The Arbor District became home to a number of Greek organizations during the mid-1950s.  The Delta Chi fraternity had a house at 608 West College (Mitchell).  The Delta Zetas rented at 320 West Walnut (Mitchell).  700 South University (Mitchell) became home for members of the Theta Xi fraternity, and 800 South University (Mitchell) was built for the Delta Sigma Epsilon sorority. 

      Large numbers of veterans living in the fraternity houses, wrote one Carbondale historian, “dictated that noise was kept to a decent level - it was a residential neighborhood – and a good rapport with the neighbors was sought.”[1]   The fraternity housing within the Arbor District foreshadowed an increased presence of student renters within the neighborhood.

     By the mid-1960s, the character of the Arbor District was drastically changed.    Shapiro wrote, “

• To date there has been only scattered incidences of new construction…. This has infused an ‘income value’ to residences, which in turn has created a high rate of absentee landlordism.”[2]

 Many of the older homes in the Arbor District were divided into duplexes, apartments, or rooming houses. 

     The Arbor District now contained a mix of old families, university faculty and staff, and students. By the 1960s portions of it had become predominately a rental district. In that period, before the construction of large numbers of apartment complexes on the southeast side of town, Shapiro observed, “Comprising only 15% of the city’s available land area, it contains 33% of its dwellings,” and “the most intensively used residential land in Carbondale .”[3]  

      Residential turnover became high. In the mid 1960s, 60% of the District’s population reported having moved at least once in the past 5 years and one half stated they would move within the next 2 years.[4] 

      The high residency turn over and high rate of absentee landlordism all contributed to deterioration within the neighborhood.  Many of the older families bought or built houses outside of Carbondale , converted their older homes to rental property, or sold to landlords.