Visiting Harrisburg

Harrisburg is only a few hours away from where I live in Northern Virginia, but I’ve only made one real trip here. You can probably tell from the relatively few photos that this was very early in my travel days. As a matter of fact, this may have been the first local trip I ever took specifically to explore and photograph a destination for myself. One of my goals at the time was to visit every state capitol, which is what originally brought me to Harrisburg. Above is Pennsylvania’s impressive State Capitol building, which dominates this part of downtown.

For a relatively small state capital, Harrisburg felt like a much bigger city than I had expected. Downtown has a mixture of government buildings, older architecture, restaurants, museums, and residential neighborhoods, while the Susquehanna River runs directly along the western edge of the city center. The riverfront is one of the nicest areas to explore on foot, with parks and walking paths overlooking the water. There are even several islands in the middle of the Susquehanna, including City Island just across from downtown.

I didn’t have any particular destination in mind for much of my visit, so I spent some time simply walking around and photographing the city. Harrisburg has a population of around 50,000 within the city itself, so despite being Pennsylvania’s capital it never felt particularly crowded. There are plenty of older buildings and tree-lined residential streets surrounding the government district, giving parts of Harrisburg a much quieter atmosphere than I expected from a state capital.

Harrisburg’s residential neighborhoods also have plenty of historic architecture. Houses like the one above are mixed throughout the streets surrounding downtown, and walking through these neighborhoods gives you a different view of the city than staying around the Capitol Complex. For such an old city, Harrisburg has retained quite a bit of its historic character.

My favorite view of Harrisburg was right in the heart of the city. This was only about a block from the Capitol, but from here you can see some of the smaller downtown buildings along with the towers of St. Patrick Cathedral rising above them. Scenes like this were what I enjoyed most about walking around Harrisburg, where the monumental government buildings are surrounded by churches, historic homes, and much smaller city streets.

St. Patrick Cathedral was one of the highlights of my visit. The current cathedral was completed in 1907, and by coincidence I visited in 2007 while it was celebrating its 100th anniversary. The interior was much more elaborate than I expected, with a large dome, stained glass, decorative columns, and artwork throughout the church. Considering how little time I spent in Harrisburg on this early trip, the cathedral and State Capitol gave me at least a glimpse of the history and architecture the city has to offer.

Looking back, this is definitely one of those places I could revisit now and experience very differently. My original trip was mostly about seeing the State Capitol and walking around downtown, while today I’d spend more time along the Susquehanna River, visit some of the museums, explore City Island, and photograph more of Harrisburg’s historic neighborhoods. For a capital that doesn’t receive nearly as much attention as Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, there’s quite a bit packed into this small Pennsylvania city.