Episode 24: The neighborhood beneath the Capitol

Long ago, Harrisburg knocked down an African American and immigrant neighborhood to make way for Capitol expansion. Now, a group is trying to memorialize it.

• Katie Meyer
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Katie Meyer was WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief from 2016-2020. While at WITF, she covered all things state politics for public radio stations throughout Pennsylvania. Katie came to Harrisburg by way of New York City, where she worked at Fordham University’s public radio station, WFUV, as an anchor, general assignment reporter, and co-host of an original podcast. A 2016 graduate of Fordham, she earned several awards for her work at WFUV, including four 2016 Gracies.
  
  Katie is a native New Yorker, though she originally hails from Troy, a little farther up the Hudson River. She can attest that the bagels are still pretty good there.
  
  WITF's Capitol Bureau Chief Desk is partially funded through generous gifts made in the memory of Tony May through the Anthony J. May Memorial Fund.
  
  For more information about Tony May, click here.

 Courtesy of State Archives

Courtesy of State Archives

A city atlas from the early 20th century shows Harrisburg’s now-demolished Eighth Ward. The white line running through it was added by the city once the ward was destroyed

Harrisburg has been the seat of Pennsylvania’s government since 1812, and the current Capitol building has been in use since 1906.

In the first couple decades of the 20^th century, the complex and its grounds were being expanded into what we know today. And as that was happening, there was a casualty. An entire neighborhood—populated largely by immigrants and African Americans—was wiped out.

Reporter Elizabeth Hardison at the Pennsylvania Capital-Star recently looked into why the neighborhood, known as the Old Eighth, was demolished. She joins us this week to explain what happened, and what was lost. We’ll also hear from activist Lenwood Sloan, who is leading a charge to commemorate the long-destroyed ward with a monument on Capitol grounds.