Timeline of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania history

This is a timeline of the major events in the history of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and vicinity.

Early America

• 1719 Harrisburg settled as trading post by John Harris, Sr., settler from Yorkshire, England
• 1766 John Harris, Jr.. constructs a permanent stone home, still standing at 219 South Front Street
• 1792 Pennsylvania’s canal era begins (1792–1931)

19th century

• 1812 Harrisburg becomes State Capital (seat of government for Pennsylvania)
• 1818 Construction begins on the original capitol building (finished 1822)
• 1820 First bridge built at Harrisburg: The "Camelback Bridge" (a wooden, covered bridge). Newspaper The Pennsylvania Intelligencer founded; it is not The Patriot-News
• 1822 Original Harrisburg State Capitol building completed (started 1818; burned Feb 1897)
• 1831 Cumberland Valley Railroad completed.
• 1833 Harrisburg Nail Works opens across the river
• 1834 Pennsylvania Canal opens at Harrisburg
• 1834 Dauphin Deposit Bank established.
• 1836 First train enters Harrisburg, operated by the Harrisburg, Mount Joy, and Lancaster RR
• 1837 Harrisburg’s first railroad (RR) station built.
• 1839 Cumberland County RR Bridge goes into operation; would burn down in 1841.
• 1850 Harrisburg’s first anthracite furnace built (Porter Furnace). U.S. Census lists 1,376 dwellings and 7,834 people
• 1851 The State Lunatic Hospital built in Harrisburg: One of the largest institutions in town
• 1852 Harrisburg Cotton Manufacturing Co built.

• 1853 Central Iron Works established in Harrisburg.
• 1854 Newspaper Pennsylvania Patriot established; Harrisburg YMCA established at the Market Square Church (formerly English Presbyterian Congregation). Pennsylvania RR from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh (Main Line) is finished.
• 1857 Swatara (McCormack) Furnace built in South Hanover township nearby. Much larger RR station is built
• 1858 First Reading RR train in Harrisburg.
• 1860 Harrisburg incorporated as a city
• 1861-65 City played active role in the Civil War; see Harrisburg in the American Civil War
• 1861 First horsecar operation: The Street Railway Company. Camp Curtin established nearby: Large Union Army training ground.
• 1864 Lochiel Rolling Mill makes rails for RR.
• 1865-73 Expanded trolley lines (Capitol Area Transit)
• 1866 Paxton Rolling Mills built.
• 1867 Pennsylvania Steel Works, south of Harrisburg, was first in the US to produce steel ingots on order.
• 1869 Historical Society of Dauphin County is founded by leading citizens at a meeting in Market Square Presbyterian Church.
• 1873 Horse-drawn passenger railway company opened^[1]
• 1875 Harrisburg and Middletown Omnibus Co. was organized to bring passengers to the trolley.^[1]
• 1877 Central Iron Works new plant built by Charles Bailey; Nationwide RR strike: City troops guard the arsenal.
• 1878 Telephones installed in Harrisburg.
• 1880 Steelton incorporated. First lighting plant installed in Harrisburg by Thomas Edison
• 1885 Harrisburg’s Centennial celebration
• 1886 First paved street. Chamber of Commerce established. Single horse trolley to Allison Hill then expanded to Steelton.^[1]
• 1887 New RR station (Harrisburg Central Railroad Station) built on site of the first two. New Cumberland County bridge is built.
• 1888 First electric trolley service: Served Steelton, Allison Hill, expanded areas in Harrisburg.^[1]
• 1889 Market square market houses torn down. YMCA Pennsylvania Railroad Branch established; moved to 611 Reily Street in 1903.
• 1890 Second bridge completed: the Walnut Street Bridge. Harrisburg City Library opens on Market Square site.
• 1891 Mulberry St Bridge (#1) completed, encouraging building on Allison Hill: One of the first suburbs.
• 1892 End of the horse-drawn trolley. The second streetcar company was formed: Line to Steelton – Oberlin and Harrisburg.^[1]
• 1893 First office building opens, the Dauphin Building.
• 1894 Trolley service crossed the Walnut Street “Peoples Bridge”.^[1] Flood
• 1896 Streetcar service expanded to New Cumberland, and along Simpson Ferry Road towards Mechanicsburg; also within Carlisle.^[1]
• 1896-1902 West Shore (of the Susquehanna River) lines expanded to include Boiling Springs, Newville, West Fairview, Enola, and Marysville.^[1]
• 1897 Original Harrisburg State Capitol building burned.
• 1898 33 different ethnicities counted in Harrisburg by special census

