Harrisburg

Dauphin County, home of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's state capitol, was on my schedule for December 2019, my ninetieth county visited within three hundred miles of Morgantown since I arrived in July 2012. I was at my sister Robin's in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington, the second week in December, with a plan to go to Pennsylvania for two days, when I got a call from home that Howard "Rusty"Mall, a long-time and well-liked member of  Tree of Life had died, and the funeral would be in two days. I drove home the next morning. Then Joe and I were off to New York before Christmas. I spent most of January with a sinus infection and no energy.

 I drove to Harrisburg Sunday, and stayed two nights over Presidents Day. I couldn't read my notes from December, so I started over. Sunday I got a late start. I had to buy gas, and a Washington Post. I took cash out of an ATM, wrote out a few checks (hopefully to pay off our newer car) and dropped them at downtown Morgantown's post office, and took off from Monongalia County's courthouse to Dauphin County's courthouse, 216 miles, close to 11 A.M.. It was sunny and got warmer as I went along. I stopped for lunch in Halfway, Maryland, near Hagerstown, at a chain noodle place in the parking lot of a mall.

I made it to the County courthouse around three, looked around a bit downtown in Harrisburg (free parking on Sunday) and made it to the hotel, a cheaper nameplate of The Usual Chain, just south of downtown. I checked in and fell asleep for an hour. 

I looked on Google maps for a close-by restaurant marked by one "$" and found a Chinese restaurant on Second Street., the main commercial street paralleling the Susquehanna River. It wasn't terribly cold out (about 40 F.) so I walked there, on the trail through the park along the river to downtown, then, a long block to the restaurant. It was family owned, and I had my usual chicken and rice, listed on the menu as a "healthy option," steamed, with a little brown sauce on the side. I am surprised that many of these little restaurants don't make hot tea, but it finally occurred to me that they have contracts with major beverage companies, in this case, Pepsi-Cola, to only sell their products. I can't prove it, but it explains why one can't order hot tea at many small Chinese restaurants.

I walked back to the hotel, and laid out plans for Monday. There are 64 places on the National Register of Historic Places in Dauphin County; thirty-four of them are in Harrisburg's city limits. I thought I could walk from the south end of the city, where I was staying, to the north end, since the city occupies a narrow stretch of land along the Susquehanna. That plan was good until the next morning, when I decided it would be too hard, and with libraries closed for President's Day, I might not be able to find a bathroom when I needed it. This is seventy and on a diuretic. I didn't change my plan until I was ready to walk out the door, when I decided to go to Middletown, a small city eleven miles south along the river, with a historic synagogue and Penn State Harrisburg's campus.

It was relatively warm out after a cool early morning, and I walked all over Middletown, a pretty, historic and seemingly kind city, with historic houses, many divided into apartments, and lots of those signs saying "We welcome all kinds" or "Black Lives Matter" and other liberal signs. I found the small synagogue building, from 1906 and still in use, at least part time, and also a late eighteenth century church. There's a local supermarket, not part of a chain, well-stocked and clean, where the workers were friendly and helpful.

I visited the bland campus of Penn State, but couldn't stay because the parking was a dollar, no credit card and, although I had change, the last five cents were pennies, which the machine wouldn't take. I gave them 95 cents and got nothing. I only stopped to take a pic, and, driving through the campus, got a glimpse from a distance of the cooling towers from the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

It was after twelve, and I had planned to lunch at the food court in Harrisburg Mall, just outside the city of Harrisburg, so I figured out how to get there. The mall is pretty, but like so many malls, there are empty storefronts throughout. I found a skewer place that has a sign saying its meat is halal. A good sign in my book, halal being the next best thing to kosher. I ordered a skewer of salmon, and it came with salad, a boiled egg, a pita-like bread and rice. Much better than most mall food. The nice young man working there made me an Earl Grey iced tea from a tea bag.

I checked out the Macy's in the mall (there is also one across the river in the mall in Cumberland County). It looked threadbare compared to most Macy's, and I got the impression no one was working there. There's a store called 2nd and Charles, selling records, CDs, movies and games, all used. I found a copy of the movie "A Home At The End Of The World," which I had been looking for. It was five dollars, and the cashier warned me that it was scratched and it might not play, but that I could return it within two weeks. I watched it a week later, and it was fine.

