Emlenton
Franklin
Oil City
Tionesta
Titusville
Pleasantville
Meadville
Tidioute
Endeavor
Warren
Sheffield
Bradford
Smethport
Ridgway

Styles

Adam
Greek Revival
Classical Revival
Gothic Revival
Italianate
Second Empire
Stick
Queen Anne
Shingle
Colonial Revival
Neoclassical
Tudor
English Cottage

EMLENTON

Emlenton would appear today to a visitor unaware of its past as a quaint, quiet little town with a picturesque assortment of Victorian folk cottages clinging to its hillside, a view of the river below, and a just a hint or two as to why God ever put it there.  An old steam-powered wood mill can still be seen on Main Street (As Shown Below), the last of the mills which once were a substantial part of the town’s nineteenth century economy.

	The Old Emlenton Mill, Main Street, Emlenton, Pennsylvania

The Allegheny Valley Railroad once came up from Pittsburgh on its way to Oil City, Warren and beyond.  Tank cars filled with crude oil destined for Rockefeller’s refineries in Cleveland and the East Coast commonly passed through Emlenton in the 1870's.  Flat cars filled with rough cut and finished lumber were shipped both north and south on the railroad.  Out on the river, large rafts, some as much as 300 feet long, consisting of 80 to 100 foot white pine “sticks” would float downriver on the high water of springtime.
 

Local investors, including James Bennett and Marcus Hulings, established a narrow gauge railroad in 1877 which traveled east to present day Knox, then Shippenville and Clarion.  The objective was to gather the lumber, farm produce, coal, limestone and oil from Clarion County and deliver it at Emlenton to the Allegheny Valley Railroad.  This hard working little railroad climbed out of the valley bottom by way of Hill Street passing just under the covered verandas of the millionaire’s homes above, to disappear along the right of way you can still see lead into the woods.  The line was quite prosperous, but it was bought and dismantled by a rival rail line originating in Foxburg just down the river.