John William Heisman (1869-1936). Renowned college football coach and name-sake for the sport's highest amateur honor, the Heisman Memorial Trophy. His innovations included legalizing the forward pass, the center snap, the scoreboard, and game quarters. Heisman promoted player safety by advocating gear improvements and rule revisions. A founder of the American Football Coaches Association, he grew up in Titusville and played football near his father's local oil cooperage.
adjacent to Carter Field, Central Ave. & Brown St., Titusville, PA, United States
Drake Well Park. On this site "Col." Edwin Drake struck oil Aug. 27, 1859; the birth of the petroleum industry.
At Drake Well Museum, 202 Museum Ln., Titusville, PA, United States
Drake Well Park. Near Titusville. The Park and Museum are owned by the State. On the site Col. Edwin Drake struck oil Aug. 27, 1859, marking the birth of the petroleum industry. Historical and Museum material center.
At Drake Well Museum, Titusville, PA, United States
John A. Mather. Photographer of oil industry from 1860, lived in this house. His thousands of views form an extraordinary record of an industry that began here. Born, Bury, England, in 1829; died Titusville, 1915.
407 E. Main St. (PA 27), Titusville, PA, United States
Roberts Torpedo. First successful device for increasing the flow of oil by setting off an explosion deep in a well. It was publicly demonstrated in 1865. The nitroglycerin was made .4 mile south of here, along Hammond Run.
Smock Blvd. (PA 8), near Dutch Hill Rd., Titusville, PA, United States
Titusville Oil Exchange. The industry's first permanent oil exchange was organized in 1871 by producers, refiners, dealers, brokers. Starting in the American Hotel on this spot, it moved to other sites; returned here in a new three-story brick building, 1881. Dissolved 1897; building razed 1956.
Spring St. between Washington & Franklin, Titusville, PA, United States
Oil Creek. Along this stream the first white explorers found Indians skimming surface oil. From 1859 to 1865, the center of oil production and its refining was along the banks of Oil Creek.
Smock Blvd. (PA 8) at W Bloss St., Titusville, PA, United States
Ida M. Tarbell. Noted oil historian, biographer of Lincoln, journalist, lived in this house about six years. She was graduated from the Titusville High School in 1875.
324 E. Main St. (PA 27), Titusville, PA, United States
Edwin L. Drake. The man who sank the first oil well is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, and is commemorated by Niehaus's bronze figure of "The Driller." Drake Well is now a State park, a mile and a half south of Titusville.
Pa. 8 near Woodlawn Cemetery, Titusville, PA, United States
Early Refinery. The first refinery in the Oil Creek Region for crude petroleum was built nearby in 1860. The first run of oil was made in 1861. Oil was first refined at Pittsburgh, about 1854, by Samuel Kier.
E. Main St. (PA 27), Titusville, PA, United States
Byron D. Benson (1832-1888). A founder and first president of Tidewater Pipe Co., est. 1878. He transformed the shipment of oil with a larger 6-inch pipe that covered greater distances than ever before. This pipeline was first to carry Pa. crude directly to coastal refineries. Benson lived here, 1872-88.
603 N Perry St., Titusville, PA, United States
Densmore Tank Cars. The first functional railway oil tank car was invented and constructed in 1865 by James and Amos Densmore at nearby Miller Farm along Oil Creek. It consisted of two wooden tanks placed on a flat railway car; each tank held 40-45 barrels of crude oil. A successful test shipment was sent in Sept., 1865 to New York City. By 1866, hundreds of tank cars were in use. The Densmore Tank Car revolutionized the bulk transportation of crude oil to market.
U.S. 8, Titusville, PA, United States