Oxford Historic District

Oxford, Georgia, began in 1837 as a Methodist college town, with about 300 acres set aside for a Christian collegiate community. Methodist minister and surveyor Edward Lloyd Thomas laid out the plan, with streets radiating from the campus of Emory College, now Oxford College of Emory University. The district covers 146 acres and includes the campus, the 1841 Old Church, two cemeteries, a few commercial buildings and many residences. Phi Gamma Hall and Few Hall, built in the early 1850s, are cited as the most important Greek Revival buildings, while Seney Hall represents Victorian Gothic design. The town was home to college presidents, educators, a Confederate spy named Zora Fair and the cotton experimenter David Dickson. Atticus Haygood delivered his sermon "The New South" in the Old Church in 1880. The nomination describes Oxford as perhaps the only town planned under Methodist Church direction, and it was later named a United Methodist Historic Shrine.