20th century

• 1900-1920 City Beautiful Movement; Mira Lloyd Dock calls for modern improvements and beautification.
• 1901 Pennsylvania canal is closed.
• 1902 First automobile in city. Camelback Bridge partially destroyed by flood. Rockville Stone Bridge built. Vance McCormick elected mayor on reform ticket. New water filter plant on City Island.
• 1903 Damaged Camelback bridge removed and replaced. Hershey plant planned. Trolley service expanded to Linglestown, Hummelstown, and Dauphin. This required a consolidation of shops and car barns located at various places through the service area.^[1]
• 1904 100 passenger trains stop in the city each day.
• 1905 Market Street Bridge built in the place of the old Camelback Bridge. First motion picture theater in Harrisburg. City’s first skyscraper built: United Trust Company.
• 1906 New State Capitol building dedicated.
• 1907 Hershey Park opened
• 1910 Bellevue Park neighborhood opened: First planned neighborhood in Harrisburg and central PA.
• 1911 Rotary Club opened: First service club in Harrisburg
• 1912 Riverwalk construction begun.
• 1913 The transit company reorganized as "Harrisburg Railways".^[1]
• 1914 City Beautiful continues, raises money with bonds (Eggert 338). City library opened.
• 1915 Great Migration brings many black workers to Harrisburg’s steel mills
• 1916 Bethlehem Steel takes over PA Steel Co in Steelton
• 1918 Penn-Harris Hotel constructed (demolished in 1973)
• 1919 African-American YMCA branch established.
• 1920 The last trolleys were acquired.^[1]
• 1921 Island Park bathing beach has 235,000 visitors per year.
• 1924 First radio station begins to broadcast. Decline in trolley ridership began on both sides of the river.^[1]
• 1926 City Beautiful related projects, costing $250,000. Market Street Bridge widened from 2 lanes to four.
• 1926-30 State Street Bridge built: part of the Capitol complex.
• 1929-1939 The Great Depression

• 1930 Bus service replaces trolley on the Carlisle to Mechanicsburg line west of the river.^[1]
• 1931 Pennsylvania’s Canal era ends (1792–1931). Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra first plays.
• 1933 YMCA Central Branch opens on Front Street: Important architecture. Three trolley lines replaced by buses: Ten buses placed in service.^[1] Hotel Hershey opens. African-American YMCA branch builds Forster Street Branch.
• 1934 Bethesda Mission acquires building at 611 Reily Street from the PA Railroad YMCA.
• 1937 Hershey strike put down. The trolley company changed to Harrisburg Railways Company and remained in use until 1973.^[1]
• 1938 All remaining trolley lines on west shore abandoned.^[1]
• 1939 July 16: Buses replace trolleys in Harrisburg. The last Harrisburg Railways Trolley closed. A fleet of 135 buses remained under the Harrisburg Railways Company.^[1]
• 1939-73 Bus service continued but riders lessened due to more auto ownership (Capitol Area Transit).
• 1941 Home of John Harris, Jr., and later Lincoln's first Secretary of War Simon Cameron becomes home of Historical Society of Dauphin County.
• 1943 Aircraft manufacturer moves to Harrisburg. New Dauphin County Courthouse opens: Art Deco.
• 1947 Merchant’s and Men’s Mutual Insurance moves to Front St.
• 1949 Pennsylvania national insurance group moves to new HQ on Derry St.
• 1950 89,554 people live in Harrisburg: Largest Standard Metropolitan Area population in city’s history. Harrisburg Standard Metropolitan Area (SMA), consisting of Cumberland and Dauphin counties, was first defined.
• 1952 Harvey Taylor bridge opens to help traffic to west shore
• 1956 Old Central Iron and Steel demolished for I82 bridge
• 1958 150 houses in Shipoke demolished for highway construction. IBM builds branch in Mechanicsburg, west of the river.
• 1959 Following a term change by the Bureau of the Budget (present-day Office of Management and Budget), the Harrisburg SMA became the Harrisburg Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA).
• 1960 Historic governor’s mansion demolished for a parking lot. John Harris Memorial Bridge on the river opens
• 1960s Olmstead Air Force Base closes
• 1963 Perry County added to the Harrisburg SMSA.
• 1964 Commonwealth of PA razes the Forster Street Branch YMCA for government expansion
• 1966 Penn State opens campus^[2] on former Olmstead AFB. The former Forster Street Branch YMCA occupies the newly constructed Camp Curtin Branch YMCA on 2135 North 6th Street.
• 1973 Urban renewal demolishes the Penn-Harris Hotel (built in 1918). Public bus service acquired by the city from the Harrisburg Railways Company.^[1]
• 1983 Harrisburg SMSA renamed the Harrisburg–Lebanon–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)[3]; Lebanon County added to the MSA.

21st century

• 2003 MSA split into two separate metropolitan areas – Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area (Cumberland, Dauphin, & Perry counties) and the Lebanon Metropolitan Statistical Area (Lebanon County); both MSAs together form the Harrisburg–Carlisle–Lebanon Combined Statistical Area.
• 2010 The Harrisburg-York-Lebanon urban agglomeration area is defined for the first time, linking York County to the CSA.

Notes

1. Capital Area Transit (2012). "History of Transit in the Harrisburg Area". Capital Area Transit. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
2. "Campus Fact Sheet" (PDF). Penn State Harrisburg.

Further reading

• Eggert, Gerald G. Harrisburg industrializes: the coming of factories to an American Community (1993) 412 pages
• Ries, Linda A. Harrisburg (2006) excerpt and text search
• Seitz, Blair. Harrisburg: renaissance of a capital city (Historic Harrisburg Association, 2000)