The 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago had awakened many Americans to the rediscovery of classical architecture and spread the City Beautiful movement. At the fair, architect and planner Daniel H. Burnham had presented a concept for dealing with the chaotic growth many cities were facing. Burnham instructed city planners to “make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not be realized.” The City Beautiful concept which Burnham advanced was one in which neoclassical public buildings inspired by the French Ecole des Beaux Arts were displayed in a landscape which emphasized order and proportion, with wide streets and orderly parks and vistas carefully situated to provide a feeling of stability and peace. The buildings which resulted were to be grand in scale and of a design and substance to withstand the ages. The City Beautiful was the most influential architectural theme during the early twentieth century, and its impact was clearly felt in Fort Collins. The prosperity of the early twentieth century was reflected in the impressive homes erected by many of the city’s prominent citizens along South College Avenue of the original townsite. Here members of the city’s power elite built houses designed in the popular architectural styles of the day. Among those who displayed their wealth with new homes during the period were attorney Sanford Darrah; Franklin Corbin, head of the Corbin-Black-Wilson Lumber Company and the Hawthorne-Corbin Motor Company; Charles and Mary Lowell, owners of the Lowell-Moore Hardware Company; and Charles R. Evans, manager of J.C. Evans & Son and a founder of the YMCA. South College Avenue continued to be a prestigious address into the 1920s, when new subdivision platting took advantage frontages along the street. Builders Garrison & Halpin erected a two-story frame house for lawyer Sanford Darrah at 612 South College in 1905 (See Figure 46). The house was Colonial Revival in style as reflected in its symmetrical appearance, clapboard siding, low hipped roof, and prominent central entrance. The house displayed a high level of craftsmanship in its slightly projecting entrance surround with fluted classical columns supporting a full entablature topped by a pediment-shaped crown. Flanking the entrance were triple windows with narrow four-over-four lights flanking divided light windows with transoms with decorative glass. Two-story bay windows ornamented the northern and southern elevations. The impressive residence soon became a fraternity house. Some of the Greek letter societies purchased large, formerly single family, homes and remodeled them to suit their purposes. Examples of this phenomenon are the Darrah house (612 South College) which became the Epsilon fraternity house by 1908;