National Register of Historic Places
Union and State Streets Historic District
Olean, Cattaraugus County, New York
The record
- Listed
- May 21, 2015
- Type
- Historic district
- Address
- Roughly 101-133 N. Union, 110-114, 116 W. State & 102, 116, 120 S. Union Sts., Olean
- County
- Cattaraugus
- State
- New York
- Contributing resources
- 15 buildings
- Coordinates
- 42.07751, -78.43052
- Reference number
- 15000265
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
USGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Union and State Streets Historic District is a commercial historic district in Olean, Cattaraugus County, with 15 contributing buildings, listed in the National Register in 2015. Its buildings went up between 1866 and 1915, in styles that include Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque, Beaux Arts, Colonial Revival, and Art Deco.
Why it's listed
It was listed under criteria A and C, with local significance in architecture and commerce from about 1866 to 1939, a span anchored by the Great Fire of 1866 and by Art Deco storefront updates in the 1930s.
Physical character
Walls are pressed brick and stone, some faced in terra cotta block, on foundations of stone, brick, and concrete, and several buildings have steel-frame construction with steel-and-glass storefronts. Storefronts and facades were updated around 1915 and again in the 1930s with Art Deco styling, and additions were built in 1938, 1950, and 1989.
Historical context
The Great Fire of 1866 destroyed buildings on North Union Street's west side, and the village then required new construction of masonry; a second fire in 1883 leveled buildings on West State Street's north side. The population grew from 550 in 1840 to 2,701 in 1865, and reached 6,575 by 1880. Socony Oil Company, a Standard Oil affiliate, moved from Olean to Ferndale, Washington in 1954, and First National Bank of Olean's building was sold to Manufacturers Hanover Bank in 1974.