Old Downtown Harrisburg Commercial Historic District

Facing South Third Street and the north side of Chestnut Street in downtown Harrisburg, this district is built mainly of brick in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, with most buildings three stories high and structurally joined. Its styling draws on the late Victorian, Mediterranean, Italianate, and Eastlake modes, with bay windows, bracketed cornices in wood and tin, and corbelled brick cornices. The area originated in early 19th century townhouse rows laid out as part of the borough of Harrisburg. After a fire on the west side of South Third Street in 1873, a six-story printing office building was erected in 1875, and low-scaled commercial buildings followed. Lots kept their original frontage widths, so the streetscape remains intimate and varied. Around the 1890s and early 1900s, the buildings housed professional offices and a range of shops, and the district is regarded as the last intact piece of old downtown Harrisburg.