Oil Boom Architecture: Titusville, Pithole, and Petroleum Center

by William B. Moore, Joshua F. Sherretts

Overview

Following the drilling of the world's first oil well in 1859 just south of town, the small village of Titusville exploded into a bustling city. Through the early 1870s, newly prosperous citizens built stores, banks, hotels, and churches, as well as hundreds of residences. Into the 20th century, residents remodeled or built anew, leaving Titusville with a crop of Victorian buildings, many of which still stand today. The nearby cities of Petroleum Center and Pithole developed at significant oil production sites. As production moved elsewhere in the 1870s, both cities were abandoned and soon vanished completely. Using vintage images from the unmatched collection of the Drake Well Museum, Oil Boom Architecture: Titusville, Pithole, and Petroleum Center documents the rich architectural history of these three boomtowns.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738557205
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	08/18/2008
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,066,458
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 Months

About the Author

William B. Moore, a graduate of Dickinson College and Harvard Law School, practices law and writes local, architectural, and family history. Joshua F. Sherretts is a junior at Edinboro University and the museum assistant at the Baldwin-Reynolds House Museum. An avid local and rural historian, he is also the author of Around Saegertown.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     6
Introduction     7
Titusville Precursors     9
Titusville Residences from 1860 to 1880     15
Titusville Residences from 1880 to 1910     57
Titusville Nonresidential Structures     77
Pithole Nonresidential Structures     113
Petroleum Center Nonresidential Structures     121
Index     127