Written by Harrisburg’s long-sought goal of becoming the state capital of Pennsylvania was achieved in 1812. The donation by city founder John Harris Jr. in 1784 of four acres of land for public use by the Commonwealth helped seal the deal even if it did take 28 years to relocate the capital to the banks of the Susquehanna.
So it’s not without a bit of irony that 200 years later the city of Harrisburg, under control of a state-appointed receiver, is preparing to sell or lease public property as a first step on the road back from financial insolvency.
Harrisburg receiver David Unkovic is seeking a buyer for the city’s debt-ridden incinerator and firms interested in leasing and managing the municipal water and sewer systems and parking garages.
“It is important to the recovery of the city to implement a process that maximizes the value of Harrisburg’s assets,” said Unkovic.
He has not taken the drastic step of putting the city-owned Dehart water reservoir and watershed or the city-owned islands in the Susquehanna River on the market.
The inducement of a choice tract of land for public use helped Harrisburg beat out such rivals as Wright’s Ferry, Lancaster and Carlisle to become the state capital. This unique distinction and Harrisburg’s location as a transportation center for canals, railroads and highways ensured it would develop beyond a ferry crossing.
Now because Harrisburg is saddled with more than $300 million in debt on an aging incinerator the city is a symbol of a national experiment in privatization.
Harrisburg’s status as a capital city led to the state’s takeover of its fiscal affairs and loss of local determination through the law establishing the receivership. Harrisburg alone of all the state’s financially distressed cities has a receiver because the Commonwealth can’t afford to have the seat of government in collapse.
The early citizens of Harrisburg would have a hard time believing this turn of events. They were no strangers to the civic boosterism that was an infectious spirit across the land.
“The inhabitants exert their utmost efforts to procure to this place all the advantages to which it is susceptible and even indulged the hope that the seat of government of the state will be removed to their town,” wrote the French visitor the Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt in 1795.
Philadelphia was the original state capital, but as early as 1789 there was a recognition the capital would have to move to accommodate the great westward migration of population. Lancaster served as a temporary location for a state capital starting in 1799. The law designating Harrisburg as the capital was enacted in 1810 with an effective date of October 1812.
The Dauphin County courthouse was renovated to accommodate the General Assembly. Architect Stephen Hills eventually got the contract to build a permanent Capitol building on the land Harris donated.
But the new Capitol building wasn’t completed until 1821. Pennsylvania sold its first state house, what we know today as Independence Hall, to the city of Philadelphia in 1816 to get some cash for the construction.
Something happened in 1812 that delayed things. The nation went to war with Great Britain.
Gov. Simon Snyder had more pressing problems concerning the outfitting of Pennsylvania soldiers on his mind in 1812.
“The scattered, and in many instances unknown places where there are public arms, and the wretched rust-eaten condition, in which they are too often found, make it a work of time, labor and expense to collect them together, and have them put in such repair as they ought to be previous to their being put in the hands of the militia,” said Gov. Snyder in his annual message to the Assembly.
“The want of cartouch boxes, flints and many other indispensable military equipments and stores has been sensibly felt, and would have been still more so, had not a large portion of the patriotic citizens that rendezvoused at Meadville, not only volunteered their personal services, but furnished their own arms and equipments.” — Robert Swift
