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

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.[2]
  • 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".[2]
  • 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.[2]
  • 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.[2]
  • 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.[2]
  • 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.[2] 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.[2]
  • 1938 All remaining trolley lines on west shore abandoned.[2]
  • 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.[2]
  • 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[3] 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.[2]
  • 1983 Harrisburg SMSA renamed the Harrisburg–Lebanon–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)[3]; Lebanon County added to the MSA.

21st century

Notes

  1. ↑ Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990, U.S. Census Bureau, 1998
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Capital Area Transit (2012). "History of Transit in the Harrisburg Area". Capital Area Transit. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
  3. ↑ "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)
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