{"nrhp_refnum":"73001667","name":"Pithole City, Site of","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"10 mi. SE of Titusville","address_restricted":false,"city":"Titusville","county":"Venango County","state":"PA","lat":41.52112748050004,"lon":-79.58697434561813,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1973-03-20","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Pithole City was a short-lived oil boom town on Pithole Creek, about ten miles southeast of Titusville in Venango County, Pennsylvania. Today the site consists of streets, cellar holes and guide markers describing the former community.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the town was a major but brief oil boom community, reaching 10,000 or more inhabitants at its peak in 1865. It is associated with the Frazier well, the Homestead well and the first oil pipeline, built by Samuel Van Syckel to carry oil to the nearest railroad. The site is also presented as a landmark in the history of Pennsylvania's oil industry.","narrative":"Pithole City was an oil boom town on Pithole Creek, about ten miles southeast of Titusville, Pennsylvania. It was laid out in May 1865 with five hundred building lots and twenty-two streets, and grew quickly with wooden buildings that included two banks, two telegraph offices, a daily paper, a water works, two churches, and many boarding houses and saloons. Its growth followed the drilling of the Frazier well on January 7, 1865, which became the most productive well in the area, and the Homestead well. The town is also linked to the first oil pipeline, which Samuel Van Syckel built five and a half miles to the nearest railroad, carrying oil more cheaply than teamsters could. A series of fires, the failure of the Frazier well in November 1865 and a sharp production decline in January 1866 led to rapid abandonment, and only a handful of residents remained by 1870. The site was cleared and marked with guideposts in 1955.","period_of_significance":"1865-1870","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Today the site is a series of streets, cellar holes and guide markers; it is owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:29.473386-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/73001667.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001667/b2221f6f80-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/73001667/b2221f6f80-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Plazak","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PitholePA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Plazak</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PitholePA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998358","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithole,_Pennsylvania","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3055527"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/venango-county/pithole-city-site-of-73001667/"}