Artifacts, by definition, are from another era. This one proves that point.

It’s a matchbox from a time when most people smoked and did so anywhere and everywhere. It’s from the Oxford Hotel from the days when people went to the hotel for a delicious meal or a cold beer or a place to stay overnight. The phone number is 15, harking back to when you asked “Central” (the village switchboard operator) to connect you.

The Liebler name was synonymous with the Oxford Hotel for 50+ years. Fred Liebler built the hotel in 1906. Wife Henrietta managed it after his death. Son Arthur continued the family business until 1958. The hotel then passed to other hotelkeepers before the last “last call” in 2008. Today the building, still standing on Woodstock Street South, is the Tavistock Public Library and apartments.