Antioch House started in 2002 with 12 men. During their time as students at Oregon State University, our founders, Nick Vallely, Nate Borne, and Caleb Bolen felt God was calling them to start a house for Christian men. This is a brief history of what God has done in the years since our founding.
Peach house:
While we waited for the old Phi Kappa Alpha house to be ready, we needed a temporary place for our first 12 guys. God provided and blessed us with a small peach colored house.
The Lord brought the guys close together during this time. WinCo Foods put free food coupons in the Barometer so guys took advantage and loaded up on free breakfast eat every meal when American Dream Pizza and Local Boyz Hawaiian got too expensive to eat for every meal. Tight quarters, changed plans, and stress resulted in God breaking down barriers and brought the guys closer together. Eventually we were able to move into the old Phi Kappa Alpha, Beta Nu chapter house which we now affectionately call “14th Street.”
14th St. House
Old Phi Kappa Alpha House
Renovations were finished and we were able to move into 14th street. It was a relief for the guys to have some room to breath. Since there were only 12 guys in the house, everybody had their own bedroom and their own study room.
Friday Night Worship started at this house and exploded. People were wandering in off the street and accepting Jesus. Eventually, 15 guys ended up in the house for the rest of the year. However, life happened, rocks broke windows, the pipes burst and flooded half the house. Classic 14th street.
23rd Street
Old Chi Phi House
During our time at 14th, Antioch exploded with applicants. We went from the 15 our first year to about 50 guys the next year. Unfortunately, the 14th street house could not house this many guys. Our Founders prayed a lot during the end of the first year and into the summer about what God wanted them to do. They prayed in the sleeping porch and felt like they should accept all the guys that applied even though we didn’t have room for them.
God Provided. The old Chi Phi house went up for rent and we moved in. In our second year, The House of Charis also started up and they almost ended up living at this address before they found a better-suited house for them.
Monday Night Wrestling started, Rhane jumped out of the second story window face first, the Please Believe video tradition begun, and we had our first Hoedown. Lots of pranks between Antioch and Charis took place thanks to our close proximity and some great relationships with the Greek Community grew as a result of our involvement with lots of philanthropies.
Despite all these great blessings, it didn’t come without it’s challenges. Things broke all the time and being so new as a house, it put a significant financial strain on us. Toilets, fridges, ovens, etc. were breaking and we had no way of fixing it. On top of that, guys dealt with a lot of real spiritual warfare. As a result, prayer boomed in the house and stays a big aspect of our house today. Through prayer and the grace of God, strangers and friends stepped up and provided for us in extraordinary ways! Prayer continued as fervent as ever and through it all and guys felt at peace and things stopped breaking (as much).
Friday Night Worship spilled out the door onto party-busy 23rd street and people were drawn in. Prayer on the front steps of the house, raw worship music emanating from the open doors into the night air. The Lord provided such an amazing house for us at this location but, yet again, it was time for us to move. Photo Album from the “Early Years at 14th and 23rd street.
27th Street
Currently the iHouse
This house was a blast to live at. We had Chintimini park across the street, we had a large main room with a balcony and amazing community with Charis on the other side of the park. Friday Night Worship was very special here because we could have people on top of the balcony as well as below as we all worshiped together.
Lots of guys jumping or climbing from the balcony, riding bikes and scooters in the halls, and copious amounts of wrestling. We wore a trail through Chintimini Park since so many people would cut diagonally through the grass often enough that we formed what was known as the “Charis Trail.”
And again, we moved houses.
13th Street
Formerly Phi Tau Fraternity
The property we now own on 13th street was being auctioned off. It was condemned and set to be demolished and townhouses built on top. Squatters were living there and the house was covered in trash, human waste, and drug paraphernalia. A couple bought it from the city and when they heard what we were a Christian fraternity they offered to sell the property to us and carry the loan for a while. At this point we now lived in both the 14th street and 13th street locations which are yards away from each other. God provided not one, but two houses for us. 13th street was an amazing blessing being so close to 14th and still being close to campus. It has an amazing yard, bright vibrant rooms, and a sand volleyball court on the side of the house. All our cooking and eating started occurring here and we split up various house events between both houses to take advantage of all the property God had given us. 13th Street Renovation Photo Album
Brick House (23rd street)
Fall of 2017, We officially opened our doors in our forever home! We are located in the heart of the community of Corvallis being a street over from Greek Row, two blocks from Campus, next-door neighbors with our Sister House the House of Charis and a short walk from The Courtyard. God provided us a home we couldn’t have imagined in our wildest dreams.
A few members took it upon themselves to look into the property and contact the owner. After a few more months, a lot of anxiety, and a lot more prayer, we finalized the purchase in February of 2017.
The summer before move-in, a group of men took it upon themselves to renovate their new home. Through the hard work and countless hours of friends, family, alumni, current members, and even incoming new members, the house had become a home shortly after our new guys moved in. An album documenting the process can be found on our Facebook page.
We are forever grateful to the Lord for caring for us and giving us such an amazing gift of our new home. We are excited to see where this new chapter in our lives takes us as we continue to raise men up for Christ at Oregon State University.