Cofield’s Corner

Published 8:39 am Thursday, July 3, 2025

By John Cofield

Today, YaYa’s is on the first floor corner and has steady foot traffic. Kids come out of the door with their treat, smiling big. Deborah and I have “our” bench out front where we enjoy watching the town go by and waving at friends.

Oxford has been moving by there since a few years after the Civil War, when the Thompson family decided the town needed a new hotel, the Yankees having burned the old one. Decades passed until my childhood knew the building as the Colonial Hotel. 

No air conditioning and a rope attached under the window in case the place caught fire. It was always the Thompson House, but most had forgotten that as the old hotel deteriorated. Then came law offices and even a studio for artist Glennray Tutor. 

Finally, the Tollison family made it theirs. They remodelled the interior, rebuilt the old balcony, and placed the building’s old Oxford title back up top, The Thompson House.