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

OIL CITY 

	The National Transit Building in Oil City, Pennsylvania

At the corner of Center and Seneca Streets, the National Transit completed the erection of a particularly fine commercial block in 1890.  The somber, austere rectangular mass and prominent arches of this building are reminiscent of H.H. Richardson’s commercial structures built of rough cut stone.  This five story structure of thick, self-supporting masonry walls is finished, however, with a smooth red brick and red terra cotta ornament.   Note the terra cotta ornament is completed in abstract geometric designs with no historical precedent.  The building’s corners have no sharp edges being given ample  radiuses from the foundation to the attic. This building, designed by the Fredonia, New York firm of Curtis and Archer,  looks very much to have been inspired by the work of the great Chicago architectural firm of Burnham and Root and can correctly be called a Chicago Commercial Block.  John Wellborn Root’s red brick commercial blocks appear quite modern when contrasted with the contemporaneous Italianate, High Gothic and Queen Anne commercial buildings of the late nineteenth century.
 
 

	Transit Annex in Oil City, Pennsylvania

Just to the north of the National Transit Building is the Transit Annex.  This structure was completed in 1896. Finished with luxurious, gold Pompeian brick and ample use of golden terra cotta with classical forms and panels,  the design represents how architects after the death of H.H. Richardson interpreted his seminal work.  With the arcade in the attic,  the pronounced molding, or archivolt, delineating each arch, and the unusual corner entrance, this building looks very similar to work the celebrated Pittsburgh firm of Longfellow, Alden and Harlow was creating in the early 1890's.  This renowned firm, directly descended from Richardson’s shop,  in fact designed the similar, precedent-setting Conestoga Building built for  J. J. Vandergrift in 1892, a building thankfully still standing on Water Street in Pittsburgh.