Warren, PA news and local guide

After the Revolution, General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott were sent to lay out a town in 1795, named for Major General Joseph Warren. The first permanent building, a storehouse of the Holland Land Company, was finished in 1796, and Daniel McQuay of Ireland was the first permanent resident of European descent. From 1810 to 1840 lumber was the main industry, as the abundant forests and the river made it profitable to float timber down the Allegheny to Pittsburgh. In 1875 David Beaty struck oil in Warren while drilling for natural gas in his wife's flower garden, and oil came to dominate the economy. Many of the town's large Victorian houses were built with wealth from oil and timber. The Pittsburgh-Des Moines company, formerly based in Warren, made railroad tank cars, storage tanks and other plate work and built the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and replicas of the arch stand in the county. The city's population peaked at nearly 15,000 in 1940 and has declined since. Sources Wikipedia: Warren, Pennsylvania