A Brief History
In 1845, the county courthouse was built on the present site of the Masonic block.
It was a frame structure and burned on the night of December 9, 1887.
It was (rebuilt?) and subsequently moved to the public square.
For many years meetings of the Oxford Church were held in the courthouse and afterwards in an upper room of
the old "Buckeye" building, which stood on the present site of the Masonic block.
The front section of the existing Masonic Block was built in 1910.
The west wing was originally the O.B. Wilkins Drug Store and
the east wing was the Shipps and Titsworth Grocery Store.
The Masonic Lodge occupied the second floor.
The west and east wings had seperate entrances which have subsequently been
replaced with brick and three windows on each side.
The rear addition to the Masonic Block was added in TBD.
Farmcraft Service Inc. provided farm management services for land owners who need help
managing their farms. Tony Brazes was a president. Farmcraft was eventually purchased by Farmers National
and the Oxford office was closed in TBD. The building remained vacant for about 6 years.
The building was sold in April of 2015.
Work was then done to stabilize and clean the building
Current Use
BCAP and the local churches decided to sponsor a Food Pantry for Benton County
disadvantaged county citizens, which moved into the east wing on March 1st 2016.
To prepare the space, the plaster walls were repaired and painted the original colors.
The floor was cleaned and scrubbed to maintain the existing patina.
The 'toilet room' was rebuilt using period looking fixtures and hexagon black and white tiles.
A wall was built across the stairs to the basement and a door will eventually be added.
A new 40 circuit Load Center was installed at the top of the stairs and new circuits
were routed to the Load Center. A conduit from the Load Center was run in the basement
to the back wall in preparation for switching to a new planned dedicated meter for the
east wing.
Text3.