Attractions : Oxford Mississippi Convention & Visitors Bureau, Oxford, MS

L.Q.C.Lamar House
Rescued by the Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation in 2004, this national landmark is located just a few blocks from the Courthouse Square. Its head-to-toe restoration was completed in spring 2008, including a landscaping facelift for its three acre site. Plans call for the house to be made a historic house museum that will reveal the life and times of its namesake.

The modest Greek revival house was built and lived in by statesman Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar between 1869-1888. Lamar was active in national affairs both before and after the Civil War. As such, he was one of only a handful of Americans who served in all three branches of the federal government, from Senator, to Secretary of the Interior, to Supreme Court Judge. Although he wrote the Ordinance of Secession for Mississippi and then served the Confederacy, he later counseled Mississippians to accept the results of the war and emancipation. In 1874, he delivered a stirring eulogy for Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner that John F. Kennedy credited with reuniting the nation, in his book Profiles in Courage.

The L.Q.C. Lamar House will be open Tuesday-Sunday 1pm-5pm and close on Mondays beginning Wednesday, March 4. The Lamar House will be hosting the "Old Capitol Exhibit" from March 4-April 19 and the Lamar House will also house the permanent "Restoration of the Lamar House exhibit" begininng March 4. Click here for L.Q.C. Lamar House Facts

Rowan Oak
F/G6 l Old Taylor Road
(662) 234-3284
Open to the public l $5/person
Guided tours by appointment only
Tues.-Sat. 10am–4pm;
Sun. 1pm-4pm
Built by Robert Sheegog in 1848, Rowan Oak became home to Nobel Prize winning author William Faulkner in 1930. Faulkner christened the house “Rowan Oak” after the legend of the Rowan tree, believed by Celtic people to harbor magic powers of safety and protection. While residing there with his family, he wrote such masterpieces as As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom!, Light in August, and A Fable. Rowan Oak remained home to Faulkner until his death in 1962. The house is now owned by the University and maintained for memorial and educational purposes.

University Museum
F5 l Intersection of University Ave. & 5th Street
(662) 915-7073
Open to the public. Suggested donation.
Tues.-Sat. 10am-4:30pm; Sun. 1pm-4pm
Located on the main campus of the University of Mississippi, the University Museums comprise the Mary Buie Museum (1939), the adjoining Kate Skipwith Teaching Museum (1977), the Seymour Lawrence Gallery of American Art (1998), and the Lib Fortune Gallery (1998). The names associated with the building honor members of the Skipwith Family of Oxford, who built the original museum and provided the site and partial funding for the addition.
The museums are home to several impressive, permanent collections including the Robinson collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, the Millington-Barnard Collection of 19th century scientific instruments, the personal collections of Mary Buie & Kate Skipwith, and an extensive collection of the work of Theora Hamblett, an native Oxonion folk artist. Each year the University Museums host eight to ten temporary exhibits in conjunction with various university departments and the local community. Traveling exhibitions from other museums are also represented.

J.D.Williams Library
D5 l Library Loop
Open to the public l Free Admission
Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm

Blues Archive
(662) 915-7753
Located on the campus of the University of Mississippi in the J.D. Williams Library, the Blues Archive houses the world’s most extensive collection of blues recordings and related material. Three major collections form the nucleus of the archive. The B.B. King Collection includes more than 7,000 recordings ranging from classic blues to big-band jazz, films, photographs, and other promotional materials. The Kenneth Goldstein Folklore Collection consists of books, periodicals, and records covering all aspects of folklore, with a strong emphasis on African-American folklore and music. The Living Blues Archive Collection contains extensive subject files, books, photographs, posters, periodicals, and tapes covering all aspects of the blues.

Archives and Special Collections
(662) 915-7408
The Library’s Department of Archives and Manuscripts houses over 300 manuscript collections, the William Faulkner Collection (which includes his Nobel Prize), University archival collections, Mississippi state documents, and in the Mississippi Collections over 20,000 volumes of Mississippiana. Exhibits of interest to students and the general public are presented on the second floor in Archives and Special Collections.

Center for the Study of Southern Culture
E5 l Grove Loop & Student Union Drive
(662) 915-5993
Open to the public.
Free Admission l Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm
Housed in Barnard Observatory on the University of Mississippi campus, The Center for the Study of Southern Culture promotes regional studies and, as the first center of its kind in the nation, serves as a model for future centers in other regions. Its projects include the award-winning Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and publication of Living Blues magazine, the gospel music magazine Rejoice!, and in addition co-hosts the annual Faulkner Conference. The observatory displays a changing photographic exhibit throughout the year.

Historic Downtown Square
G5
Since Oxford was incorporated in 1837, the square has remained the cultural and economic hub of the city. The square is home to a variety of shops and elegant boutiques including the south’s oldest department store. Around the bend you will find one of the nation’s most renowned independent bookstores and an art gallery featuring a variety of art forms and monthly showings. Extraordinary cuisine is also abundant around the Historic Downtown Square. From down-home southern cooking to elegant haute cuisine, there is something to satisfy everyone’s appetite. The epicenter of Oxford’s nightlife is the Square.

