Crook Farm

Built in 1856 in Bradford, McKean County, Pennsylvania, the Crook Farmhouse began as a two-room dwelling and was enlarged soon after to about 43 by 30 feet, with a shed addition at one end. Its frame is an unusual post and beam skeleton fitted with thin board curtain walls, and it combines horizontal clapboard with vertical board and batten siding. The farm is regarded as the oldest existing structure in the area, predating the discovery of oil in the Bradford field by about fifteen years. On the property the Olmstead Well, drilled in the Bradford Oil Field, was one of the first large producing wells and was noted as one of the heaviest early producers, yielding 100 to 125 barrels a day for about twenty years. The Crook family combined farming with oil production, logging, shoe making, syrup manufacture, cheese making and cabinet making, and family records and diaries document these activities. A small swale at the confluence of the Tununguant and Latshaw Creeks, with forest swamp flora and fauna, is also part of the holding.