Last week I reprinted a November 15, 2006, article from Fairhaven’s Monthly Navigator, about the history of Oxford School. It first appearing in print just a few hours before the School Committee voted to recommend the closing of the school. This week’s story finishes the history from then to the present day. You can read the first part here: The School at the Top of the Hill (Part 1)
On the evening of Wednesday, November 15, 2006, the Fairhaven School Committee voted to recommend closing the 100-year-old Oxford School in North Fairhaven. This was not unexpected. The move was made as a new school in East Fairhaven was being built on New Boston Road. The new facility, fully accessible, energy efficient, and wired for the latest technology, would be large enough to hold students from both the Oxford School and East Fairhaven School districts. The last day of school at Oxford was June 13, 2007. Following summer break, classes began at the state-of-the-art East Fairhaven School on August 28.
Oxford became the third neighborhood elementary school in town to close since the early 1980s, when the Job C. Tripp School and the Edmund Anthony Jr. School had closed in 1981 and 1982 respectively, due to the declining number of Fairhaven students during the post Baby Boom years.
The question became what to do with the Oxford School building. Tripp School had been leased by the School Department to the Nemasket Group, Inc., a non-profit group providing services, support and training to individuals with disabilities. Anthony School had been converted to Anthony Haven, public housing under the Fairhaven Housing Authority. Both of those buildings had been newer and smaller than the 1896 Oxford school with its 1953 addition.
Before a final solution could be reached for Oxford School, the town needed to decide what was going to happen to the last two aging elementary schools, Rogers School, built in 1885 with a with a 1958 addition, and the Leroy L. Wood School, built in 1965. Oxford was left to sit idle and empty for a few years while a political battle brewed over what would happen next. During that time the Elementary School Building Committee, set up by the School Committee and the Select Board worked toward developing a plan. In 2010, it was decided there were three possible options: 1. Renovation and a new addition at Rogers School to house all the Rogers and Wood students, 2. Building a new Wood School modeled after the East Fairhaven School to house all the Rogers and Wood students, 3. Renovation and a new addition at Rogers School and renovation only at Wood School with the students attending the schools in their original districts.
The problem with any Rogers School solution was the dense residential neighborhood and the small size of the school property. Keeping both schools with a dwindling school age population seemed unreasonable, despite the outcry from a “Save Neighborhood Schools” campaign that included letter writing and lawn signs. It came down to an almost two-hour long debate at the May 2011 Town Meeting that resulted in a vote to allocate $200,000 to design a new Wood School. A later Special Town Meeting and a town-wide Special Election approved the borrowing of more than $24 million to build the new school.
The demolition of Wood School in 2012 temporarily brought Oxford School back to life. The displaced Wood School students went to school at Oxford for the 2012-2013 school year, though the start of school was delayed a bit because of the discovery of an air quality issue at Oxford due to black mold. When school ended in June 2013, both Rogers School and Oxford School closed for good.
In 2014, an appraisal of the Oxford School building was completed by Dwyer Appraisal Services Inc., North Dartmouth, MA, placing the market value of the property at $285,000. The town issued a request for proposals for the redevelopment of the school.
Stratford Capital Group submitted a proposal, dated March 4, 2015, for converting the Oxford School into a 50 unit affordable apartment housing complex. This was updated in September 15, 2015, changing the proposal to 63 units of affordable senior housing. The number apartments, architectural and parking space adjustments would change again, but it seemed clear from the beginning that the Stratford plan would be the best use of the property. Another plan, submitted by Sherwood Building Company of Fall River, proposed renovating the classrooms for educational use, using the cafeteria as a food pantry, and providing community use of the gymnasium through local non-profits. That proposal, offering just $25,000 to purchase the building, dismissed early on.
On June 30, 2016, a vote at a Special Town Meeting approved the terms of sale of Oxford School to the Stratford Capital Group. But it would still take about six years of permitting, grant writing, public hearings, approval of state tax credits and subsidies, and Town Meeting votes before all the pieces were in place.
