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| THE NORTHERN PENNSYLVANIA VICTORIAN REGION |
| Locations
Emlenton
Styles Adam
|
MEADVILLE
Off the Diamond and near the Courthouse is a large
Italianate, the Tarr house. The Tarrs were farmers from Oil Creek.
Oil was discovered in 1861 on the James Tarr farm in what is now Oil Creek
State Park. After receiving well over $1,000,000 in royalties, James
Tarr in 1865 sold his interest in the farm for $2,000,000 in gold.
The Tarrs came to Meadville with their fortune and built this Victorian
residence.
Chestnut Street runs up the hill from the Diamond
and is perhaps the premier address in the town. Numerous well kept
Victorians on generous lots with mature trees and century-old shrubbery
are on both sides of the Street. On the left side of Chestnut as
you go up the street is an excellent brick Victorian structure with two
trefoil windows in gables on either side of the tower standing out from
the front facade. The trefoil windows and fleur-de-lis decorated
gable vergeboards are Gothic elements interestingly imposed on an Italianate
mass.
Over toward Allegheny College stands an elaborate, complex Queen Anne that is a show stopper. The house features an intricately decorated tower, porches tucked here and there and an unusually constructed chimney offset at a corner of the house with the masonry of the chimney reaching down and over to envelop a large window set in a masomry arch. Variations of this house can be seen around the country. |
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| This Site is Sponsored
by
Venango Economic Development Corporation P O Box 128 Oil City, PA 16301 |