You are now standing at “Town Point.” Across the river is the town of Bellevue. Far out to your left, the Tred Avon joins the Choptank River and flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Far up to your right, the river goes all the way to Easton. This area has always been an important commercial location for Oxford.
The small building in front of you is a replica of the original Oxford Customs House from the late seventeen hundreds. It was built in 1976 in celebration of the Bicentennial. Captain Jeremiah Banning was appointed as Oxford’s first Federal Customs Officer by President George Washington. His plantation, named The Isthmus, was just across the river on Plain Dealing Creek. Banning suffered terribly from gout so he built the Customs House on his plantation for his convenience. After the Revolutionary War, arriving ships could stop either at the Custom House on The Isthmus or below you at the Port of Oxford to declare their cargo and pay duties. If they docked here, one of Banning’s servants would row him across to check the cargo.
It is hard for us to imagine that Oxford was once a bustling commercial seaport, but that is exactly what it was in the decades leading up to the Revolutionary War. It was said that in the mid-seventeen hundreds that if you could buy it in London or Paris you could buy it in Oxford. One inventory of merchandise in one Oxford store in 1756 included the expected tools, hardware of all sorts, bulk supplies including iron, tallow, paint, barrel staves, ropes, and lumber, but also included the following types of cloth: chintz, calico (striped and plain), gingham, silks, India cloth, cambric, serge, velvet, plush, crepe, linen of various weights, sail canvas, bed ticking, broadcloths, various wools and mohairs, flannel, chamois, kid leather and bear skins. Plus, there were ready-made items for women including silk bonnets, caps, cloaks, mourning fans, worsted and cotton hose, gloves, not to mention all variety of spices and condiments, medicine, glasses, buckles, saddles, and whips. You get the idea. Oxford was cosmopolitan!