Happy #143Day, Pennsylvania! This annual observance was inspired by one of my personal heroes, Mr. Rogers, whose personal favorite number was 143 - because it represents the number of letters in "I love you." So every year on the 143rd day of the year, Pennsylvanians are urged to commit acts of kindness in his memory, and share them on social media. Read all about it here.
The scavenger hunt ends tonight! 11:59 Eastern time, to be precise, so one minute before midnight at my local time. (However, if you're a couple minutes late, I won't know because I'll probably be asleep. So go ahead and submit anyway.) I can tell, based on the hit count on the posts containing the correct answers, that a lot of people have been trying to answer the questions, which is very exciting for me - thank you for the enthusiasm! Remember, you don't have to get all the answers right to win a prize, but the more right answers you have, the better your chances are. Don't forget to check the Facebook page to see all the clues I've been providing all month, and here's one last one: The answer to bonus question #2 is found in no less than three different blog posts, and if you're really stuck, you might find it helpful to go back to the beginning. Next week's post will reveal the answers and the winners!
Meanwhile, on to today's post. I really thought this would be the week where I'd have to finally repeat a county for the first time all year. But this past Saturday was the quarterly meeting of the White Rose Irregulars of York, and after discussing all things Sherlockian, my stepdad Ravi very generously took a detour through Harrisburg on the way home to help me collect some markers there. I came away with twelve thanks to his driving and my bff Andrea's talent for spotting them, so I'm doing a Dauphin County post for the first time in quite a while.
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| The marker stands near the corner of Second and Chestnut Streets |
For the first century and change of Pennsylvania's recorded history, the governors and their families lived generally in private residences of variously official status. When Harrisburg became the capital city, the Harris family built a block of Federal-style brick townhouses on Front Street, figuring that the newly arriving government officials would need places to live; so many of the governors lived in these that even today, the block is known as Governors' Row. Those houses are still there, and I'm surprised that they don't have a PHMC marker of their own.
In 1858, our fourteenth governor, James Pollock, was able to appropriate the funds to purchase a mansion at the intersection of what is today Second and Chestnut Streets in Harrisburg, with the intent that it would serve as a residence for the governor. Oddly, however, Pollock himself never lived there. According to his official profile on the state website, he didn't really like being governor and refused to run for re-election, so the year of this purchase was also the last year he held the office.
The "executive mansion," as it was known, was a brick townhouse. This is literally all the description I can find of it; there don't seem to be any surviving images either. It served as the official residence for the fifteenth governor, William Fisher Packer, and the sixteenth, Andrew Curtin. However, Curtin found it to be too small for his needs, and in 1864 he moved to new quarters at 313 Front Street. This building became the governor's residence for the next few decades and was given the name of Keystone Hall; it has its own marker, so I'll be telling its story farther down the line.
Sources and Further Reading:
Morrison, David. "'Keeping With the Dignity of the Commonwealth': 50 Years of the Pennsylvania Governor's Residence." Pennsylvania Heritage, Fall 2018.
Official historical timeline of the Pennsylvania governors' residences
Executive Mansion and also Governors' Row at the Historical Marker Database
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
Have you seen a copy of “Shelter for His Excellency” by LeRoy Greene (Stackpole Books, 1951, $12, biblio.com)? If I were home this week, I would check my copy to see if there is an illustration of the Second and Chestnut street house. I’ll do that when I get home from western Pennsylvania. I first read that book in seventh grade and did a book report on it, even including a chunk of tile I retrieved from the porch of Keystone Hall as they were preparing it for demolition!
ReplyDeleteThe church I attend had a building next door to the Second and Chestnut house, and it was consumed by fire in 1858. I wonder if it had any effect on the Governor’s residence. I have also heard a story regarding the attempted kidnapping of Governor Curtin’s daughter from the front stoop of that house!