The Option House Tradition

A Bradford History

Front View of Option House Restaurant - 45 Main St. Bradford, PA

The original Option House opened in the early 1880’s next door to the first Bradford Oil Exchange. The oil traders gave the new establishment its name, as they traded oil---five million barrels daily in those boom years---in “option” contracts. The Oil Exchange is gone, but The Option House remains.

In 1902 the McBrides, owners and proprietors, tore down the wooden frame Option House and built a modern, fireproof, four-story establishment of the same name on the same site. The new building was designed and built by architect Frederick French with an exterior façade in rococo style featuring ornate decorations of garlands, cherubs, and stone tablets called cartouches. Inside were neo-classical touches such as wood-carved Ionic columns and egg-and-dart patterned ceiling molding. People compared it favorably to Bradford’s other fine hotels like the Pierce House and the St. James. The Pierce and the St. James are memories, but the beautiful architecture of The Option House remains.

The Prohibition Amendment was passed in 1919 and went into effect in 1920. People who wanted a drink with their fine Option House food now had to turn to bathtub distillation or buy bootleg liquor of questionable quality. Good bonded liquor, bottled in other countries, was smuggled into the United States. It was said to be “just off the boat”. Most of the liquor available, however, tasted as though it had been scraped off a boat. While prohibition ended in 1933, the tradition of fine food and drink at The Option House remains.

In years past business men have stood in The Option House along the long, long bar installed by Brunswick, Balke & Callendar waiting for the streetcar on Main Street. The last streetcar ran on September 29, 1929. The long, long bar at The Option House remains.

Over the years Bradfordians have witnessed a lot of changes. People, businesses and buildings have come and gone. The country’s economy has gone up and down as did the human fly who once climbed the front of The Option House.

>>> Read our more recent history