The Alpha House, originally built as a single-family residence in 1912, is the oldest continuously owned and occupied Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity house of any Alpha chapter. Purchased in 1939 by the Gamma Lambda Chapter, it has remained in continued use for more than eight decades.

Listed as a Michigan Historic Site in 1977 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2021, the house at 293 Eliot Street 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 uprisings.