William H. McGuffey House - Oxford, Ohio

The William H. McGuffey House is a historic house on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. The house was designed and built by McGuffey in 1832-1833, then a professor at Miami University. William Holmes McGuffey (1800–1873) had an abiding interest in public education, and it is here that he began to produce and publish the McGuffey Readers, a series of graded instructional texts. These were hugely popular, selling millions of copies nationwide, and were used by schools as instructional texts into the 20th century. In this house, he compiled the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Readers. These and subsequent texts were estimated to have sold more than 122,000,000 copies. McGuffey only lived here until 1836, when he moved to Athens. There in Athens, he was elected the president of Ohio University on September 17, 1939. He held this position until 1843. The house has seen various alterations since the McGuffeys lived there. The main entrance was located on the east side, and now the northside is used for the main entrance. Moreover, the porch located on the second floor on the east side of the house was open, and now it has been enclosed. In 1855, a two-story wing containing a room on each level was added to the west side of the house. Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. GPS: 39.50709°N, -84.73593°W.