Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1879.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Olean’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Olean is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Olean’s overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Olean’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1765.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.3 points).
Founding year: Wikidata (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Olean’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The first European in the area was possibly Joseph de La Roche Daillon, a missionary and explorer from Canada. La Roche reported on the presence of oil near Cuba, New York; the first petroleum sighting in North America. At that time the area was a part of the territory of the Wenrohronon or Wenro Indians, an Iroquoian-speaking people. In 1643, the Wenro tribes became the first victims of a series of brutal conflicts known as the Second Beaver War.
Oil creek, whose source is the Seneca oil spring, is a tributary of a creek which was given the name of Olean by Major Adam Hoops. This stream by its junction with the Alleghany River forms the point of land selected by Hoops for a settlement which he referred to as the "Mouth of Olean,'* and which later was termed Olean
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
made of another railroad which was not on the authorized maps. There was a station at Olean of the "underground railroad" which was in operation previous to the Civil War. At this station, fathered by Lambert Whitney, a "Doctor of the Old School," runaway negro slaves who were fleeing to Canada were cared for as they passed
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Olean, 1765 to 1952
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1765, according to Wikidata. Olean’s post office opened in 1879, and the census of 1870 counted 1,327 people here.
How does Olean rank for history?
Olean is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Olean?
20% of Olean’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1962.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (11), the Library of Congress (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1882
1908
1909
1909
1916
1917
1924