Timeline of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania history

See also: History of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

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
• 1875 Harrisburg and Middletown Omnibus Co. was organized to bring passengers to the trolley.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1893 First office building opens, the Dauphin Building.
• 1894 Trolley service crossed the Walnut Street “Peoples Bridge”. Flood
• 1896 Streetcar service expanded to New Cumberland, and along Simpson Ferry Road towards Mechanicsburg; also within Carlisle.
• 1896-1902 West Shore (of the Susquehanna River) lines expanded to include Boiling Springs, Newville, West Fairview, Enola, and Marysville.
• 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.
• 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".
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. 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.
• 1938 All remaining trolley lines on west shore abandoned.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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.

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)