If you’ve ever had the urge to paint pottery, there's a good chance you’ve checked out You’re Fired. This store, at the corner of West High Street and Beech Street has a long history of housing not just painters, but also various grocery stores.
Built in 1880, this Greek revival building has gone through a variety of uses through the years. The Greek revival style is categorized by being modeled after small Greek doric temples. These buildings would often have a sharp gable roof, a triangular shape at the top and a simple, unadorned front.
The You’re Fired building once housed a saloon and a carriage painting business on the second floor. It would go on to also house a pool room, a gas station and a children's clothing store during the first half of the 1900s. Eventually, the building would become a grocery store.
The Ruhlman family owned this grocery store towards the end of the 1900s. In 1963, the grocery store expanded into the building of 102 W. High St., which had previously been a private residence.
From 1965 to 1980, the building housed the Ruhlman’s Super Value grocery store. As a main grocery store in town, this was an important part of the Oxford community.
Over the next two decades, the building went through three different grocery stores. In 1981, Anderson Grocery occupied space until 1984. The next year, Becky’s Grocery opened.
Finally in 1987, Wolff’s Grocery inhabited the building last. It was also the longest since Ruhlman’s, occupying the building for just over 10 years.
Then in 1998, You’re Fired opened its doors to the Oxford community. The current owner and operator Lisa Leishman has kept the exterior relatively similar to the original.
The "You're Fired" building was previously a grocery store and has had many different uses in the past
The iron stars hanging on both the front and side facades of the building have been part of the building’s decoration since at least 1979. The curved window lintels and a supportive beam that frames the top of the windows on the upper floors have also been a long-standing feature of the building.
The wide, white cornice borders the edge of the roof and is a prominent feature of the building. It can even be spotted in some of the older historical photos.
Originally, the building was two separate spaces. The east half operated as a grocery store and the west half as an apartment complex. Today, the first floor operates as the pottery store and the second floor operates as an apartment.
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The building’s main business entrance has remained on the Beech Street side, creating a unique open first floor.
Like so many other businesses in Oxford, You’re Fired occupies a space that has a long retail history.
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