Founded in 1836 by John Jay and John Henry Hobart, the Columbia Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi was the first Greek letter fraternity to be established at Columbia. At that time the Fraternity was four years old, and Columbia the Fourth College at which a Chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi was chartered.

The first meeting was held on June 16, 1836, and presided over by Arthur Cleveland Coxe, an active member of the Urban Chapter. At this meeting four men were initiated.

The rapid growth and increasing influence of this secret brotherhood served only to deepen the jealousy of the uninitiated. Eventually the Chapter numbered thirty three, and their progress excited such unpleasant feelings between classmates that the Chapter returned its charter to the archives of the Fraternity, having reached the fourth year of its existence.

An interval of forty years now intervened. From time to time, applications for a charter of Alpha Delta Phi were received from students of Columbia College; but none met the entire approval of the Fraternity, until the reception of the petition of the reorganizers of the Chapter.

With the surviving Brothers and the Fraternity at large to encourage them, eight undergraduates assumed the task of reestablishing Alpha Delta Phi at Columbia. The initiation ceremony took place Wednesday evening, May 18, 1881. Representatives from the Hamilton, Yale, Amherst, Harvard, Geneva, Peninsular, Dartmouth, Williams, Manhattan, Middletown, Kenyon, Union, Cornell, and Phi Kappa Chapters conducted the initiation.

The Chapter continued to grow in influence and proper. After Columbia became a university and moved to Morningside Heights, a chapter house was purchased and occupied until 1926. It had been evident for several years that this house was inadequate and too far removed from the campus, and in 1926 the Association of the Graduates of the Columbia Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi bought a larger house fronting upon the campus. It was dedicated on March 4, 1927, and was the permanent home of the Columbia Chapter.

The Fraternity made the Chapter inactive in 1992.