1900-1950: Holding On

1900-1950: Holding On. The Oxford Museum. , 1900 , Oxford's population is 1243., The oyster boom ends due to overfishing, pollution, and lack of regulation., 1904 , Downtown Baltimore is destroyed by fire., 1910 , Red Man's Hall is built on Morris Street as social center of White Oxford. It features an auditorium and movie theater seating 200., 1912 , The Oxford-Bellevue ferry is now a small barge pushed across the river by the little tug, Vivian., 1917-18 , The US is involved in World War I but rejects membership in the League of Nations after the armistice., 1917 , A large canning house on Pier Street supplies troops with canned tomatoes., Oxford boatyards are busy with government wartime contracts., 1918 , Benoni Point lighthouse at the mouth of the Choptank River is toppled by a huge ice jam., 1919 , Moton High School opens in Easton, offering Oxford's Black children their first opportunity for higher education., 1920 , The Nineteenth Amendment gives women the vote., The sale and manufacture of alcoholic liquor is outlawed. Illegal drinking joints, home-produced alcohol and gangsterism all flourish., 1920 , Boat building continues as a major Oxford industry but is shifting from working watercraft to recreational boats., Oxford's population declines to 998., 1921 , The first electric lights replace gas lamps along Morris Street., 1924 , Congress gives Indigenous People the right to citizenship., 1928 , Albert and Downes Curtis open their sail loft in the former Black school on Tilghman Street., A new Oxford School for White children is built on the edge of town (now Oxford Community Center)., 1929 , The United States enter the Great Depression., 1931 , The first self-propelled diesel ferry, the Tred Avon, is launched and put into service by Captain Buck Richardson., The Kap Dun Sailing Club is established at the foot of Morris Street. It will become the Tred Avon Yacht Club., 1932 , Scheduled Chesapeake Bay steamboat services eliminate their stop in Oxford., 1933 , President Franklin D. Roosevelt launches the "New Deal.", The sale of alcohol resumes., The cannery, oyster house and crab house at the railway terminal on Pier Street employ over 150 people., The Oxford Bank fails. Many residents lose their life savings., 1938 , The first Oxford Library opens., Captain Bill Benson takes over the ferry Tred Avon. He will remain Captain for 36 years., 1941 , Japanese warplanes attack the US Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, pushing the US into World War II., 1940s , 126 vessels were built in Oxford for the war effort., The hosiery mill on Market St. thrives as Americans stand in line for hours to buy a pair of stockings., 1945 , US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders. World War II ends., Passenger train service to Oxford ends., 1950 , River View House is sold, renovated, and renamed the Robert Morris Inn., Oxford's population is 757.