Most of Seneca was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. Below: maps from 1922 on and the census since 1990.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Seneca. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1922Oil City sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Seneca.
The story so far
Seneca, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Seneca yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Seneca is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cranberry Township, Venango County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP population was 1,010. This was a decline of 5.1% from the census conducted in 2010.
Its first post office opened in 1856. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,065 to 1,011 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Seneca, 1890–1919
Passages that mention Seneca, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Venango County, Pennsylvania. Its past and present, including ..1890 · page 471Read the page →
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The office rooms falling short of their necessities, the splendid new Transit building on the corner of Seneca and Center streets was begun in the spring of 1889. It is above the basement a fourstory structure of pressed brick, Medina sandstone, and terra cotta-work, sixty by one hundred and twenty feet, with arched main entrance on Seneca street, opening into marbletiled corridors. The architects were Curtis & Archer, of Fredonia, New York. The estimated cost is ninety-thousand dollars.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Venango County, Pennsylvania. Its past and present, including ..1890 · page 440Read the page →
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to twelve feet lower than at present, evidence of which is frequently seen in the remains of old sidewalks where excavations have been made for foundations. On the formation of the city government in 1871 work was begun on Seneca and Main streets, the former being the heaviest grading done in the city, and the present grade was formed, chiefly to raise the flats above high-water mark. Center street was treated likewise, and other streets crossing Seneca. In 1874 a general system of paving and grading was begun and from year to year since streets have been graded until nearly half are
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Venango County, Pennsylvania, her pioneers and people, embracing a general history of the county, and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families ..1919 · page 741Read the page →
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Anna Crawford, like himself a native of Armstrong county, who survives him, being now (1918) seventy-nine years of age. He died when sixty-eight years old, at Seneca, Venango county, and is buried at Salina, this county. In his earlier years he was a trackman on the railroad, following railroad work for about fifteen years, after which he was successfully
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.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
