Tomost alumni-

David and Molly Borenamong them-

it never seemedquite right thatOU's presidents

should live anywherebut in the stately

white houseon the corner of

Boyd and the Boulevard.

by Carol J. Burr

Back toBoyd

HouseBoyd House.University ofOklahoma presidents

lived there for more than 60 years ;their children and grandchildrenplayed in the yard and explored thecavernous basement and attic .Eleanor Roosevelt and British royaltyslept there ; poets, statesmen, electedofficials and movie stars came to din-ner. Spirited discussions of art, lit-erature and politics enlivened its so-cial gatherings . Distinguished schol-ars and nervous young faculty mem-bers brought their spouses to tea .

Eventually, the presidential fami-lies abandoned the house at 407 WestBoyd for more modern quarters away

from the campus . The decision wasincomprehensible to thousands ofalumni who, 25 years later, still con-sider the grand, old, white-pillaredstructure a symbol ofSoonertraditionand continuity . The University's newpresident, David L . Boren, agrees withthem .

Plans toreinstate Boyd House asthepresidential residence and hospitalitycenter began with Boren's selection inMay 1994 . Six months and very littleeffort later, anenthusiastic private sec-tor response to the proposal is within$100,000 ofthe $1.3 million required tocompletely renovate and expand thehouse on the corner.

Built in 1906 as his personal resi-dence by the University's first presi-dent, David Ross Boyd, the house hasgone informally by several names-the President's House, the WhiteHouse, University House-and in 1982by regental decree, Boyd House .

The original Queen Anne-style,wooden clapboard structure, paintedtan or yellow and trimmed in white,faced south across Boyd Street fromthe main entrance to the campus . Ba-sically it was a two-story box (threestories counting the full attic), with asmall one-story wing on the west . Along porch led east from the front doorto a sidewalk connecting with Univer-

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From 1908 to 1914, the University leased the home, now known as Boyd House,from the departed president, who built the Queen Anne-style residence in 1906.

sity Boulevard . Palladian windowswere located in the second-story,gabled dormer on the front and underthe eave on the east .

As the Boyds' house took shape,The Norman Transcript observed,"President Boyd's new residence onthe boulevard is looming up in thedistance, the frame work being al-ready completed . It is certainly goingto make a beautiful structure-onethat Norman as well as Mr . Boyd canbe proud of." The cost ofthe house anda "barn" was reported at $7,000 .

Unfortunately, the Boyds had onlytwo years to entertain the territorialworthies in their new home before thepolitical turmoil of Democratic state-hood swept Republican Boyd and sev-eral ofhis faculty out of office . Neverone to hold a grudge, Boyd agreed tolease his house to the University as ahome for his successors . In all, sevenmore presidential families-Evans,Brooks, Buchanan, Bizzell, Brandt,Cross andHollomon-would live therebetween 1908 and 1969 .

The University took title to theproperty-the house and several ad-jacent lots to the west-in a 1914 tradewith Boyd for other University land .President Stratton D . Brooks, a na-tionally recognized educator who gen-

4 SOONER MAGAZINE

erally is credited with elevating thestatus of the University throughsweeping educational and organiza-tional reforms, felt the presidentialhouse should reflect the institution'snew image .

Between 1915 and 1922, Brookshad the house completely remodeledin a neoclassical revival style . Thedormer and front porch were replacedwith a full-height portico, an insetporch and balcony with a fluted trian-gular pediment . The house, nowpainted white, acquired an open one-story porch on the east, which laterwas enclosed as a music room . On thewest a second-story sleeping porchwas added tothe existing wing and yetanother one-story addition . The car-riage house-later a garage with anupstairs apartment-were builtat thesame time .

Brooks paid for the four massiveionic columns from his own pocket ; hewas never reimbursed . Years later,after he had left the state for thepresidency of the University of Mis-souri, several of his grandchildrenreturned to OU as students and weregranted in-state tuition status by re-gents' action . The eldest grandchild,Theodocia Prickett, who was born inBoyd House, recalls Brooks comment-

ing that at last he had gotten hismoney back for those columns.When William Bennett Bizzell

settled his multi-generational familyinto Boyd House in 1925, the neoclas-sical transformation had been com-pleted . The Bizzells numbered Willand Carrie, their daughter Elaine andWill's mother Sarah, with an olderson, William, and his family as fre-quent visitors . The Bizzells neverhadowned a home of their own, havinglived in two other presidential resi-dences, at Texas State College forWomen in Denton and at Texas A&M.

