On April 28, 1867, the national women's fraternity movement began in the home of Jacob Holt, where in a second-floor bedroom shared by Ada Bruen and Libbie Brook, twelve Monmouth College co-eds founded I.C. Sorosis, known today by its Greek motto, Pi Beta Phi. Similar to men's fraternities, the organization quickly expanded, with two new chapters added in 1868 and 1869. The fraternity's 1940 Convention voted to preserve the home as a memorial to its founders, and the renovated Holt House opened on April 26, 1941.