The biggest party house at Ohio State University may be in this verdant Columbus suburb, where OSU President E. Gordon Gee hosts groups of students, movers and shakers, political players and erudite academics nearly every day of the week.

The Pizzuti House — named after Ron and Ann Puzziti, who donated the house at 80 N. Drexel Ave. to the university — is used to welcome faculty, bid farewell to retiring top staff, schmooze with lawmakers, donors and artists and ring in the holidays.

Gee moved into the house in the spring of 2008, after a $1.39 million remodeling and the addition of $673,700 worth of furniture, artwork and other furnishings.

Since then, he has hosted at the house more than 16,000 guests at 275 events – everything from small dinner parties and business meetings to catered receptions for hundreds of guests, according to university documents obtained through a Dayton Daily News public records request.

Although the compound has a pool, carriage house and five guest bedrooms, Gee does not frequently host overnight guests. From 2008 to 2010, just 29 guests stayed a night or more, including CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, CNN political analyst David Gergen, and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.

Many of the parties are top end, complete with fresh cut flowers, musicians, printed invitations, valet parking and catered meals and appetizers.

In May 2010, 90 people attended a gathering to celebrate Ohio State’s partnership with The Royal Shakespeare Co. The total tab was $31,504, which included $16,885 for catering, or $188 per person.

All told, the university spent more than $895,000 for gatherings at the Pizzuti House between April 2008 and June 2011, the newspaper’s review of OSU records found.

University endowment funds cover the cost of the gatherings as well as staffing, operating and maintaining the house, pool, and grounds.

The university pays about $5,600 a year for pool maintenance, $3,578 a year for window washing services and $29,000 a year for lawn maintenance. Utilities average $2,489 a month. The university employs one part-time and two full-time residence workers whose combined salaries total $157,400 a year.

The bills pile up during some months: $48,760 for a new driveway, $34,500 for TV and audio equipment and installation, $38,000 for security system upgrades.

Overall, the maintenance, staffing, and operations average $35,000 a month.

The house was built in 1900. The Pizzutis bought it in 1975, renovated it and added a pool and tennis court in the 1980s. It was to Ohio State in 2000 in exchange for the university’s smaller, less valuable residence in the same neighborhood. It is now owned by the OSU Foundation, which leases it to the university for $1 a year.

Former OSU presidents William Kirwan and Karen Holbrook both lived in the Pizzuti House before Gee returned as president in October 2007. The OSU Foundation launched a major renovation that year that was funded with private donations and done with input from Gee.

Interior decorators picked up European antiques and Persian rugs, pored over wallpaper swatches and decorative pillow choices and bought everything from a $532 shower curtain for the guest bath to $2,700 for custom-made duvet covers for a twin bed set.

The tab included $83,423 in rugs, $51,330 in window treatments, $29,493 in upholstery fabric, and $25,589 in decorative pillows, dust ruffles, comforters and other bedding.