Lexington Triad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A monument in Lexington honors the three fraternities that began in the town.

The Lexington Triad refers to three American college fraternities that came out of Lexington, Virginia during the Reconstruction period following the American Civil War.

Members of the triad include Alpha Tau Omega, founded in Richmond, Virginia in 1865 by students from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington; the Kappa Alpha Order, founded in 1865 at Washington and Lee University; and Sigma Nu, founded in 1869 at VMI. These organizations maintain ties to the area today, as the national headquarters of both Kappa Alpha and Sigma Nu are located in Lexington.

The members of the Triad are sometimes also grouped as part of the Virginia Circle, which includes two or three other fraternities founded in Virginia, roughly during that period: Kappa Sigma and Pi Kappa Alpha from the University of Virginia and sometimes Sigma Phi Epsilon from Richmond College. [1],[2]

The triad model likely derives from the importance of triads in earlier fraternity history, such as the Union Triad and Miami Triad, which together established the model for social fraternities as they exist today.