Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — An Economic Profile
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
FOR YEARS, HARRISBURG HAS VERY CLEARLY RECOGNIZED THE VALUE OF PRESERVING ITS OLDER BUILDINGS AS A WAY IN TO ESTABLISH URBAN IDENTITY AND CHARACTER AND TO FOSTER REVITALIZATION.
Harrisburg, unlike many other cities, was fortunate to have retained many of its oldest residential neighborhoods adjacent to the downtown which otherwise might have been demolished for expressways and surface parking lots. In 1974, the City created its first municipal historic district in neighborhoods adjacent to the State Capitol Complex, and this established controls to largely prohibit altering or demolishing significant historic structures.
As it became evident that historic preservation could be an effective community development tool, seven historic districts and numerous individual buildings have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with six districts named since 1983, as part of Mayor Reed’s overall economic development program. Districts on Allison Hill and in Harrisburg’s Center City, Midtown, Shipoke and Uptown areas were created to protect the significance of the existing architecture of these older neighborhoods and to provide incentives for continued rehabilitation work.
Additionally, low acquisition costs of previously vacant properties in these districts have provided a housing supply for young urban professionals who participated and helped to lead the “back-to-the-city” movement in Harrisburg that has accelerated in recent years particularly through utilizing some of the city’s residential incentives. Well over $100 million has been spent on commercial and residential certified historic rehabilitation projects for income-producing sites, involving over one million square feet of space, which ranks Harrisburg third in Pennsylvania, behind Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, in the amount of private funds spent to rehabilitate such historic properties. Rehabilitation work on older structures involving non-income-producing sites has considerably added to this total of work; in excess of $250 million has been accomplished.
The city’s National Register and federally certified historic districts are:
Historic Harrisburg District. Includes neighborhoods in the adjacent Center City next to the State Capitol Complex. Contains the city’s oldest building stock and famous Front St. mansions of the early and mid-19th century.
Old Downtown Harrisburg Commercial Historic District. Includes turn-of-the-century Center City and a substantial portion of the Strawberry Square retail and office complex.
Harrisburg Buildings Individually Listed On The National Register of Historic Places
- Main Capitol Building (3rd and State Sts.). Completed in 1906; seat of the government of the Commonwealth.
- Harrisburg Central Railroad Station and Train Sheds (5th and Chestnut Sts.). Restored and now known as the Harrisburg Transportation Center.
- Technical High School (423 Walnut St.). Former high school and municipal building now converted to 82 luxury apartments.
- Lochiel Hotel (3rd and Market Sts.). Converted to a vaudeville theater in 1912. More recently, rehabilitated for office use.
- Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital (Cameron and Maclay Sts.) Opened in 1851 as an early facility to treat the mentally ill.
- Dauphin County Courthouse (Front and Market Sts.). Completed in 1942 as an Art Deco interpretation of neo-classical government.
- Broad Street Farmers Market (3rd and Verbeke Sts.) The oldest continuously operating market houses in the nation. Dates from 1860.
- Simon Cameron School (1839 Green St.). Late 19th-century elementary school converted to 35 market-rate apartments; Second Renaissance Revival styling.
- German Evangelical Zion Lutheran Church (Herr and Capital Sts.). Gothic revival styling originally with strong German ethnicities. Now, the Tabernacle Baptist Church.
- William Seel Building( 319 Market St.). Noted for its brownstone commercial facade.
- Keystone Building (23 S. 3rd St). Harrisburg’s first mid-rise office building. Dates from 1874.
- Kunkel Building (310 Market St.). Office building noted for its white, glazed terra cotta exterior.
- Salem Reformed Church (3rd and Chestnut Sts.). Oldest church building in Harrisburg, erected in 1822.
- John Harris/Simon Cameron Mansion (Front and Washington Sts.). Homestead of the founder of Harrisburg; original portion dates from 1740 and later home to Simon Cameron, President Lincoln’s first Secretary of War and a U.S. Senator.
- Walnut Street Bridge (Front and Walnut Sts.). Oldest Susquehanna River bridge; erected 1888.
- Market Street Bridge (Front and Market Sts.). Grand, stone-arched crossing of the Susquehanna at the city’s traditional main entrance.
- Soldiers and Sailor’s Memorial Bridge (13th to Fisher Plaza). Dramatic entrance to the Capitol Complex from the east. Punctuated with two stylized pylons.
- Harrisburg Cemetery (13th and Liberty Sts.). Oldest cemetery in Harrisburg containing many Pennsylvania notables; opened in 1845.
- William Donaldson House (2005 N. 3rd St.). Home of noted Harrisburg businessman; erected 1888.
- Sheffield Apartment Building (2003 N. 3rd St.). Early 20th-century apartment building.
- S. Stephens Cathedral House (215 N. Front St.). Fine Greek Revival, early 19th-century Front Street mansion.
- Camp Curtin Fire Station (2504 N. 6th St.). Architecturally intact, early 20th-century fire station.
- Harrisburg Military Post (14th and Calder Sts.). Largest and most architecturally distinguished of all armories in Pennsylvania.
- 19th Street Armory (1313 S. 19th St.). Exceptional example of a state armory, particularly with its Art Moderne architectural style; now used by the city’s Department of Public Works.
- Harris Switch Tower (637 Walnut St.). Period rail control facility symbolizes Pennsylvania Railroad’s golden years.
- Other significant properties include:
- Governor’s Row (first block of N. Front Street). Early 19th Century block containing three mansions used by pre-1860 Governors of Pennsylvania. All buildings have been restored.
- William Maclay Mansion (N. Front and South Streets). Erected in 1790 by Pennsylvania’s first U.S. Senator, and now the of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
- Donald Cameron Mansion (407 N. Front Street). 19th Century edifice occupied by the Secretary of Ware to President Ulysses S. Grant and a Pennsylvania U.S. Senator; now law offices.
- Governor’s Residence ( N. Front and Maclay Streets). This Georgian-style mansion is home to the present-day Pennsylvania Governors.
Old Midtown Harrisburg Historic District. Includes cohesive late 19th-century neighborhood along the Susquehanna River north of Forster St. Represents Harrisburg’s first urbanized neighborhood.
Old Fox Ridge Historic District. Located east of Old Midtown, includes early railroad worker’s neighborhood. Contains some new residential, in-fill construction.
Old Uptown Harrisburg Historic District. Large, Queen Anne-style neighborhood once representing the northern frontier of the city’s development. Located between 2nd and 3rd Sts. running north to Maclay Street.
Shipoke Historic District. Situated south of Center City along the river, near the site of the original John Harris ferry outpost. Charming homes nestled on quiet back streets.
Mount Pleasant Historic District. Located on the eastern portion of Harrisburg’s Allison Hill overlooking Center City. Homes and commercial buildings are of a late 19th-century industrial neighborhood. Characterized by angled streets and numerous shade trees.
The primary advocacy organization in Harrisburg that advances the cause of historic preservation, in addition to city government, is the Historic Harrisburg Association. Founded in 1973, the Association conducts annual house tours to promote city living, holds seminars and educational programs on preservation techniques, and works with city government in advancing community development objectives. The Association’s headquarters is located at the Historic Harrisburg Resource Center, a brownstone-clad, 19th Century former bank building located at Third and Verbeke Streets. The Center, which contains a bank museum, display and gallery areas, as well as tourist information brochures, is open to the general public.
Within the city’s multiple historic districts are literally hundreds of additional historically and architecturally significant sites, ranging from log cabins now enveloped in 19th Century materials, to public and private buildings of 19th and early 20th Century style.
