A group of four small buildings (of which only two remain), funded by a mill levy in 1883, included a separate house for the president of the university and his family.
The original house cost $6,500 and had 10 rooms plus a bath, a laundry, a cellar, and a furnace room. Over the years, the house was redecorated, remodeled, and expanded to accommodate changing tastes, families of different sizes and ages, and additional functions.
The presidents of the university lived here until 1968, when a gift from Samuel A. Koenig (1890–1970) made it possible for an off-campus home to be purchased for the president, and for improvements to be made to the building to accommodate the needs of the Alumni Association. This was one of the first major projects to adaptively re-use an historic structure.
In 1977, the "Peggy Porch" was added to honor former Alumni Association employee Peggy Tague Earnest.