"Someone once asked me what ef-fect it had on children who alwayslived in state houses," reflects Elaine,who lived in Boyd House until 1928when she married OU student bodypresident and law graduate Lee B .Thompson . "Well, itnever occurred tome that it wasn't my house; I neverthought about it as anything but myhome."

The Bizzells brought some furnish-ings with them, but they also inher-ited the taste of others . BarbaraBizzell Barry, William's daughter,

"Allshe couldsay was

'Wiley andWill aredead!"'

recalls her distinguished grandfathersitting in an easy chair in the eastroom in front of a wall mural of "fourdiaphanously clad ladies, represent-ing the four seasons, I suppose . Theartist, a woman on the faculty, hadeven painted in Aunt Sis's (Elaine's)little dog Togo. It was a very interest-ing picture, but with Mother Carrie'sVictorian nature, I'm sure she didn'tcare for itverymuch." Better receivedwas atreasured painting by the famedOU art director OscarJacobson, which

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hung over the dining room mantel .Barbara andher olderbrother, Bill,

and the three Thompson children, LeeB . Jr., Ralph and Carolyn, were regu-lar weekend visitors, riding the Inter-urban from Oklahoma City to theNorman station, to be met by theirpresidential grandparents . They re-member hiding in the darkly menac-ing cloak room, stacked floor-to-ceil-ingwith "Gran's" books orinthe closetunder the stairway, trying on the bighats stored in the attic along with anoutgrown babycarriage andotherfam-ily cast-offs .

The Bizzell grandchildrenwere lesswelcome in the kitchen, where a Mrs.Shelton reigned supreme, a wonder-ful cook, but according to CarolynThompson Zachritz, "the meanestwoman you ever met," at least when itcame to children under foot . Mrs .Shelton received better reviews forthe large receptions and dinners thatthe Bizzells hosted .

"Back inthose days, youdidn't havecaterers," Elaine Thompson explains ."We had Mrs . Shelton and Grandmain the kitchen-I don't know how the

two of them ever worked that out-and my mother. Several friends, likeBennymaeKraft (wife ofphysical plantdirector Walter Kraft) would come into help make those little chicken saladsandwiches-and `reception' choco-late, the most evil chocolate you everhad. It was really just a chocolatepaste . . ."

" . . . and a big silver bowl of chilledwhipping cream and a pitcher of hotmilk," Barbara Barrybreaks in . "You'dladle this chocolate into the cup, pourin the hot milk and put the whippedcream on top . To die for ."

Othermemories of Boyd House dayshad historic overtones . Bill Bizzellwas not quite eight the day he coastedup the driveway on his bike to find hisgrandmother Carrie standing on thefront porch crying and wringing herhands . "All she could say," he recalls,"was 'Wiley and Will are dead!' Ofcourse she meant Wiley Post and WillRogers, who had just been killed in aplane crash in Alaska . But `Will' waswhat she and Grandma called mygrandfather . It gave me a brief butsevere shock."

The family of OU's fifth president gathers in the Boyd House living room for Christmasphotographs. Standing, from left, are Carrie and William Bennett Bizzell ; Edith and son WilliamS. Bizzell ; and son-in-law Lee B . Thompson . Seated are grandchildren Barbara Bizzell; Lee Jr.and Ralph Thompson; thepresident's mother, Sarah Wade Bizzell;grandchildren Bill Bizzell andCarolyn Thompson; and daughter Elaine Bizzell Thompson .

Carrie Bizzell finally got a home ofher own in 1941 when the retiringpresident purchased a big, white-frame house on ElmStreet across fromthe present Dale Hall parkinglot . Butthe nostalgia surrounding BoydHouseremained for the family . In 1986,when Thanksgiving Day coincidedwith Elaine and Lee Thompson's58thwedding anniversary, the Bizzell/Thompson clan took possession ofthehouse for a day, dining before thefireplace where the Jacobson paintingonce hung, exploring their childhoodhaunts, restaging family photographsin the living room .

Unfortunately, the three years Joeand Sallye Brandt lived in the housedid not produce such cherished memo-ries . The Brandts were constantlyunder fire-from within for the inno-vative president's reorganizationagenda and from the press for Mrs .Brandt's supposedly "extravagant"purchases for the presidential home.

