A sort of charisma only a Pink House would have

After Sylvia had a string of good luck with docile tenants like the Mormon missionaries and nice Christian gals (late 90s – early 00s), the place got passed on to a gaggle of sorority girls who re-inaugurated the Pink House party tradition during their residence from Fall '04 – Spring '05. The next year, a bunch of guys with a "weird stinch" moved in, thereby reviving the slob tradition. They, in turn, handed the house over to a group of girls who decided on the place partially because of its infamy. In their year there, they tangled with the police while throwing parties, and otherwise did the most to carry on the Pink House legacy of any post-'97 crew. How do we know all this? Well, I found some deleted blog entries dated Fall '06, which brought the house's recent history to light.

Shanny (the author, a DTH staffer at the time) deserves props for being the first resident to start a blog solely devoted to the Pink House. Even though she later deleted the whole thing. Luckily, the internet has a long memory.

From The Pink House of Chapel Hill:

"The Pink House was built a long, long time ago and has served as a home to many groups of UNC students and those who just never wanted to leave Chapel Hill. Groups have associated their college years with this house, and the current residents have not forgotten the legacy of this place.

I have to admit, I actually had never been to the Pink House and had hardly heard about it before we moved in here. Around February, Jess, Maile, Lindsay, Tara and I were looking for a house to move into together for the next school year. So Jess saw a picture of the Pink House hanging on the office door of Dunlap Lilley Rentals. We contact Mr. Jim Lilley and ask him if it's available. "I don't know," he responded. "Go ask the guys living there."

So, we knock on the door and ask the dudes to show us around. It's a typical college pad, complete with beer cans and a weird stinch (they were guys). They told us the fireplace didn't work, the plumbing and the floor in the downstairs bathroom were really bad, the repairs weren't getting done, and the energy bills and rent were really high. But then they told us that the place was famous. It had a sort of charisma that only a Pink House would have. It was old, and many people have lived there and many memories were made there. Ben Folds lived there. There was a movie made about the place, we were told. Wow. I think that - and the fact that it was pink and big - had us sold.

We moved into the Pink House this summer. Well, we moved our belongings into the house this summer and subletted while we were all away at internships and other summer places. Now, we're all back together. School has started, we've already lost two football games, I have a paper due in a week that I have no idea about, we've called our landlord to fix repairs more than 10 times, and we are finally throwing our first Pink House party!"

- "the pink ... what?", by Shanny (aka Shannan Bowen)