Boyd House, also known as the President's House and the OU White House, is the official residence of the president of the
University of Oklahoma. The university's president, currently
Joseph Harroz, Jr., lives in Boyd House as a primary residence free of charge. In 1976, it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places as "President's House, University of Oklahoma".
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History
The house that came to be known as Boyd House was built in 1906 by OU's first president,
David Ross Boyd
David Ross Boyd (July 31, 1853 – November 17, 1936) was an American educator and the first president of the University of Oklahoma.
Boyd was born in Coshocton, Ohio, and obtained a doctorate degree from the small College of Wooster, where he w ...
, for approximately $7,000. In 1908, Boyd was forced out as university president.
He leased the property to the university until 1914, when OU acquired it from Boyd in a property swap.
Seven subsequent university presidents lived in the house.
Stratton D. Brooks, the university's third president, remodeled the house over a period of seven years between 1915 and 1922 into its current
Neoclassical Revival
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing sty ...
style, paying for its four
Ionic columns out of his own pocket.
The house had no formal name; it was known as "The President's House", "The White House", or by the name of the occupant, i.e. "
The Bizzell House".
It hosted numerous significant historical figures, including
Sir Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what ...
,
John Philip Sousa,
William Howard Taft,
Harry S. Truman, and
Niels Bohr.
In 1969
J. Herbert Hollomon, the university's eighth president, moved into a newer residence off campus that was purchased by the university for his use, and his successors continued to live in the same house. The old building sat vacant until 1971, when it became office space. It was used as the university's visitor center from 1979 to 1994. It was officially named Boyd House in 1982.
As a condition of his employment by the university, then-incoming OU president
David L. Boren
David Lyle Boren (born April 21, 1941) is a retired American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and three terms in the United States Senate ...
insisted on living in Boyd House.
Boyd House reopened as the official presidential residence in November 1996 following a $2 million privately funded renovation and expansion.
References
External links
Boyd House- Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma campus
Houses in Cleveland County, Oklahoma
National Register of Historic Places in Cleveland County, Oklahoma
Houses completed in 1906
1906 establishments in Oklahoma Territory
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