Reminiscing in 1979, Brandt re-counted his embarrassment when thestate auditor, who was running foranother office at the time, went public

withhis refusal to payfor two silver servingdishes . The presidentand his wife paid the$70.44 themselves butleft the offendingdishes behind whenthey beat a hasty re-treat from Okla-homa's political cli-mate in 1943 .A lack of appropri-

ate hotel accommoda-tions and dining fa-cilities in Normanmade the president'shome the inn ofchoicefor notables visitingthe University . Okla-homa governors andpresidents of otheruniversities, such asDavid Starr Jordan,Stanford's first presi-dent, and MiltonEisenhower, then atKansas State, stayedthe night . Amongoth-ers entertained inBoyd House were po-ets Edgar Lee Mas-ters, Carl Sandburg

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The Crosses often awoke to evidence ofthe students'imaginative mischief. Here in1954, the president and his daughter, Mary-Lynn, contemplate the return oftrophies liberated from sorority and fraternity houses by Halloween tricksters.

and Sir Rabindranath Tagore ; scien-tists Niels Bohr and Sir AlexanderFleming ; evangelist Billy Graham ;screen stars Jeanette MacDonald andVan Heflin ; philanthropist E.DeGolyer ; band master John PhilipSousa ; ex-presidents William HowardTaft and Harry Truman ; EleanorRoosevelt; and Britain's Lord andLadyHalifax .

The absence ofa staffofservants inthe house sometimes complicated thehosting of such distinguished guests .When the Halifaxes spent the night,President and Mrs . George L . Crosswere faced with an unexpected di-lemma . Upon retiring to their room,the titled couple left their shoes in thehall to be cleaned and polished . Some-what startled, the Crosses dutifullycollected the shoes, polishing and re-turning them to the Halifaxes' door .

Mrs . Roosevelt's 1958 stay with theCrosses also had its awkward mo-ments, as when son Braden left thephoto of his hero, Republican Presi-dent Dwight D . Eisenhower, abovethe bed when vacating his room forMrs . Roosevelt's secretary . Neverthe-less the visit indirectly led to a vastimprovement in access to the house

6 SOONER MAGAZINE

that Cleo Cross had wanted for years .The 73-year-old former first lady

arrived in a driving rainstorm andwas escorted under large umbrellasup a very long sidewalk from the curbon Boyd Street to the front door . (CleoCross's sensible suggestion that herguest be taken to the back entrancewhere there was a portico had beenrejected by the host committee ofYoung Democrats as "unsuitable .")Thus began Mrs . Cross's campaign fora semi-circular drive by which guestscould be deposited at the front steps .The project was delayed for theplanned widening of Boyd Street, butby 1962 the new drive was in place .

Braden Cross was born in 1946,two years after his family moved intothe president's home . In fact, GeorgeCross was on his way to visit his wifeand son in the hospital when a sponta-neous student demonstration occurredon the front lawn . Cross exited theback door and, unrecognized, circledto the back of the noisy crowd to askwhat was going on . Told that thestudents wanted the president to de-clare a holiday, Cross suggested thatthe president's administrative assis-tant, Royden Dangerfield,was the man

to see and offered directions . Thestudents left for the Dangerfield homewhile Cross proceeded to the hospital .

In the 24 years that the Crossesoccupied Boyd House, their children-Mary-Lynn, Bill andBraden-grew tomaturity, and two sets of grandchil-dren found willingbabysitters in OU'sfirst family . The attic was perfect forBraden's extensive electric train lay-out, while downstairs in the secondfloor sleeping porch, Cleo made themagnificent hats that became hertrademark in the '50s and '60s . Aswing set occupied the side yard andusually accommodations for a familydog. Once a freshman student calledCleo and asked for help with a puppyhe had acquired but could not keep inthe dormitory until it could be takenhome at Thanksgiving. With a va-cancy in the Cross dog house at thetime, OU's obliging first lady readilyagreed to board the animal .

The resourceful Cleo Cross wasequal to most emergencies, canine orchildhood . A granddaughter knockedout her front teeth in a swing setcollision . Her grandmother calmlyscooped up the teeth, dirt and all, andrushed the little girl and the spareparts to a dentist, who successfullyreinstalled the original equipment . Ashort time later a second grandchildfound arazor in the presidential medi-cine cabinet and sliced offthe tip ofhisforger . Coolly, Cleo retrieved the fin-ger piece, wrapped it in a damp cloth,grabbed the child and raced to a doc-tor for reattachment .

Daughter Mary-Lynn summed upsuch heroics with, "Well, Mother, itjust proves that you should neverthrow away the scraps ."

