Oil City South Side Historic District

Laid out on the south bank of the Allegheny River in 1863 by William Lay as the town of Laytonia, this district of about 222 acres grew into a neighborhood of commercial streets along Front and First Streets and spacious residential blocks rising up the hillside to the south. It contains 932 resources, of which 885 are contributing, built mainly between the early 1860s and the 1930s. The district is significant for its close connection to the oil industry, which made Oil City a major office and residential center during the oil boom. Many leading refiners, oil developers, tool manufacturers and industrialists built homes here, including Warren J. Innis, whose sucker rod company grew into a large manufacturer. Its buildings display nearly every popular style of the period, from Greek Revival and Gothic Revival homes of the 1860s and 1870s to Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Bungalow and American Foursquare houses built in the early twentieth century. Several buildings are documented works of local and regional architects and builders. The district retains a high level of integrity.