Oxford High School junior Phillip Zimmerman looks around at the work to be done in the kitchen of the closed Oxford Mill restaurant last month. The school's business students plan to reopen the building as an ongoing project.

Oxford High School business and entrepreneurship students look around outside the closed Oxford Mill restaurant.

Oxford ? Reopening the restaurant in the Old Mill at the edge of town is about more than giving high school students a project to work on and some real-world business experience.

It’s really about restoring a small community’s sense of identity.

The onetime water-powered flour mill has been intertwined with Oxford history since 1874.

Oxford’s Best flour and cereals were the pride of the community for more than a century, until the milling operation shut down a few years ago.

Now, the Old Mill and its companion building, the New Mill – circa 1935 – sit vacant on a tree-lined dirt street at the northern edge of Oxford.

But that’s about to change, the result of an effort by the Oxford school district and an 11-member board of directors averaging 16 1/2 years of age.

School steps in

Oxford High School is about to reopen the restaurant and gift shop that occupied the Old Mill building from 1990 until about two years ago.

After flour production shifted to the New Mill, the Old Mill was refitted to provide hydroelectric power. The generator, which dominates the building’s lower room, broke down in 1973, and the Old Mill building fell into disuse. By the late 1980s, the building was in danger of collapse.

But starting in 1988, owners Wallace Champeny and Hal Ross spent more than $500,000 restoring the Old Mill building.

The idea of reopening the restaurant and gift shop is the brainchild of Oxford school superintendent Deborah Hamm.

She knew of the landmark mill when she moved to Oxford from McPherson about two years ago. She said she was surprised and disappointed to find it closed.

“It made me feel like it was a real loss to the community, the county and the state,” she said.

About a year ago, she got the idea to make it a student project. Since then, the plan has won support from the school board, the Chamber of Commerce and Arkansas City-based Cowley College.

Everyone helps out

Eleven high school juniors and seniors have signed up for Introduction to Entrepreneurism, a college-credit level class. With guidance from Cowley College’s business department, they’ll spend the next semester putting together a business plan to get the Old Mill back on its feet.

With an enrollment of 120, just about every student in the high school will have some role in implementing the plan.

For example, agriculture students will handle the landscaping; food-science students will develop menus and recipes; business students will order supplies and keep the books.

Middle school students are making crafts to sell in the gift shop.

And students already are tossing around ideas of what they want the mill to be.

Adults step back

Citing a shortage of performance space in the area, Phillip Zimmerman, a 16-year-old junior, wants to bring in live music and an open-mike night.

“We could bring bands in from as far away as Ark City,” about 25 miles away, he said.

Design enthusiast Morgan Smallwood, 16, said she looks forward to fixing up the “just plain wood” restrooms at the Old Mill. That, and planting ivy to grow up the limestone walls.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “I think the decorating is going to be really fun. There are so many opportunities here.”

The adults involved are deliberately taking a back seat in the planning to let the students make their own decisions – and mistakes.

Principal Rob Hampton said that will help prepare the students for adult life.

“It’s not just a book and answering questions,” Hampton said. “Anybody can regurgitate. But can you think and make decisions and be able to learn from your decisions?

“Everybody says this is just high school. Well, this includes the opportunity to see the ups and downs of the real world. With this opportunity, if we don’t take advantage of it, we’re cheating them.”

The students – at least the ones in the core group – realize it’s going to take some hard work to make the mill a success.

Businesswise, it’s been a rough few years for Oxford.

Hard times fall on town

The town, on Kansas Highway 160 between Winfield and Wellington, lost its grocery store nine months ago. The Wildcat Grill, the K&O Quickshop and several other downtown storefronts sit vacant.

The Census Bureau estimates the population has declined 6 percent since 2000, from 1,173 to 1,102.

Now, there are only about three or four places left where a teenager can get a part-time job in Oxford, the students said.

They are counting on their project to create some jobs and an alcohol-free space where they can relax with friends.

“Whether it’s planning it, or running it, or making the food, or just enjoying it, we’ll have plenty to do,” said Megan Hicks, a 17-year-old senior.

With its stone and rough-hewn wood construction, the Old Mill is like a bit of Currier and Ives’ New England transplanted to the Kansas plains.

To really understand what it means to the community, talk to someone like Phyllis Hege. She served 30 years as Oxford librarian and – now retired – is kind of the city’s unofficial historian.

She remembers when people from miles away would make the trip to Oxford just to buy flour at the mill. It had an old-fashioned flavor that was rare in a white bread world, she said.

“This flour, everybody liked it,” Hege said. “They knew if they got their flour at the Oxford Mill, their bread would be wonderful, perfect.”

The high school’s project is restoring a sense of community pride that took a big hit when the Old Mill shut down, she said.

“Everybody is so pleased they’re doing something about that,” she said. “The whole town would like to see it back in order again. I’m going to volunteer to help them out myself. It’s too historical a thing to let it die.”