THE FORGOTTEN SIDEWALK BRICKS OF ELM STREET, OIL CITY

Clark's Donuts are still in operation, but are located in Cranberry on Route 322. Ray L. Way Menswear is no longer in business. The Community Playhouse is using the building.	Tomorrow's Dentistry Today is the name of Doctor Robert Deshong's practice on South Side. Dr. Deshong was my dentist from 1992 until 1995, but I hope he will be my dentist again.
It might be interesting to look this up in the Guinness Book of World Records.	One of several bricks used as memorials for lost family members.
This memorial brick is in a section of Elm Street maintained by the city government.	The Garden Club is still going.
If Klivan's is still in business they might have relocated.	Someone needs to weed around these bricks purchased by the Lukasiak family members.
Another memorial brick along Elm Street.	The Pastel Record and Music Company is still in business.
A greeting to family members.	A mother remembered by her son.
The Girl Scout Troops tell future Oil City girls that they were here in 1999.	The 1933 graduating class from Oil City High School.
The Oil City Chamber of Commerce.	This Pulaski brick is an indicator of the strong Polish influence in Oil City. The Polish-American descendants of the first immigrants have their own Catholic parish, Assumption Parish, and fraternal organizations. The historic community is centered on the North Side.
Shauna Howe was tragically murdered while returning home from a Halloween Party in 1992.	The Shoe Hospital is now defunct, but I used their services many times while they were open.
The South Side parish of Saint Stephen purchased this brick.	Venango County Economic Development

There are many more of these bricks with most of them to be found on both sides of Elm Street on North Side, which was once the old Downtown District of Oil City. After moving here in February 1989, I got to experience some of the old Downtown, which had many shops and restaurants to serve the employees of Quaker State Motor Oil's headquarters building, First Seneca Bank's headquarters, a large Mellon Bank building, and all of the small businesses and professional offices that were once in operation there. Oil City had a Woolworth store, a Hallmark store, and a Holiday Inn. Everyday, the sidewalks were full of people going to lunch and using part of the time to shop or run household errands. It was a busy place, but today is a place most people drive through to go somewhere else. Most of the commercial activity has left the North Side and moved to Cranberry near the Walmart that was built there in the early 2000s. The North Side downtown today generates controversies about what to do with buildings that are falling apart and a parking structure that costs too much to repair and also too much to tear down. Among the signs of what the North Side once was are all the bricks people purchased to be placed along its sidewalks along with the closed shops and restaurants.

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