In 1905, the Dragons Society petitioned the national fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) for a charter.
SAE was originally founded in 1856 at the University of Alabama by Noble Leslie DeVotie, and is the largest fraternity in the United States.
The charter was approved and on June 5, 1905, the Dragon Society subsequently became the Iowa Gamma chapter of SAE.
The alumni met Maytag's offer and, in the summer of 1928, construction began on a new house at 140 Lynn Avenue.
Completed in the winter of 1929, at a total cost of nearly $45,000, many students started to refer to the stately new house as the "Maytag Mansion."