The Arm Of Honor fraternity in the student neighborhood just south of Eastern Michigan University's campus used to be an organization to which some of the school's brightest and most promising students belonged.

Several of those who shaped EMU's history, like Elton Rynearson, are Arm of Honor alumni, and the 120-year-old fraternity is the oldest local frat in the country.

But during the 1990s, it started shifting course and earning its reputation as a party frat. As the situation spiraled in recent years, Ypsilanti Police visited the home on dozens of calls annually, and city building inspectors found more than 100 code violations in a 2014 inspection, many of them considered critical.

Learning of the fraternity's issues came as a shock to older Arm of Honor alumni, said Mike Beaugrand, an alumnus who graduated from EMU in the 1980s. Upon investigating, the alumni board found kids who weren't even a part of the Arm of Honor or attending EMU living in the house.

Then, in early 2014, the university suspended the active chapter, and the alumni association informed the active members they were not recognized by the university and could not continue to engage in fraternal activities.

But Beaugrand and his brother, also an alumnus, found themselves highly disappointed with the situation. That prompted an effort to restore the fraternity to what it once was.

The first step in that plan was to purchase and renovate the house, at 602 Emmet St., and turn it into student housing. In 2015, the pair sunk $180,000 into the property, which now houses 12 EMU and Washtenaw Community College students who have their own rooms but share common bathrooms and a kitchen.

Ultimately, the brothers hope to bring the frat back online with a group of young men who have principles in line with those of Arm of Honor's original mission.

"We really want change the whole mission of the fraternity. This goes for every campus, but if a fraternity is social then they're about big parties. Quite frankly, Arm of Honor was a very local, very academic, very community-minded fraternity with a long, rich history," Beaugrand said. "Someday we want to get the organization back to what it was founded on, which are some pretty strong principals."

But the physical house is the first project, and in 2015 the Beaugrands gutted and fully remodeled it. They also met with neighboring homeowners and helped with minor renovations on their properties in an effort to improve the entire block.

"This is going to have a positive impact on the near-campus neighborhood on Emmet," Beaugrand said. "We knew it was going to be expensive as far as out of pocket costs, but being that we're lifelong Ypsilanti residents and EMU grads, we really saw the opportunity to make a good investment and really help a neighborhood that has had some troubles."

The brothers are also very carefully screening tenants, and their process requires students submit to a criminal background and credit check.

"We're looking for high-caliber students who are engaged in the community and are good folks, not the crazy party animal house type students," Beaugrand said.

Three fraternities have contacted Beaugrand offering to lease the house, but he said he isn't interested, and he wants to keep the space available in the event that they are able to restore and reinstate the Arm of Honor. He stressed that the alumni board would oversee the fraternity and ensure that there won't be a repeat of past issues.

"That's 120 years of history in jeopardy, so we're stepping in. The house is worth saving, and next we can talk about starting a new chapter some years down the road. It's a shame what happened," Beaugrand said.

"But hopefully we can get it reinstated with a new group of guys now that we flushed out the riff raff, and hopefully they'll be able to carry the torch for another 100 years."