Boyd House - University of Oklahoma - Norman, OK - Oklahoma Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

David Ross Boyd was the university's first president, transforming it from a prepatory school to the college of higher learning. The beautiful white house is located on the NW corner of Boyd St. and University. Boyd St. runs east-west, along the north end of the campus.

This is one of many historical markers placed on campus to inform visitors of the people who shaped the campus and the buildings named after them.


Boyd House

President David Ross Boyd (1853-1936) arrived in Norman on August 6, 1892. Born in Ohio and educated at Wooster College, he had been hired as the first president of the fledgling University. He later recalled, "Not a tree or shrub broke the interminable monotony of the hard-pan desert .... Behind me was a crude little town of 1,500 people, and before me was a stretch of prairie on which my helpers and I were to build an institution of culture. Discouraged! Not a bit. The sight was a challenge."

With an original faculty of only three other professors, Boyd met that challenge head-on. The University began as a preparatory school due to the unpreparedness of its applicants, with 57 students enrolled in September of 1892 and 119 by academic year's end. Boyd traveled the state in a horse and buggy to promote the new University to potential students.

Transforming the prairie, Boyd planted sapling trees bought with his own money, watering them by hand. He served as President until 1908 when he was fired by the state's first Governor Charles Haskell for partisan political reasons. Boyd was made President Emeritus in March 1930, a title he held until his death on November 17, 1936.

The Boyd House was built as President Boyd's home in 1906, and became university property in 1914. Between 1915 and 1922, President Stratton D. Brooks had the house completely remodeled, adding a neoclassical facade and columns to the front of the house. It served as the presidential residence until 1969, and hosted many famous visitors, including scientist Alexander Flemming, President William Howard Taft, musician John Phillips Sousa, biographer Carl Sandburg and Eleanor Roosevelt. After 1969, it houses university offices. Following a private fundraising drive led by President David Boren and First Lady Molly Shi Boren it underwent restoration beginning in June of 1995 and once again became the president's home in 1996.

In the first few years after its restoration, Boyd House once again hosted national and world leaders including President George H. Bush, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Mikail Gorbachev, former President of the U.S.S.R., Nobel Prize Winner Archibishop Desmond Tutu, and many others.

County: Cleveland Record Address:: University of Oklahoma NW corner of Boyd and University Norman, OK U.S. 73062 Rate the Site: Sponsor (Who put it there): University of Oklahoma Web site if available: Not listed Date Erected: Not listed

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log   11/14/2010 Max and 99 visited it