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is a small city located in rural McKean County, Pennsylvania, in the United States 78 miles (126 km) south of Buffalo, New York. Settled in 1823, Bradford was chartered as a city in 1879 and emerged as a wild oil boomtown in the late 1800s.
The area's Pennsylvania Grade crude oil has superior qualities and is free of asphaltic constituents, contains only trace amounts of sulfur and nitrogen, and has excellent characteristics for refining into lubricants. World-famous Kendall racing oils were produced in Bradford.
The population peaked at 17,691 in 1940, but as of the 2000 census had dropped to 9,175 and was still declining at mid-decade according to census bureau estimates. Two adjoining townships, home to approximately 9,000 people, make the population of Greater Bradford about 18,000. Famous Bradfordians include opera singer Marilyn Horne and Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell. A famous Perpetual Motion machine Hoax was created in Bradford in 1897 by J M Aldrich; it was exposed in the July 1 1899 issue of the Scientific American magazine, leading to a four month prison sentence in the county jail.
Bradford is well known as the home of Zippo, a manufacturer of collectible pocket lighters, and Case, which is owned by Zippo and makes collectible knives. After Zippo and Case, the second largest employer is Bradford Regional Medical Center, which employs 800 and was undergoing a significant expansion in 2006. Zippo and BRMC both added about 100 jobs recently, and the oil and gas industry in the region is expecting to have many hundreds more available in coming years. The city also boasts an American Refining Group oil refinery, the oldest continuously operating refinery in the United States, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2006. Since ARG purchased the refinery in the mid 1990s, employment has almost doubled, to just less than 300. Microtech Knives, a maker of highly collectible knives, moved it operations to the city from Florida in 2005 and said it would create 250 jobs within three years. Bradford is also home to a growing four-year college, the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford (Pitt-Bradford), which has about 1,300 students and employs about 280 faculty and staff.
The median income for a household in the city in 1999, according to the 2000 census, was $26,463, and the median income for a family was $32,828. Males had a median income of $30,661 versus $21,250 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,537. About 16.9% of families and 20.7% of the population was below the poverty line, including 28.1% of those under age 18 and 9.5% of those age 65 or over. Median incomes were significantly higher, and poverty rates significantly lower, in the adjoining townships.
According to the 2000 census, in what is familiarly known as Bradford (City of Bradford, Foster Township and Bradford Township), participation in the labor force of those 16 years of age and older was 62.8%, with an unemployment rate of 6.5%. The national average was 63.9% in the labor force and 5.8% unemployed. Outside of Greater Bradford in the rest of McKean County, participation in the labor force was 56%.
Four percent of households in Greater Bradford reported receiving public assistance income. Mean reported public assistance income was $1,884. The national average was 3.4% and $3,032.