OXFORD – The Oxford Memorial Library is located on the site of an ancient Indian fort on Fort Hill Park in the picturesque village of Oxford. Theodore Burr, built this Federal style house between 1809-1811. Wings were added to both sides of the house at a later unknown date. The community room with foyer and handicapped lift was added in 2009.

Burr was born in Torringfield, Conn. In 1771 and migrated “west” arriving in Oxford in 1792. By 1794, he had built a gristmill and the dam to power the mill. He built the first stringer bridge across the Chenango at Oxford in 1800. He went on to build bridges in NY, PA, NJ, and MD experimenting with different designs until he patented the Burr truss in 1804. Burr and others used this truss throughout the northwest. Burr was considered one of the dominant bridge builders of his time and the father of American bridge building. Today’s modern bridges with their graceful arches can be traced back to Theodore Burr and his contemporaries.

Burr’s home was later occupied by the families of Ira Wilcox, Oxford merchant, from 1814-1873; Benjamin Cannon, lawyer, 1873-1890; served as the Rectory for St. Joseph’s Church 1890-1899. In 1900, the house with its grounds was dedicated as a free public library given to Oxford in memory of Eli Lyon Corbin and Abigail Taintor Corbin, his wife, by their children. The library was later chartered by the Board of Regents of New York State to be a school district library, a public library chartered to serve the entire district of the Oxford Academy and Central School. The library budget and board members are voted on along with the school budget.

The library is much more than just our four walls. The Oxford Memorial Library is a member of the Four County Library System. We participate in the rotating circuits, Large Print, DVDs and Books on CD.

We are part of the Interlibrary Loan system, if we don’t have a book, CD or DVD that you would like to borrow we will check to see if we can borrow it from another library for you. Anyone with a library card can go on our website, http://www.oxfordmemoriallibrary.org or to the Four County website FCLS (sirsi.net) and place a hold on an item you would like to borrow. The Four County vans make stops at the Oxford library four days each week so delivery of you requested materials is usually fairly fast. We are also part of the Electronic Research Center with 12 electronic databases. Flipster is a great source for on-line magazines through the website We have collections of books, fiction and non-fiction for all ages, large print, books on CD, DVD, magazines and the Oxford newspapers both digitally on-line and on microfilm from 1813-1979.

Check out our Face Book page Oxford Memorial Library and Youth Services for what’s happening at the library as well as our webpage. We provide a variety of programs.

We are very proud of our beautiful historic building (National Historic Register) and our dedicated and friendly staff. We would love to have you stop by and check us out.

The library is open 53 hours per week. Monday – Thursday: 9:30am to 8:00pm; Friday: 9:30am to 5pm; and Saturday: 9:30am to 1pm.

The Library now houses The Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Resource Center, the only one like it in the United States.

– Information form the Oxford Memorial Library