The first records of a tavern operated in Oxford date to 1690. John Pope with his wife Margaret opened a tavern, most likely located somewhere on the Strand. Unfortunately, “In sixteen ninety-two he was in bad favor with the Talbot County Court, which suspended his license for his evil deportment and ill manners, and refused several applications to reinstate it.”
Despite the reprimand, Pope and his wife carried on, acquiring other lots and property in the Oxford area, including Plain Dealing across the Tred Avon River from Oxford.
The current structure was built around 1890 as a grocery store to serve passengers arriving on the new railroad a little further on at Pier Street. The store quickly gained another clientele - local watermen who bought supplies for their workboats docked across Morris Street. In the 1930s, when Oxford’s population was double what it is today, a butcher shop and a gas station were added here. In the early 1940s, Harry Pope (no relation) bought it and added a tavern which he named after himself. Pope’s Tavern was ideally located to cater to other needs of the watermen. After a day on the water they would dock and sell their catch to buyers and then cross over to Pope’s for a burger or crab cake and a beer or two.
Speaking of beer, today the beverage is normally packaged in 12-ounce cans but Budweiser has been offered in a 10-ounce size on the Eastern Shore of Maryland since the nineteen fifties. This unique size is particularly popular with watermen who found that on a hot summer day the last sip of a traditional 12-ounce can was already warm, but a 10-ounce beverage remained cool and refreshing to the end.
Pope sold the business in 1976 and it became a restaurant and bed and breakfast. In 1991 the third story with additional guest rooms was added to the building.
Continue around the head of Town Creek and up the Oxford Road to the Oxford Community Center building on your right.