Afrolumens Project  home pageEnslavement
to
freedom
Violent Decade Home
 
 
Father Jones' Main Page


Harrisburg on the eve of Civil War

Study Areas


Enslavement

Anti-Slavery

Free Persons of Color

Underground Railroad

The Violent Decade

US Colored Troops

Civil War

Year of Jubilee (1863)

20th Century History

Harrisburg's Capitol Hill

The Capitol at Harrisburg during the Civil War.

Development, History and Incidents

John Harris' original plan for Harrisburg allowed for the establishment of "public ground" north of Walnut Street. This original four acres and thirteen perches was intended, by the forward-looking Harris and his politician son-in-law William Maclay, for use by the state government. That intention would be fulfilled beginning in 1810, when the Pennsylvania legislature decided to relocate to Harrisburg.

A contract to build the first state government buildings, a pair of brick and stone executive buildings, was awarded to English-born architect and builder Stephen A. Hills. These stylish buildings, finished in 1812, flanked and predate the actual Capitol, and are clearly shown in the engraving of the first Harrisburg Capitol complex, above.

William Maclay donated another ten acres to complete the land that was first known as Public Hill, and although eventually named for it, the actual Capitol was the last of the major government structures built there. First, Stephen Hills designed and constructed a state arsenal on the southern portion of the hill, completing it in 1817. The cornerstone for Hill's Capitol was laid on May 31, 1819 by Governor William Findlay, and the building was completed near the end of 1821. It was formally dedicated on January 2, 1822 by Governor Joseph Hiester.

Public Hill, or Capitol Hill, was the site of public executions near the end of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nineteenth century. Wooden gallows were located on the southern portion of the site, just north of the arsenal, and several convicted criminals were hung here. By the 1820s, public executions were moved to a location west of Second and State streets, and after 1824 they were carried out in the courtyard of the prison, and were no longer public. To the north of the lot was the public reservoir, which itself was surrounded by heavy vegetation. The grounds of Capitol Hill were consistently muddy, so a boardwalk was constructed across the grounds to allow legislators to get from their hotels to the public buildings without muddying their shoes.

On August 24, 1850, a single fugitive slave escaped from the clutches of nine slave catchers from Virginia, due to the heroics of Joseph Popel, who attacked the Virginians as they were removing a group of fugitive slaves from the county prison. The liberated slave was pushed and shoved by the sympathetic African American crowd that had gathered to witness the scene, along the boardwalk, up past the Capitol, and on to the thick vegetation that surrounded the reservoir, where he was lost to view.

During the invasion of June 1863, cannons were placed at the corner of Capitol Hill, and the grounds around the arsenal building were utilized by Captain Henry Bradley to publicly drill his company of local African American volunteers.

 

Previous Next
      Previous Button  Next Button

All photographs and text on this page copyright © 2010 George F. Nagle and Afrolumens Project.

Resources

  • Egle, William Henry, Notes and Queries, 1879-1895
  • Frew, Ken, Building Harrisburg, 2009
  • Morgan, George H., Annals of Harrisburg, 1858.

Notes and Links

Of Interest Nearby

 

About the AP | Contact AP | Mission Statement