Talk:Ohio Oil Company Building

prod and removal
User:Enter Demoman placed a wp:PROD suggesting this article should be deleted based on concern "Does not explain why the subject is notable"; I disagree and am removing the PROD. ED, based on past AFDs and PRODs, it is my judgment that 95 percent or more of Wikipedia editors would accept the statement in the article that the building is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as being an assertion of importance/notability. Some prefer a stronger assertion to be stated; I happen to like being more understated, just saying it is listed suffices, and I think most editors agree. If a full wp:AFD were opened this would receive a SPEEDY KEEP or SNOW KEEP type of outcome.

I myself do agree with you that it does beg the question: why was it deemed significant enough to be listed on the National Register?, and I agree that is not explained in words in the article.

(By the way, actually for me the photo sort of serves as establishing importance: it is a very large building in Art Deco style, and given what I know about such (from my long editing on National Register topics in Wikipedia), I personally would "agree" with the photo that the place is important, based on the photo alone.)

National Register listing does mean, though, that there exists documentation which is usually considerable and professional... we can almost always assume correctly that the documentation is reliable wp:RS and sufficient to meet wp:GNG on Wikipedia notability. So, even without seeing the documentation, we have adequate reason to believe that coverage exists, ergo it's Wikipedia-notable.

In this case, the National Register registration document is available on-line and is linked. It is Section 8 in an NRHP document which asserts significance, and that begins on page 12 of the 23-page PDF. It explains basically that the building is an important artifact of, or symbolic of "the Wyoming oil Industry and its importance to the economic development of the state as a whole and to the City of Casper in particular" and that it is also important for its architecture: "The building displays several basic elements of the Art Deco style of architecture, and the exterior is pristine." Although the text of the document has a lot of general discussion about history of the the city and state and the Marathon/Ohio Oil companies, it also does provide detailed history about the specific building, which could be used to develop the article. And it is a fact that local, state, and national level reviews by professional staff found the registration document sufficient to establish notability for purpose of National Register listing (basically a higher standard than Wikipedia's wp:GNG). Is that not enough?

wp:BEFORE is an essay (or guideline?) that deletion nominators need to make an effort to figure out if coverage exists, before opening an AFD or PROD, so some people could criticize you for opening this. I don't mind that you did, and I agree with your implicit assertion that more should be said in the article, not just in the linked source. I may add a bit more to the article now. Thanks, --Doncram (talk,contribs) 23:59, 17 January 2023 (UTC)


 * ok Enter Demoman (talk) 05:53, 18 January 2023 (UTC)