The Economic Revival of Oxford Borough
Posted September 27, 2023
The Historic Oxford Theatre and 3rd Street nearly 80 years ago. Those were the days!
Nestled in the southern tip of Chester County and home to an abundance of industrious residents, workers, and business owners, sits Oxford Borough. The Borough has gone through quite the transformation in the last couple of decades — evolving from a not-so-known rural town to a thriving Mainstreet with First Fridays and community wide events. Pauline Garcia-Allen, the Borough's Manager, highlighted some of these initiatives at CCPC's September Board Meeting.
Pauline's passion for Oxford was obvious during her presentation, where she attributed projects such as placemaking activities, the Borough's downtown revitalization plan (2015), and the construction of a new multimodal parking garage and Borough Hall as keys to their transformation. She noted that funding played a big factor as well, and fortunately they were able to secure numerous county and state grants.
"There are so many promising things happening [in Oxford], so much to look forward to. And we are where we are today because of a lot of strategic investments and hard work that has happened over the last couple of decades," Pauline noted. "That includes a lot of strategic investments in infrastructure; in public safety; in streetscape projects; and in other infrastructure improvements that would not have been possible without community block grants and the county's Community Revitalization Program."
Currently, the Borough is featuring a Downtown Art Galley Project through Oxford Mainstreet; proceeding with various adaptive reuse and downtown development projects; and preparing to adopt a new Comprehensive Plan (which was funded through CCPC's Vision Partnership Program)! The Borough is also working on numerous other plans and ordinance updates as they plan for their bright future.
Oxford Borough features a variety of events and festivals, as well as year-round businesses and restaurants to explore. To learn more, visit https://oxfordmainstreet.com/.
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In the late evening of September 13, a fire broke out in one of the buildings in downtown Oxford on Third Street. Unfortunately, the fire spread to engulf multiple buildings. There have been many families and businesses affected by this fire in downtown Oxford.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and businesses affected by this crisis.
If you would like to donate to help Oxford Mainstreet repurchase all of what they lost in the fire as well as the businesses affected, please visit https://oxfordmainstreet.com/. You can also visit the Neighborhood Services Center who are accepting donations at their location in Oxford Borough.