a lifetime.
— Zeta Sigma Chapter
Zeta Sigma Chapter · Sigma Nu Fraternity · Gettysburg College
55 West Broadway · Gettysburg, Pennsylvania