The Albee House was purchased by George Sumner Albee, the Oshkosh Normal School’s first president, in 1874. The Italianate house featured front bay windows and bracket cornices. Adjacent to the Normal School, the house was conveniently located but lacked the space the Normal president needed. After occupancy, the Albees were quick to expand their home so that it was large enough to entertain staff, students, and important visitors. Albee hosted many University functions for students and staff in the spacious eleven-room home. After Albee’s death, his wife, Linda H. Albee, made a proposal to sell the house to the University as a permanent home for the school’s future presidents in December of 1898, but the offer was declined. John and Jessica Bartlett eventually purchased the home and lived there until their deaths.

The Albee House was purchased by the University in 1947 from the heirs of the Bartletts. The home itself was to be used as a men’s dormitory while the land behind the house was used as a parking lot to alleviate traffic congestion during the repaving of College Avenue (previously known as Normal Ave.).

The Albee House was demolished to build the Health and Physical Education Building which was completed in 1956. In 1960, the Board of Regents named the building “George S. Albee Hall”. This facility provided a swimming pool, a gymnasium with seating for 2,000 spectators, and offices for the college health unit as well as examination and infirmary rooms.