Frantically scrambling to sign a lease and endless house tours are a reality for many students trying to secure housing, but, for the lucky, all it takes is a connection.
Commonly seen for members of fraternity and sorority life, “pass-down houses” are properties on campus that have been informally passed on from year to year. These houses hold not only students who are a part of the same organization, but also memories.
Junior member of the Delta Gamma Sorority, Erin Troutman, said the process to acquire one of these houses is as simple as asking.
“I reached out to my grand-big…and was like ‘Hey, I would love to have this house and keep the legacy going,” Troutman said.
For 15 years, their yellow house on Elizabeth Street, which they call Lemondrop, has been home to members.
Last year, Troutman lived in the Delta Gamma chapter house alongside three of her other current roommates. Living with them again was an easy decision, she said.
“It’s kinda like a support system,” Troutman said. “We all mesh well and balance each other out… and it has made my college experience.”
Junior Alli Determann, a member of Delta Gamma and one of Troutman’s roommates, said that the lease process was easy, but not stress-free.
“We kinda had to sign our lease right away and tour it, but otherwise it was a really easy process just because we already knew the girls,” Determann said.
While this pass-down tradition is familiar in sorority and fraternity life at UK, it expands beyond that.
Sophomore Hadley Pearson lives in a pass-down house with her UK Dance Team teammates, which has housed dance team members for six years.
“Our landlord is super chill, and she kinda just lets us take over,” Pearson said. “She does the lease, and then we just send it over to the next people.”
The house is owned by the mother of a former UK Dance Team member, and Pearson said she intends to keep renting to dancers as part of tradition.
Pearson added that their home has become an inviting space for members to connect.
“We have four different dance team houses,” Pearson said. “So it makes the most sense for all of us [the team] to come here.”
Tenants of Lemondrop feel similarly that the house brings them closer as individuals, but junior Hayley Hickman said it also serves as a place for all members to feel at home.
“Having a place to always hang out, and have members over that don’t live here, but also spend time with each other every night on the couch is so much fun,” Hickman said.
More uniquely, Junior Kara Vecchio said that living with other collegiate athletes also has benefits beyond growing friendships.
“It’s super nice going places together because we all have to go to games, we go to practice together, so it’s super convenient,” Vecchio said.
Both tenants say that they intend to stay in the houses until they graduate, and will then decide who to pass it on to. A process in which they said the roommates have a conversation and decide who they feel in their respective organizations will best carry on the tradition.
“It will be people we know will be good and keep good care of the house, and keep passing it down,” Troutman said.