Saint Peter’s Cemetery
H4 l Corner of Jefferson Ave. and North 16th St.
A few blocks northeast of the Square, the old Oxford Cemetery is nestled in the rolling hills of a quiet neighborhood. Saint Peter’s is the final resting place for novelist William Faulkner as well as many of Oxford’s most prominent citizens. L.Q.C. Lamar, a former U.S. Congressman, Secretary of the Interior under President Cleveland, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice, is buried here. Beside the circle of cedars lies a Revolutionary War Veteran, as well as a Confederate General.

Cedar Oaks
J3 l 601 Murray Drive
(662) 234-1532
Tours by appointment
Built in 1859 by William Turner, architect of the University’s Lyceum, Cedar Oaks is a Greek revival structure that has survived a tumultuous past. Molly Turner Orr gathered a fire brigade to save the home in 1864, set aflame by occupying Union troops. Nearly a century later Cedar Oaks was moved 2.2 miles from it’s original location to survive business development. Presently, the home is maintained by the Oxford-Lafayette Historic Homes, Inc., and is available by reservation for civic clubs, teas, receptions, weddings, and tours.

Confederate Cemetery
D6. Just to the south of the University’s Tad Smith Coliseum is a modest walled lawn with a single monument at the center. Here lie around 700 Confederate and Union dead from the battle of Shiloh in 1862. During the Civil War the buildings of Ole Miss became hospitals for the battle wounded, and the casualties were thus buried here. At one time the cemetery had individual markers but a groundskeeper removed them to mow and forgot where they belonged.

The Powerhouse Community Arts & Cultural Center
H5 l Corner of University Ave. & South 14th Street
(662) 236-6429
The Powerhouse, built in 1928 as the home of the Oxford Electric Department, opened in April 2006 as a community arts center featuring a 140 seat performing arts room, exhibit and classroom space, and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council office. The Powerhouse features eight rotating art exhibits throughout the year which are free to the public. Art exhibits feature Mississippi artists, as well as artists inspired by the South. The Theatre is home to Laff Co, Theatre Oxford, Writers in the Round, and a variety of other events from open mic nights to poetry nights to independent film screenings. The Powerhouse is managed by the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. For more information please visit our webiste or contact Wayne Andrews at 662-236-6429.

Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts
E5 l Intersection of Univ. Ave. & Old Taylor Road
(662) 915-2787
Tours by appointment
Mon.-Fri. 8am-5pm
Completed in December of 2002, this state of the art facility is a must see for visitors. The 88,000 square foot, multi-event hall serves the University’s performing arts needs and its commitment to cultural enrichment and outreach service. Standing six stories tall, the Ford Center seats 1200 in its regal main hall and additionally offers dance and ballet studios, dressing rooms and green rooms, conference and office space, and a reception hall.

The Walton-Young Historic House
F5 l Intersection of University Ave. & 5th Street
Contact University Museums l (662) 915-7073
Tours Fri. 10am-noon and 2pm-4pm or by appointment
Built in 1880, the Walton Young House is a registered Mississippi Landmark and a typical middle class home of the Victorian era. Horace H. Walton, who owned a hardware store on the square, lived here with his wife and three children until his death in 1891. His wife Lydia began boarding University students upstairs and remarried a country physician widower, Alfred A. Young. Dr. Young’s son Stark was the most famous resident of the home, becoming a well-known novelist, playwright, and critic. The University bought the house in 1974 from the First Presbyterian Church (who had used the house as a parsonage since 1925).

Historic Burns Church/ Belfry
G4 l 710 W. Jackson Ave.
For more information contact Maralyn Bullion (662) 234-3299 or Jim Pryor (662) 234-4087
The Burns Methodist Episcopal Church was organized by freed slaves by 1869 in an area of Oxford once known as “freedmen’s town.” The current building was erected in 1910 and played a major role in the lives of many African-Americans in Oxford from 1910-1974, when a new Burns United Methodist Church was built several blocks away. In September of 2002, author John Grisham donated the church building to the Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation, with the understanding that it was to be rehabilitated and administered by the Oxford Development Association.

When restored, it will contain a significantly sized open space for community meetings such as ODA’s annual programs, civic clubs, and non profit organizations. Space in the restored building will also be used as a museum, containing artifacts from the area and state. The Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation and Oxford Development Association are currently raising funds to begin restoration.

The Lyric Theatre

G5 l 1006 Van Buren

For more information contact Bradley Bishop at ( 662)234-5333

Origanally opened in 1913 as a silent movie theatre, the Lyric has been recently renovated to provide premier live music and event space in Oxford and the Southeast.

To submit information changes or request inclusion on this page,
email the Oxford Convention & Visitors Center or call 662/234-4680.