Oxford, Connecticut

The Quaker Farms Historic District is a historic district in the town of Oxford, Connecticut, United States. It encompasses a small rural village on Quaker Farms Road (Connecticut Route 188) anchored by the Christ Church Episcopal, an 1812 wood-frame church with Federal and Gothic styling, located at 470 Quaker Farms Road. The district also includes eleven houses, built between the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries. The oldest houses date to the 1720s, and the church has a particularly well-preserved early 19th-century interior, albeit with some alterations. One house was built about 1800 as a carriage manufactory. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.The Quaker Farms area was first settled by English colonists in the early 19th century, primarily from Derby about 8 miles (13 km) to the south, extending along the main road between Derby and Woodbury. The name "Quaker Farms" was in use in the 18th century, but its origin is not known. Oxford was incorporated in the late 18th century, and the Quaker Farms area had grown sufficiently by the 1810s to warrant an Episcopal parish separate from that at the town center. This period of growth is reflected in the surviving architecture of the village, which mostly predates 1850. There is a single instance of Victorian Queen Anne architecture, at 489 Quaker Farms Road. A small number of Colonial Revival houses were built in the village in the early 20th century.

Southford Falls State Park is a public recreation area covering 126 acres (51 ha) in the towns of Oxford and Southbury, Connecticut. The state park offers fishing, hiking, waterfalls, a fire tower, and a covered bridge over Eight Mile Brook. It is managed by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The Plaster House is a historic house at 117 Plaster House Road in Southbury, Connecticut. Probably built in the mid-18th century, it is an extremely rare example of 18th-century stone residential construction in the state. The small structure may have originally been built as a farm outbuilding by a member of locally prominent Hinman family. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The Wooster Sawmill and Gristmill Site is a historic industrial site on Park Street in Oxford, Connecticut. From at least 1747 until 1965 it was operated as a sawmill, gristmill, and cider mill, giving it one of the longest known histories as a water-powered mill complex in the United States. The surviving elements of the complex, its structures now converted to private residential use, were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

The Adin Wheeler House and Theodore F. Wheeler Wheelwright Shop is a historic property at 125 Quaker Farms Road in Southbury, Connecticut. It includes two well-preserved and little-altered buildings: the house, built in the late 18th century, is a fine Georgian colonial with some uncommon features, and the wheelwright shop is a remarkably complete example of a late 19th-century workshop. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Oxford High School is a public high school in Oxford, Connecticut, United States, operated by Oxford Public Schools. In spring 2013, there were 592 students enrolled in grades 9 to 12.

The William Hurd House is a historic house at 327 Hulls Hill Road in Southbury, Connecticut. Built in the late 18th century and enlarged about 1820, it is a good local example of Federal period architecture, with well-preserved outbuildings. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Great Hill Cemetery is a cemetery in Seymour, Connecticut, also known as Hookman's cemetery. The site was established in the 18th century, and it is still active today. It is located in a section of woods known as Great Hill.

The Hurley Road Historic District encompasses a pair of rural 19th-century properties built by members of a single family at 6 and 17 Hurley Road in Southbury, Connecticut. Included are Federal and Greek Revival houses, and a number of outbuildings, giving the cluster a distinct period feel. The area was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The Paugussett Trail is a 14-mile (23 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County and, today, is entirely in Shelton and Monroe, Connecticut. Much of the trail is in Indian Well State Park and the Town of Monroe's Webb Mountain Park. The mainline (official "Blue-Blazed") trail is primarily southeast to northwest with three short side or spur trails. The Paugussett Trail today is composed of four (4) trails of which one is the upside-down V-shaped Southeast-to-North-to-SouthWest mainline trail (13.3 miles) plus three shorter side or access spur trails. The northernmost point on the trail is at Connecticut Route 34 and Lake Zoar's southern shore. Notable features include the initial steep climb near the Indian Well waterfall, a steep climb with stairs at Princess Wenonah Drive and semi-obscured scenic views of the Housatonic River. The Paugussett Trail is maintained largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association. The Paugussett Trail was a much larger trail in the 1930s and 1940s but it has been one of the Blue-Blazed Trails most drastically shrunk by post-World War 2 housing developments.

The Reuben Curtiss House is a historic house at 1770 Bucks Hill Road in Southbury, Connecticut. With a construction and alteration history dating from the late 18th to 20th centuries, the house is one of Southbury's finest examples of residential Greek Revival architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

The Stevenson Dam Hydroelectric Plant is a hydroelectric power plant located on the Housatonic River at the boundary between the towns of Monroe and Oxford, Connecticut. The Connecticut Light and Power Company began construction in 1917 (completed 1919) and FirstLight Power has since gained ownership. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and is considered to have high hazard potential by the National Inventory of Dams. The site includes three contributing structures: the Stevenson Dam, the Stevenson Dam Bridge, and the Stevenson Powerhouse.The Stevenson Dam Bridge, a reinforced concrete bridge that is integral with the dam, carries Route 34 across the river, making it unique among period dams in the eastern United States. The Stevenson Powerhouse is a 160 ft by 80 ft building rising 131 ft in height. Its exterior includes "massive" pilasters. The hydroelectric plant began producing electricity in 1919 with 3 turbine/generator units, for a total of 19 MW. A fourth unit of 12 MW was added in 1936 and, with improvements over the years, the plant now produces a total of 28.9 MW of power. Bedrock characteristics required the powerhouse to be built on the Monroe side of the dam and it remains Monroe's biggest single-site taxpayer. The plant was covered in a Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) study, record CT-183. Completion of the dam impounded the Housatonic River and created what came to be Lake Zoar, a lake with 27 miles of shoreline, and covering an area named "Pleasantvale" or "Pleasant Vale", which had been part of Oxford and Stevenson.The Stevenson plant was developed by the Rocky River Power Company, founded in 1905 by J. Henry Roraback to produce hydroelectric power on a tributary of the Housatonic, with operating rights expanding to the entire Housatonic watershed in 1909. Roraback's company was a predecessor to the Connecticut Light and Power Company, now part of Eversource. The dam was the first high dam on the river. The project was designed by Birkinbine Engineering Office, Charles T. Main Associates of Boston, Massachusetts, and J.A.P Crisfield Co., and was built by C. W. Blakeslee Co., a local contractor.A work camp, Camp Crisfield, was developed around the 800 men employed to work the site day and night, including a church, carpentry shops, and hospital.An urban legend exists that asserts a worker fell into the cement as it was being poured and was never heard from again. This originates from a worker who signed in one day, and then never signed off.