This attractive and prosperous city was the oil-producing capital of the nation until newer oil boomtowns, such as Houston and Dallas, took the wind out of its sails.
Evidence of the city's onetime oil pre-eminence is an impressive collection of 1920s buildings and Italianate mansions, including Union Depot and the elaborate Philtower and Philcade buildings downtown.
Among the classic homes that are worth seeing are Harwelden Mansion, a 30-room, four-level Tudor-Gothic home listed on the National Register; the Jacobean Revival McBirney Estate, now a bed-and-breakfast but still open to visitors; and Westhope, which was designed in 1929 by Frank Lloyd Wright for one of his cousins.
You should also be sure to see Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, an impressive art-deco skyscraper that just happens to be a house of worship.
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