Harrisburg Avenue Tobacco Historic District

Four brick tobacco warehouses built between 1874 and about 1881 stand on a triangle of land east of North Mulberry Street and on the west side of the street in northwest Lancaster City. Buildings A, B and C were erected by C. August Bitner, who ran a fast freight line between Lancaster and Philadelphia, and they sat beside a Reading & Columbia railroad siding. Building D, a double warehouse with a gambrel slate roof, was built by G. Falk about 1881 and later divided between two owners. The warehouses use common-bond brick over stone foundations, with segmental-arched windows, corbelled cornices and raised basements. Building A was raised from two to three stories and given a flat roof, and Building B gained a restaurant-style front in the late 1970s. The buildings were leased to leaf tobacco firms through the early twentieth century, and the group is regarded as an intact example of this industrial building type in the city.