Built 1906 Opened 1906 Added to NRHP 6 July 1976 | NRHP Reference # 76001558 Architectural style Neoclassicism Architect David Ross Boyd | |
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Location 407 W. Boyd Street, Norman, Oklahoma Similar Ledbetter House, Barry Switzer Center, Memorial Union, National Weather Center, Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art | ||
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 David L. Boren, 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".
Contents
Map of Boyd House, Norman, OK 73069, USA
History
The house that came to be known as Boyd House was built in 1906 by OU's first president, David Ross Boyd, 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 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, 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, David Boren insisted that he live in Boyd House. Boyd House reopened as the presidential mansion in November 1996 following a $2 million privately funded renovation and expansion.