The university's president, currently Joseph Harroz Jr., lives in Boyd House as a primary residence free of charge.

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.

[5] It hosted numerous significant historical figures, including Sir Alexander Fleming, John Philip Sousa, William Howard Taft, Harry S. Truman, and Niels Bohr.

[5] As a condition of his employment by the university, then-incoming OU president David L. Boren insisted on living in Boyd House.

[6] Boyd House reopened as the official presidential residence in November 1996 following a $2 million privately funded renovation and expansion.