Until relatively recently, housing for Oshkosh students was rather eclectic in nature. Before the 1950s, students who did not live at home were generally quartered in an assortment of area boarding houses, the location and selection of which was for the most part left to the student.

Typical ad in the Northwestern for Normal digs-seekers

The school made an effort to house at least a small portion of its out-of-town students, however. In 1913, Oshkosh Normal obtained the Oviatt House (located between where Swart and Dempsey Halls are today) for use as a dormitory. It housed twelve women and provided meals for many more each year until 1930, when the student population had grown to such an extent that the house's meager capacity was deemed uneconomical and operations were ceased. The Pollock House (located between Radford and Webster Halls) was acquired in 1943 and was similarly used for many years thereafter.

Student dorm room in Oviatt house, 1914.

Finally, in 1952, Radford Hall was constructed across Algoma Street from Dempsey Hall. It was originally a two-story building made to house eighty students, but a third story was added only four years after its completion in order to accommodate the demands of a rising enrollment. Nineteen fifty-seven saw the construction of Webster Hall. Both dormitories housed women only.

But the student body kept growing and housing had to grow along with it, especially in the face of a baby boom that would soon further expand enrollment. After the first two dormitories were built, ten more followed in rapid succession between the years 1960 and 1967. In chronological order, they are: Clemans, Donner, Breese, Taylor, Fletcher, Nelson, Stewart, Evans, Gruenhagen, and Scott. These ten buildings gave the campus the ability to house 4,826 students, a number that allowed for extra space when enrollment numbers dropped off in later years. Today, Radford Hall houses faculty offices and the Student Health Center, while Gruenhagen has been put to use primarily as a conference center.