The Alpha House was originally built as a single-family residence in 1918, and is the oldest continuously owned and occupied Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity house of any of the 800 or so Alpha chapters nationally. Purchased in 1939 by the Gamma Lambda Chapter, it has remained in continued use for more than eight decades.

"The men of Alpha Phi Alpha 1939 took it upon themselves to say, 'Hey, we want to have this place - a safe zone - for Black men to congregate and to be advocates for our community,'" said Harry Todd, a former chapter vice president, told Fox 2 Detroit for a Feb. 26, 2020, story.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. was the first Black national Greek fraternity in the country, having been founded at Cornell University in 1906. Among its famous national members were Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., W.E.B. DuBois and Duke Ellington. The organization's goals are manly deeds, scholarship and love for all mankind. The Detroit chapter was established in 1919.

Listed as a Michigan Historic Site in 1977 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021, this house at 293 Eliot St. played a vital role in Detroit’s Black civic life. At a time when segregation limited access to public spaces, it served as a center for social gatherings, community organizing, and civil rights advocacy, and later as a safe haven during the 1943 and 1967 Detroit racial uprisings.