Old Downtown Harrisburg Commercial Historic District (Boundary Increase)

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.