Plaque on De la Roche Hall
Courtesy of Dennis Frank
BY: MORGAN KILGER, FEATURES EDITOR
On the Allegheny River Trail, near Francis Hall, several well-looking structures are in the wooded areas. These structures are oil wells from the 20th Century when St. Bonaventure used oil as a key element of its funding.
“During this period, it was impossible to be at St. Bonaventure’s College and Seminary and not be aware of the oil industry,” said Dennis Frank, the university archivist.
Before the desire for oil began, petroleum chemistry was a peak interest at Bonaventure. Research in this field started when petroleum courses were added to the curriculum in 1929, and the faculty who taught these courses began to work in the field.
The search for oil began in 1933, after the fire at Lynch Hall—now De la Roche Hall. Oil was hoped to be used for fundraising purposes to repair the damages to Lynch Hall.
“With a fire that burned Lynch Hall and its resurrection as De la Roche Hall, we see the first explicit efforts to use the area’s local oil industry as fundraising sources,” said Frank.
Once De la Roche Hall was built, it was celebrated with its name for the petroleum industry’s performance in Olean, New York and its production of financial support for the university.
The name De la Roche Hall came from Franciscan Fr. Joseph del la Roche D’allion, the first European to see oil at the Seneca Oil Springs in 1627—although some controversy exists that this never happened.
“The renaming of the building was a celebration of the petroleum industry’s importance in the area and did produce some financial support from that industry for the school,” said Frank.
In the same year, the Standard-Socony Oil company purchased 150 acres of land on the east end of Bonaventure’s campus, where Francis Hall stands today. These oil farms stayed on this site until the early 1940s.
“The oil industry was declining and the empty tanks were scrapped. The area around Francis Hall was acquired by the school at that time from Standard-Socony Oil Company,” said Frank.
The elimination of these oil sites was due to a decline in the oil industry. Bonaventure acquired this area. Scraps from oil tanks were used as military material during WWII.
Remains of these tanks are still in their original locations.
However, according to Frank, more oil sites were built in 194 5 and were built because the petroleum industry needed help extracting more oil from existing non-productive wells.
These wells lasted until 1972 when the price of oil started to increase. The university considered using this price increase as a form of income for its rising costs in fuel. It’s still not clear if anything came from discussions of this.
Today, the oil wells remain on campus but not in use. Jared Smith, head of facilities, said this is due to the use of natural gas being used for heating on campus.
“The campus has nothing to do with oil today. Natural gas is used for heating on campus,” said Smith.
@kilgermi22@bonaventure.edu
