Community Spirit

Last year, Discover Oxford Indiana, a Main Street group formed in 2022, kicked off efforts to preserve and reuse a 1952 Art Moderne Phillip 66 service station located on Oxford’s downtown square, aided by grants from Indiana Landmarks’ Endangered Places Grant Fund and Indiana Automotive, an affinity group of Indiana Landmarks. Since then, the preservation bug appears to be spreading as the Oxford community makes strides to preserve and revitalize its historic downtown.

Oxford’s downtown dates to the mid-nineteenth century, when the city served as the county seat and commercial buildings were built around a square with the Benton County Courthouse at its center. After the county seat relocated to Fowler in 1874, the space where the courthouse once stood became a public park that has served as a central gathering space for the community ever since. The park and the square’s collection of historic buildings and brick streets contributed to the Oxford Square Historic District gaining listing in the National Register of Historic Places in 2026. At Discover Oxford Indiana’s annual meeting earlier this year, Indiana Landmarks’ Western Regional Office director Tommy Kleckner shared with attendees the benefits and opportunities National Register listing provides, which includes making qualifying property owners eligible for rehabilitation tax credits and some grants.⁠

Along with raising awareness of the city’s heritage, Discover Oxford Indiana has helped steer redevelopment of prominent local landmarks. In 2024, as Alliance Bank finalized plans for a new building on the square, it chose to donate its long-time facility—the historic State Bank of Oxford/Knights of Pythias Lodge Building and adjacent Wilmoth Building—to Discover Oxford Indiana. The group sold the 1890 Wilmoth Building to new owners in 2025, who will soon open a retail business inside. Discover Oxford Indiana is actively marketing the 1904 State Bank of Oxford, hoping to find a preservation-minded buyer to continue the revitalization momentum. Proceeds from the sale of these buildings will help fund the group’s work revitalization work, including redevelopment of the former Phillips 66 Service Station as a community gathering space.

“Discover Oxford was formed in late 2023 with a clear goal: to revitalize our historic town square,” says Ashley Bice, board president of Discover Oxford Indiana. “We saw potential behind the boarded-up windows and a chance to create a practical, welcoming space with amenities and small businesses our residents can use and support. The square’s brick streets and character make it worth preserving, but what’s driving real progress is the number of building and business owners investing alongside us. That shared effort is what’s bringing steady, meaningful change to the Oxford Town Square.”

Wife-and-husband duo Brook Sauter and Tom Johnson are among local residents aiding the momentum. After purchasing the long vacant Romanesque Revival-style Messner & Son Block building in 2024, the couple began rehabilitating the former general store and Masonic lodge, tackling much of the work themselves and documenting their progress on social media as “The Prairie Victorian.” Sauter’s posts and videos range from showcasing exterior masonry work and interior structural repairs to celebrating what makes Oxford special, including public movie nights, local markets, and even a community hoedown and potluck.

Just south of the square sits the former Oxford Presbyterian Church, a 1902 Romanesque Revival structure known as the Oak Grove Heritage House since 1981, when it was acquired by a local nonprofit of the same name. The building serves a wide range of functions for the greater Oxford community, hosting weddings, a history museum, workshops, and a local gift shop. Demonstrating its commitment to responsible stewardship of the historic church, the nonprofit owner is working on plans to repair masonry and the corner bell tower and to make the building fully accessible to all.

To guide these and other preservation projects, the Town of Oxford recently adopted a new Downtown Revitalization Plan that will serve as another key tool steering development in the Oxford Square Historic District.

Learn more about Discover Oxford’s work on their website, discoveroxfordin.org.