This Mississippi college town has run on books, bourbon and Faulkner since 1837

Oxford’s been at it since 1837

You know those towns that feel like they were built around a single good idea? Oxford, Mississippi, is one of them.

The town started in 1837 on land that once belonged to the Chickasaw Nation, and the founders named it after Oxford, England, hoping the state would plant a university here. It worked.

The University of Mississippi opened in 1848, and the town never looked back.

Today about 25,400 people call it home, and The Square sits right at the center of everything, the same way it has for close to 190 years. What fills that square is worth the trip south.

The courthouse that Union troops couldn’t erase

The Lafayette County Courthouse anchors The Square, and the building you see today has stood there since 1872. The first courthouse went up between 1836 and 1840, but Union troops burned it in August 1864.

The replacement cost $22,500, designed by architect Spires Boling, and it landed on the National Register of Historic Places. Renovations came in the 1950s and again in 1981.

William Faulkner wrote it into his fiction as part of his imagined Yoknapatawpha County, so you can read about it before you ever stand in front of it.

A department store open since 1839

Neilson’s started as a log cabin on the north side of The Square in 1839, which makes it the oldest department store in the South and the 16th oldest in the country.

William Smith Neilson sold everything from groceries to coffins.

When Union troops burned Oxford during the Civil War, the family had already converted their cash to gold and buried it. They rebuilt by 1866.

The building hit the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and the Lewis family runs it today, selling specialty clothing and gifts.

Four bookstores on one square

Richard and Lisa Howorth opened Square Books on Sept. 14, 1979, and it grew into four stores across three buildings right on The Square.

The main store carries strong shelves of literary fiction and Southern writing, with a second-floor cafe and a balcony that looks straight at the courthouse. Off Square Books handles lifestyle and bargain titles.

Square Books Jr. keeps the kids covered. Rare Square Books, which opened in 2019, deals in collectible and first editions.

The stores host more than 150 author events a year.

Walk the alley where Faulkner borrowed books

Faulkner Alley hides between buildings on The Square, easy to walk right past if you don’t know it’s there.

The walkway got its name in the 1980s, honoring Faulkner, who used this same cut-through in his early years to visit the Gathright-Reed Drug Company. He borrowed books from the store’s lending library.

Today you’ll find stained glass images inside the alley, inspired by his novels, with references to flowers and passages from his writing. A photograph of Faulkner with Mr. Mac Reed hangs on the wall.

Southeast art fills the Southside Gallery

Southside Gallery has held its spot at 150 Courthouse Square since 1993, showing paintings, photographs, sculptures, ceramics and works on paper.

The focus stays on artists from the Southeast, a mix of regional and nationally recognized names.

You can drop in on monthly exhibitions or catch one of the gallery’s frequent artist receptions, which stay open to the public.

The space has helped shape Oxford’s reputation as a creative community, and it sits right on The Square, so you’ll pass it whether you plan to or not.

Catch a free live radio show on Thursday nights

The Thacker Mountain Radio Hour started in 1997, co-founded by Richard Howorth of Square Books along with musicians Caroline Herring and Bryan Ledford.

Every Thursday evening during fall and spring, the show records live, usually at The Powerhouse, with some performances at Off Square Books or the Lyric Oxford.

You get author readings, live music from the house band the Yalobushwhackers, and emcee Jim Dees holding it all together. It broadcasts on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and other stations.

Admission costs nothing.

Faulkner’s handwriting is still on the wall at Rowan Oak

Rowan Oak sits just south of The Square, a Greek Revival house built in 1844 by Robert Sheegog. Faulkner bought it in 1930 when the place was falling apart and did much of the renovation himself.

He lived and wrote there until he died in 1962. Inside his study, you can still see a plot outline for his novel “A Fable” written in graphite and red pencil directly on the wall.

His daughter sold the home to the University of Mississippi in 1972. It’s now a National Historic Landmark.

Admission runs $5, cash only.

A wooded trail Faulkner walked himself

Bailey’s Woods Trail connects the University of Mississippi Museum to Rowan Oak, running about 0.6 miles one way. Give yourself 20 minutes.

Faulkner walked through these same woods and pulled inspiration from them for his writing. The university improved the path in the early 2000s, adding bridges and steps, and opened it to the public in 2008.

It became a National Recreation Trail in 2012. As of 2026, the trail is temporarily closed for bridge repairs, so check before you go.

A freed people’s church turned civil rights museum

The Burns-Belfry Museum sits inside a church building that an African American Episcopal congregation built in 1910.

That congregation goes back to 1867, when freed people in the area known as Freedmen Town organized the Burns Methodist Episcopal Church.

Author John Grisham once owned the building and donated it in 2002 to the Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation.

Restoration wrapped up in 2013, and the museum now holds exhibits covering African American life from slavery through the civil rights movement. It’s free and open Wednesday through Friday and Sundays.

Tailgate at The Grove on a fall Saturday

The University of Mississippi, known as Ole Miss, opened in 1848 as the state’s first public university. The Lyceum, a Greek Revival building at the center of campus, served as a Civil War hospital.

Nearby, the University of Mississippi Museum holds Southern folk art, Greek and Roman antiquities, 19th-century scientific instruments and American fine art.

The Grove, a 10-acre tree-lined stretch, is one of the top college football tailgating spots in the country.

On fall Saturdays, the Walk of Champions brings the team through The Grove on their way to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Five Nobel-caliber writers called this town home

Oxford’s literary tradition stretches back to Faulkner, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949, awarded in 1950. You can visit his grave at Oxford Memorial Cemetery, where people still leave small offerings.

John Grisham, Willie Morris, Larry Brown and Barry Hannah all lived or worked here too.

A historic square, a celebrated university, live literary programming and walkable cultural sites all sit within a short distance of one another.

You can hit bookstores, galleries, museums and wooded trails in a single afternoon on foot.

Visit Oxford Square in Oxford, Mississippi

You can find The Square at 142 Courthouse Square, Oxford, MS 38655. The whole area is walkable, with shops, galleries and restaurants lining every side.

Rowan Oak and the Bailey’s Woods Trail sit a short walk or drive south.

The University of Mississippi campus runs right up to the edge of town, so The Grove, the Lyceum and the university museum are all easy to fold into the same visit.

Give yourself a full day here, because one stop leads straight into the next.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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