A much anticipated day has finally arrived for the Kentucky Chapter of FarmHouse fraternity on the University of Kentucky campus.  Thanks to the generous support of financial contributions from FarmHouse alumni and friends, the fraternity will officially break ground for a new house Jan. 26.  

The event will begin with a luncheon and program for fraternity members, alumni and family in the E.S. Good Barn on the UK campus followed by the groundbreaking ceremony. The site for the new fraternity house is located on Rose Lane, just a couple of blocks from the fraternity’s current home. Sherman-Carter-Barnhart Architects of Lexington designed the new house and Mark Spaulding Construction Company from Florence will build it. 

Bill Moody, retired professor from the UK College of Agriculture Department of Animal and Food Sciences, and Lynwood Schrader, retired Kentucky Utilities vice president, are both FarmHouse alumni and campaign council co-chairs to build the new house.

“We are very proud of the design of the new house,” Moody said. “It is a little different than your ordinary fraternity house.  We told the architects we wanted it to look like an actual farm house as much as possible, because a lot of our guys have farm backgrounds.”

The price tag for the new house, complete with furnishings, is just under $4 million, half of which the fraternity already has raised. The 20,000 square-foot, three-story house will accommodate 52 fraternity members and will have a geothermal heating and cooling system.  Once construction begins and barring weather delays, the new house should be completed by January 2014.

FarmHouse fraternity members, alumni and family can still contribute to the new house capital campaign by sending donations to FarmHouse Foundation of Kentucky, 460 Spencer Park, Lexington, Ky., 40515.