Bradford, PA
 

Bradford (pop. 8,770) is the largest city in McKean County (pop. 43,450) and has an urban cluster population of 13,169. Adjacent to the NY-PA border and just west of the Allegheny National Forest, Bradford resides in the narrow Tuna Valley in a region rich with oil and natural gas. The city is located about 90 minutes south of Buffalo along US-219, which serves as a major corridor connecting Ontario to the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., despite its two-lane status for most of its route.

Chartered as a city in 1879, Bradford grew rapidly as an oil boomtown. The Pennsylvania Grade crude in the area is renowned for its high quality and purity, and is refined into lubricants and racing oils (Kendall). Bradford's population peaked in 1940 at 17,000. Today, it is still an important regional center for employment in the "Twin Tiers Region" (HQ of Zippo lighters and Case knives, University of Pittsburgh branch campus, American Refining Group oil refinery). Bradford retains impressive downtown commercial structures and breathtaking Victorian homes, a legacy of the city's aspirations during the boom times.

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Bradford's tallest
















































Seneca Bldg




























former city hall


current city hall














love this firehouse


old Carnegie Library... converted into Beefeaters... a popular restaurant serving the regional specialty... beef on weck












phalanx of dreary public housing with the School St. School in the distance






Zippo HQ






































ARG oil refinery is on the north side of town

Wow. Now that's a pretty cool little town. I'm impressed.

I wanna live in this little cyclops in the middle:

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Wonderful pictures and place, Evergrey!

Thank you for sharing these pretty pictures.

Bradford must be a nice place to live in, surrounded by woods. Love those residential neighbourhoods, with such beautiful houses. It looks very quiet.

Congratulations and greetings from Madrid, Spain!:tup:

This town is loaded with fine buildings. And once again, I must mention the beautiful scenery.

Thanks, good stuff, and keep it coming.

Nice topography and grit! Some great shots, thanks for sharing!

Excessive wonderfulness for a town that size -- even a theater showing first-run films!

Nice pictures! Bradford had a nice tiny downtown when I was there and you captured it well. You found some nice buildings that I never came across.

Another PA town that has a bit of everything. Thanks for sharing Evergray.

Not a bad looking town.

Very nice, Evergrey!

Aaron (Glowrock)

Looks like a nice town. The mansions at the end are impressive.

Thank you for your many enthusiastic comments, Danny.

Cool add some palm trees and spruce up some of those Victorian homes (I think ?) and it could possibly pass off as some small northern California town. Thanks for sharing.

Great tour. I love these northern PA valley cities.

Thanks. I had you in mind when photographing the oil refinery.

I am definitely digging this little place. So many great, historic buildings. Great photos, thanks!

This town looks awesome, was going to go there last weekend but we decided to go to Warren instead, which is another amazing town, perfectly preserved. Never seen a small town like that in this part of the state with that well restored of a historic district.

Great pictures of my dad's home town. He has wonderful memories of Bradford's huge high school and how cold the winters were. It was booming back then, with oil and zippo lighters. Guess I need to get up that way again to look around. You have inspired me. Thanks for taking the pictures.