The only year that J . HerbertHollomon, Cross's successor, and hiswife, Margaret, spent in Boyd Housewas not a happy one. Mrs . Hollomonwas ill much of the time and finallyreturned to the East, where she diedsoon after .

President Hollomon preferred tolive away from the campus, and in1969, the regents purchased a houseon the corner of Lindsey and Pickardfrom former OU law dean Earl Sneed .That home subsequently was occu-pied by the families ofpresidents PaulF . Sharp, William S . Banowsky, FrankE . Horton and Richard L . Van Horn .David and Molly Boren will live there

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until the renovation of Boyd House iscomplete .

For two years after the Hollomonevacuation, Boyd House stood virtu-ally empty, except for a couple of staffoffices in the upstairs bedrooms . Withits other rooms boarded off, the oldbuilding suffered from neglect. In1970, Vice President David A. Burrreopened the structure as UniversityHouse to house the newly formed Of-fice of Development and a VisitorsCenter . It also accommodated someofficial entertaining . Unfortunatelyno funds were available for any butthe most basic repairs .

Help came in 1976 when Univer-sity House was placed on the NationalRegister ofHistoric Places . The houseunderwent a major exterior faceliftwith the assistance of a $10,000 fed-eral grant-in-aid through the Okla-homa Historical Society's historic con-servation program and matching Uni-versity funds .

In 1979 the Office of High Schooland College Relations, recently re-named the Office of Prospective Stu-dent Services, replaced the develop-ment staff as the house's major occu-pant and custodian of the VisitorsCenter . The interior has beenreconfigured from time to time to ac-

commodate itsvaryingoffice functions,but the accommodation has been anuneasy one at best . Boyd House wasmeant to be a home, and so it will beagain .

From the beginning of his discus-sions with the OU Regents, DavidBoren expressed a desire to return thepresident's residence to Boyd House,not just as his home but also as acenter for University hospitality anda place of interaction between stu-dents, faculty, alumni, visiting schol-ars and guests of the institution .

The regents authorized the Uni-versity of Oklahoma Foundation tostudy the feasibility ofcomplete reno-vation and expansion of the 90-year-old structure and to receive privatecontributions made exclusively forthat purpose . Internationally knownarchitect Hugh Newell Jacobson's af-finity for the house as a building typeand his expertise in historic restora-tion made him the natural choice forthe Boyd House project . Among theimportant historic buildings he hasrestored are the Hotel Talleyrand inParis and the Renwick Gallery, theSmithsonian Museum and the WestFront terraces of the Capitol in Wash-ington, D.C ., where he resides .

Completed architectural plans for

Tranquil as this photo may appear, Joe and Sallye Brandt left Boyd House withfewer pleasant memories than most presidential families .

the project are due in February 1995,and the reconstruction is expected totake at least a year . The basics, how-ever, are known ; the house will re-main true to its historic neoclassicalstyle with little change to the facade .

The one-story wing on the far westwill be removed and the kitchen andbreakfast roomarea reconfigured . Theeast wing, previously known as themusic room, will be removed to enablethe living room to open onto a stone-surfaced terrace where the originalBrooks porch stood.

Steps from the terrace will lead toa private, enclosed garden entertain-ment area, a memorial to Mary EllenMonroney, wife of the late Sen . MikeMonroney . Before her death, Mrs .Monroney donated a number of an-tiques to be displayed in Boyd House .A two-story addition on the back of

the property will provide a large, first-floor multi-purpose music room, alsoopening onto the terrace, that canseat 60 for dinner. The room will benamed for Cleo Cross . The secondfloor will be redesigned to accommo-date three guest bedrooms and bathswithin the existing structure and anew master bedroom, two baths and astudy in the new addition . A newsitting room will open onto the sec-ond-floor balcony with its view of theArches and Parrington Oval .An elevator will serve the base-

ment, first and second floors, whilethe main entrance and the restroomswill be made handicapped accessible .The entire house will be rewired andreplumbed, and its interior plasterwalls and ceilings, with their decadesof patches, repatches and layers uponlayers ofpaint, will be replaced, whileretaining as much of the wood trimand moldings as possible . The result,architect Jacobson says, should notlooklike anew house butrather shouldevoke the spirit of Stratton Brooks'srenovation of 1915 .

The survivingmembers ofthe presi-dential families, reflecting the re-sponse of the campus population andthe alumni, are thrilled by the pros-pect of returning Boyd House to itsoriginal purpose .

Bizzell granddaughter CarolynZachritz spoke for them all : "You tellDavid and Molly Boren that whenthey get that house finished, we allwant to come."

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