COOPER BUILDING

506 & 508 Main Street

 

Built in 1875 by Calhoun County’s first wholesale grocer, Charles J. Cooper, the Cooper Building has been home to several businesses and has a rich history. 

The unique construction of the building saved the town from burning to the ground multiple times in the 1880s and 1890s. It went on to serve as a mercantile store, hardware store, general store, dry good store, and furniture store.

In the 1950s and early 1960s the building served as the Oxford News Stand, in the 60s it was Stinson’s Rug House, and and later it became The Tackle Box and Stinson’s Fishing Tackle.

In 2015 it underwent extensive restoration by lawyers Adam Maniscalco and Alyssa Enzor Baxley. 

Research by Hunter Chase Gentry and written by Julie Skinner Mangham, November 2023

 
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Cooper Building on Main Street, 1885.

Courtesy of Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, January 1885.  

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Oliver Winston Cooper (1856 - 1920), son of Charles J. Cooper. 

Courtesy of Kathy Bentley Hall. 

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Cooper Building on Main Street, ca. 1979. 

Courtesy of Oxford Public Library- Oxford Room Collection. 

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Cooper Building on Main Street, ca. 1980. The three buildings located to the left burned in 1990. 

Courtesy of Lindblom Photo Collection.