Historical Architectural Preservation Committee discusses fall walking tours

Oxford’s Historical Architectural Preservation Committee (HAPC) provided updates to the various walking tours hosted by the city this fall. 

The Uptown Oxford Historic Walking tours and the University Historic District Walking tour will take place on the first three Saturdays of September. In case of cancellation, the committee reserved Sept. 27 as a rain date. 

In October, the cemetery tours will kick off at Woodside Cemetery. The committee gave a week break between the city and the cemetery tours, which are set to be on Oct. 4, 11 and 18. 

The city collaborated with the McGuffey House and its curator, Jennifer Lorenzetti, to create the Miami cultural tour. This year, the city and university tours will take walkers on a continuous loop around town. 

Brad Spurlock, the vice chair of the HAPC, said Lorenzetti’s university tour will begin at the McGuffey House on Spring Street and end at East or West Park Place. Spurlock’s city tour will go from High Street to College Avenue, where the other city one will take over and finish back on Spring Street. 

This year, Spurlock said he is going to guide the tour differently from previous years by providing a short script for participants to read as they go instead of a packet of information. He said he tested it out last year and modeled it after how the city does its cemetery tours. 

“That seems to go well,” Spurlock said. “There’s just a lot when you’re reading all the notes, and you’re trying to talk to a group of people and walk and make sure you’re standing in front of the right thing. That just streamlines the process.”

Following one week of break, the cemetery tours will begin in early October. Last year, it occurred at Oxford Cemetery. This fall, people will gather at Woodside Cemetery. The tour will utilize Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping software to guide folks.

Beyond these fall events, the committee discussed research projects surrounding Black and Asian American experiences in Oxford, as well as a spring walking tour. Alia Levar Wegner, the digital collections librarian at King Library at Miami University, spoke about a project she was a part of that focused on slavery and freedom in the Midwest and African Americans at Miami. 

“It’s a year-long project that includes community fellows,” Wegner said. “Community fellows are part of these very collaborative research teams … When you say all the records don’t exist, they don’t exist in our archives. They exist with the families. It’s a lot more of a community-based project, and there will be some community sites.”

HAPC will next meet on Sept. 10 in the Municipal Building.