{"nrhp_refnum":"84003198","name":"Old Downtown Harrisburg Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["See Also:The Colonial Theater Building","Kunkle Building","Old D"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Roughly Market St. from 3rd to 4th and 3rd St. from Walnut to Chestnut Sts.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Harrisburg","county":"Dauphin County","state":"PA","lat":40.26091719500005,"lon":-76.88015529291476,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-03-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Commerce","Law","Architecture","Communications"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A boundary increase to the Old Downtown Harrisburg Commercial Historic District, a concentration of commercial buildings centred on the intersection of Market and Third Streets in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. The buildings range from early 19th-century brick commercial rows to Art Moderne department stores of about 1940.","why_significant":"The district is argued to preserve the commercial core that concentrated the legal, financial, communications and retail businesses of the city and state capital. Its buildings show an architectural history of commercial design from the Greek Revival of the 1830s to Art Moderne, including work by the city's principal architects. The businesses housed there, including major banks, newspapers and department stores, shaped the commercial and economic history of Harrisburg.","narrative":"Along Market Street and the adjoining blocks of Third Street and Chestnut Street, Harrisburg's downtown contains commercial buildings from the 1830s to about 1940. The district grew up around the intersection of Market and Third Streets, close to the county courthouse, which stood in the middle of the 200 block of Market Street from 1792 until 1948, and the state capitol complex. Lawyers, banks, newspapers and printing firms clustered there, along with hotels and department stores. Surviving buildings include the Telegraph newspaper office, the City Bank building of about 1872, and the Kunkle Building. Bowman's, Pomeroy's and Rothert's department stores were built after the state capitol project began in 1906. Woolworth's, completed in 1939, shows Moderne styling. The district is considered important for the way its buildings record the commercial development of the state capital and for the businesses it housed over more than a century.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Miller I. Kast (architect, Bowman's and Pomeroy's department stores); Charles H. Lloyd (architect, Rothert's Furniture Store); Lawrie and Greene (architects, Pomeroy's c.1940)","architectural_style":"Greek Revival, Italianate, Richardsonian Romanesque, Art Moderne","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Several buildings are noted as altered, deteriorated or intrusive, and some facades have been covered or remodelled in later decades.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:33.028464-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/84003198.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71995799","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/dauphin-county/old-downtown-harrisburg-commercial-historic-district-boundary-increase-84003198/"}