Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Mike Wintermantel
Caption: Parker, Pennsylvania Marker
Additional Description: Panel 1
Side Bar
Settled: 1819
Incorporated: March 4 1873
Elevation: 1037'
2014 Population: 840
County: Armstrong

Bear Creek Pump Station
Built in 1879, the Bear Creek Pump Station was the nation's largest pump station for some time. A central point for the 21 lines connecting the eastern United States, and the mid-continent fields to the west, their storage capacity peaked at 75 tanks, each holding 25-30,000 barrels of oil. The original station's steam power operated on a battery of 15 boilers.
Bear Creek Pump Station used Worthington and National Transit Company pumps. Some of these huge pumps each required several railroad cars to ship. Pump Number 4 at Bear Creek moved one barrel of oil per revolution. The steam powered station had a capacity of 125,000 barrels daily. In the early spring of 1949 the station was electrified. The station was so diversified that five different grades of oil could be moved simultaneously. For maintenance and repairs, it operated a fully equipped machine and blacksmith shop as a separate division. The daily oil dispatch sheet was also kept here. During the Steam Age, this station had 32 employees and three telegraph operators on duty.
On April 23, 1974, the Bear Creek Pump Station was ordered shut down. The pump station closed in May 1974.
Submitted: July 19, 2021, by Mike Wintermantel of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Database Locator Identification Number: p598249
File Size: 1.111 Megabytes

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