Oxford Circle, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - History

History

Oxford Circle, along with Castor Gardens, Mayfair, and Tacony, was originally part of Oxford Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania and was one of the early suburbs of Philadelphia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Township,_Philadelphia_County,_Pennsylvania The area which included waterways such as the Tacony Creek and Wissinoming Creek had been mostly utilized for farming up until the time that the land was sold off to developers just prior to World War II.http://www.philageohistory.org/rdic-images/view-image.cfm/PTS1928.PhilaMetroAerials.055 Most of the brick and stone row houses which characterize this neighborhood today were built by the Hyman Korman Company starting in the early 1940s and continuing into the 1950s. During that time and in the 1960s and 1970s Oxford Circle was a relatively prosperous white middle-class neighborhood and the majority of its residents were first- and second-generation Jewish Americans whose parents were Eastern European immigrants. A synagogue was established in the mid-1940s at Large Street and Roosevelt Boulevard which began inside a large tent. This tent soon became the highly visible Jewish community landmark known as the Temple Sholom Synagogue and the attached religious school. Throughout its history Temple Sholom served the local Jewish community in an exemplary manner providing worship services and Hebrew school instruction to the area's Conservative Jewish families and serving as a premiere venue for celebrations and memorials. The congregation's membership even included builder Hyman Korman the builder and other local notables such as Ike Richman, the owner of the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team. Tragically two fires in 1987 and 1988 nearly destroyed the synagogue and religious school. (http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DN&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI Even more tragically, by the 1990s the steady exodus of the original Jewish Oxford Circle home buyers which had begun in the late 1950s had reached the point where Temple Sholom's membership had dwindled considerably and resulted in the eventual closure of the temple and the sale of the property. Other area temples like Beth Emeth and OCJCC followed suit as the congregations transferred their allegiances to other synagogues in the Far Northeast, Bucks, and Montgomery Counties. White Flight and rising crime rates have dramatically changed this neighborhood over the past decade. Today's Oxford Circle contains a diverse population of peoples, including a large number of Hispanics (mainly Puerto Ricans), and African-Americans.

The Laura H. Carnell School was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.