Meanwhile, it was late- after one. I decided to check out the three synagogues at the north end of the city, then hit Midtown Scholar, an independent bookstore, and take a glance at the Pennsylvania state capitol building. It was way too sunny out for February in Pennsylvania and warm. There were plants starting to spring up. I parked the car, and walked from the Orthodox synagogue, a few blocks off the Susquehanna River, back to Front Street, where the Conservative and Reform synagogues are located. They are all quite large, with added wings for classrooms. There are mansions along the river, many of them schools or other institutions. The streets back are row houses like one might find in Baltimore. Many of the people I saw out were African-American. It felt home-like to me.

Midtown Scholar is in a space that may have been a movie theater, that was next to a bookstore. The whole site is a bookstore. I had a list from The New York Times of the best books of 2019, and I looked for one that Morgantown's library didn't have. They also have a coffee bar in the bookstore, and the kind young lady serving coffee found me a copy of Lost Children Archive, by Valeria Luiselli. The Times listed it as one of the ten best of last year. I'm about one-third of the way through. It's about a family's road trip from New York City to the American Southwest. They are an unusual family. Go read it.

Across the street from the bookstore is an old-time market, open  only Thursday to Saturday. I was there on Presidents' Day Monday, so it was closed. There is also an art house movie theater in the neighborhood. People in the motel told me midtown is the up-and-coming hipster neighborhood. I could see that.

The State Capitol Building sits on a rise above the Susquehanna. It's impressive. I just stopped for a minute to take a picture. It was after four and I badly needed a nap, so I headed back to the motel.

I woke up exhausted and not ready to go out and look for a restaurant. My go-to place when I just want to eat something is Panera. There are several in Dauphin County, but none in the city of Harrisburg. I drove five miles into one of the townships to a treeless, soulless shopping center with a supermarket and a liquor store. There was an Italian buffet restaurant next to Panera, and I might have gone there, but it was closed for the Monday holiday. I ate soup and a sandwich, drove back to the motel, caught up on social media, and went to sleep.

I left early Tuesday, stopping for lunch at The Creamery, just off I-68 in Cumberland, Maryland. I had driven to Harrisburg via I-81 from Hagerstown. Going home, I drove the Pennsylvania Turnpike, prettier, and paid eleven dollars and change in tolls, to Bedford, then south on U.S. 219 to Cumberland. I had time for a nap before Morgantown's City Council meeting that evening.

Dauphin County is one of the most populous of the counties I've visited, and Harrisburg is a "real" city, with neighborhoods, a large Jewish and African-American population, an independent bookstore and movie theater. I skipped a lot of the suburbs, and missed the Appalachian Trail, which runs on a mountain north of Harrisburg. Still, with the good weather, I got to be outside and see quite a bit. The week I got back someone asked me where I had been that I had such a good tan. The person was surprised when I said "Pennsylvania."

Dauphin County Courthouse, Harrisburg, completed 1942

Railroad bridge over the SusquehannaRiver connecting Dauphin and Cumberland counties.

Simon Cameron House and Bank, Middletown, 1832-33

Joseph Raymond House, Middletown, 1891

Charles Raymond House, Middletown, 1889

Across the railroad tracks in Middletown

Swatara Ferry House, Middletown, about 1820

B'nai Jacob Synagogue, still in use, Middletown, 1906

Residential street in Middletown

St. Peter's Kierch, Middletown, completed 1769

Penn State Harrisburg Campus, near Middletown

street in uptown Harrisburg. I liked the armored knight in the yard

Kesher Israel Orthodox synagogue, Harrisburg

Beth El Congregation, conservative, Harrisburg

Blue Zone fitness station in the park along the Susquehanna River, Harrisburg

Temple Ohev Shalom, Reform, Harrisburg

Flowers blooming in February

Broad Street Stone Market, Midtown Harrisburg, 1863

Broad Street Brick Market, midtown Harrisburg, 1874-78

Midtown Scholar Bookstore, Broad Street, Harrisburg. The first two buildings left of the corner are the bookstore, next to that is the LGBT Community Center.

Pennsylvania State Capitol, 1902-1906

Stallions, a gay bar, conveniently close to the Capitol Building.