Among institutions are the Battersea Polytechnic, the Royal Masonic Institution for girls, founded in 1788, and Church of England and Wesleyan Training Colleges.
The Oxford Orphan Asylum at Oxford (1872) is supported partly by the Masonic Order and partly by the state.
The chief buildings are the town-hall, Anglican church, Masonic temple, and hospital.
It contains the barracks and the commissariat stores, the Protestant church, orphanage, Masonic lodge, post-office and numerous private dwellings.
Masons' Hall, whose corner-stone was laid in 1785, is said to be the oldest exclusively Masonic building in the United States.
