Oxford Hotel (1795)

Happy Independence Day! Pictured above is the former Oxford Hotel, at 441 Oxford Road in Oxford. It was built as an inn in 1795 by brothers Daniel and Job Candee, members of an influential Oxford family, to take advantage of the new Oxford Turnpike. Daniel Candee, Oxford’s first postmaster, operated the inn until about 1811, followed by his nephew, David Candee, who was innkeeper until his death in 1851. Frederick Candee then inherited the inn from his father and ran it for about twelve years, during which time he expanded the business to include a general store. In 1865 the business passed through inheritance to David R. Lum and it then had many owners over the years. In 1936 it moved back some thirty feet from the street when Oxford Road was paved with concrete. The hotel was converted into a private residence in 1941 by Eldridge Seeley. He removed the building’s front porches and added additional dormers and the two-story colonnade. In 1950, the building was reopened to the public by James and Dominica DeMaio as a restaurant known as the Oxford House. The restaurant closed in 2011, but the building was renovated in 2013. A new restaurant opened in 2014, but closed in 2016, followed later that year by the opening of the current restaurant.

St. Thomas the Apostle Church, Oxford (1973)

Pictured above is the rear elevation of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, located at 733 Oxford Road in Oxford. The parish, established in 1966, began as a mission of St. Augustine Parish in Seymour. It later passed to the care of St. Rose, Newtown and then to St. Michael, Beacon Falls in 1924 before returning again to St. Augustine in 1948. In 1909, Judge Thomas Coman of New York donated money to build a chapel. Dedicated on July 2, 1912 to St. Mary, the chapel was renamed for St. Thomas the Apostle on October 9, 1916. In 1971 the site for the current church was chosen and the Coman chapel was sold the following year. The new church was dedicated on January 28, 1973.

Dr. Lewis Barnes House (1800)

In 1907-1908, Oxford Congregational Church acquired the house at 6 Academy Road, at the southeast corner of Oxford Road and Academy Road in Oxford, to serve as its parsonage. The front section of the house dates to c. 1800, but the rear section, which has a saltbox roof, is possibly much older. Before becoming a parsonage, the house was the residence of Dr. Lewis Barnes (1824-1907), who was a physician in Oxford from 1856 until his death. (more…)

Henry E. Bidwell House (1799)

The house at 55 Barry Road in Oxford was built in 1799 by James Dorman, who sold it the following year to George Cable. This sale included half-interest in a sawmill and gristmill, called Burrell Mills, located across the road along Eight Mile Brook. For a century, owners of the house would also own the mill, which is no longer in existence. The house has had many owners over the years, but was long known as the Bidwell Place, named for Henry E. Bidwell (1804-1883), who bought the house c. 1837. His family sold it in 1885. In the 1930s, the property, known as Petticoat Farm, was owned by H. Reinhardt Lewis, an artist who painted the local landscape. Built into a hillside, the house has an extra story in the rear.