The exterior of the building is designed as a classical Mediterranean villa; the front fascia faces south onto the main campus axis, which runs east into the Berkeley Hills from the Crescent Lawn on Oxford Street.

[3] The front entrance is in a triple-arched, recessed portico, and the east and west ends of the mansion have round bays with balustrades.

[6][7] Bénard had won a competition to design the entire University of California campus sponsored by wealthy benefactor Phoebe Apperson Hearst in September 1899 with his entry entitled ROMA.

[10]: 45  Construction began on the building with a groundbreaking ceremony on May 16, 1901, presided over by Mrs. Hearst; a budget of US$215,000 (equivalent to $7,870,000 in 2023) had been appropriated, which proved to be inadequate and work stopped after September 1902.

[13]: 27  The size of the parties kept growing, and to accommodate them, Ida Sproul initially rented, then purchased porcelain dishes; she never served a buffet meal during her leadership of President's House.

[13]: 27  When Chiura Obata, professor of art at Berkeley, and his family were interned during World War II, Ida Sproul offered the attic space at President's House to store their art and furniture; Obata's wife Haruko (an ikebana artist and teacher) had arranged flowers for the Sprouls once, which Ida recalled as "the nicest little flower arrangement ... not elaborate and not gaudy, but a little bit of color and maybe a pretty red leaf or something.

"[15]: 100 Berkeley Chancellor Clark Kerr was named the President of the University of California in 1958 to succeed Sproul; instead of moving into President's House in accordance with tradition, the ex-professor preferred to remain in his private home in El Cerrito, and had the on-campus mansion remodeled to accommodate official events instead; it was renamed to University House.

[3] Rosebud Denovo was shot and killed by an Oakland Police Department officer after breaking into University House in the early morning of August 25, 1992.

[17] In 2009, protestors threw flower pots and a lit torch at the mansion,[18] prompting round-the-clock police protection;[19] eight were arrested, including two students.

[25] Media related to University House (Berkeley, California) at Wikimedia Commons # denotes an acting or interim president