During that time, the issue of the Paul Revere bell in the Oxford School cupola took the headlines.

Back in 1914, when Oxford School had been enlarged, the Select Board paid $100 for the bell in the cupola of Phoenix Hall in the center of town, which had originally been the Congregational Church. The bell had come to town in the 1790s from the foundry of Paul Revere in Boston. At Oxford School it was used as a school bell and to signal fire alarms. A group of concerned citizens did not want to see the old bell fall into the hands of a private real estate developer. A Bell Committee was appointed to remove the 756 pound bronze bell from the school before the building was sold. It was determined that the bell could only be taken down, by chopping off the entire cupola. This was done on Saturday, October 12, 2015. After the bell was paraded around town at different events in an effort to raise funds for its restoration and display, it was put into storage. The cupola was repaired and returned to the school roof in 2021, minus the bell. Ten years after it was removed, the bell itself remains hidden in an undisclosed location.
Ever so slowly, step by step, the Oxford School Residences project inched forward. A news story in the fall of 2020 announced all the pieces were in place for the start of construction in the spring of 2021.
Then in early 2021, just weeks before the groundbreaking was scheduled, a last-minute issue popped up at a Select Board meeting that nearly threw a wrench into the works.
The town newly appointed Building Commissioner appeared at a meeting reporting he was hesitant to issue building permits because of a change to the design of the roof and a reduction in the number of apartments, which had just come to his attention. He felt the changes were “significant,” and needed to be addressed. The Select Board members asked for further discussion, prompting a scramble to make sure all the ducks were in their proper rows. Early 2021 was a contentious time at Town Hall, with a politically charged search for a new Town administrator going on, friction between various factions, and claims of a dysfunctional Select Board, which later resulted in a recall election.
Two weeks after the Building Commissioner’s question about the Oxford School project, at a follow-up discussion with the Select Board, Town Counsel Thomas Crotty explained to the Board and members of the public, that the changes to the roof height, design, and the number of apartment units had, in fact, been approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals in 2018. This information had apparently not reached the new Building Commissioner. Atty. Crotty explained the changes were legally approved and the Select Board did not have the authority to hold up the issuing of the building permits.
On March 23, 2021, the sale of Oxford School to Stratford Capital Group was recorded with the Registry of Deeds. In April it was announced that Stratford had received a $10.5 million loan from Rockland Trust for the project.

From then on the project moved forward quickly. The 1953 addition was demolished and by May the walls of new addition were going up while renovations were going on in the original building. The old brick building would have eight apartments in converted first and second floor classrooms and two in the basement level. Altogether the complex has 52 units including one and two bedroom apartments for seniors age 62+, with 45 of the residences being affordable and seven with no income restrictions. In the fall, applications for apartments were taken in anticipation of the units being ready in early 2022.
Today, about three years after people started moving into their new homes, Oxford School Residences provides needed housing to the community without putting undue stress on the neighborhood. Now operated by HallKeen Management, it is an example of a successful reuse of a decommissioned historical building.
On a personal note, my grandfather, my father, I, and my child all attended Oxford School. It still stands proudly at the top of the hill, where it has been a focal point of North Fairhaven, improving its quality of life for 129 years.
In 2023 Oxford School was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
COPYRIGHT 2025 by Christopher J. Richard, All Rights Reserved.
Thanks, Chris! Great to get all the details on this, as I wasn't around (or paying particular attention) for a lot of it.
One tradeoff to consolidating schools that's not always as closely considered is that it further disperses the community and pushes the town more toward auto dependence. I'm not saying this was a reason not to make these moves (again I wasn't really here for this fight) but there are often unforeseen consequences when you push the things that people need to get to out of core neighborhoods and further out to the edges (and cheaper/more plentiful land of course).
Christ, thanks for continuing this story. Inspiring!