Soon, a trail for bicyclists and hikers that was first imagined over a century ago and revived decades later might be transformed.
The Pittsburgh City Council gave its approval last month to move a homeless veteran housing project off South Front Street next to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation headquarters into the construction stage. When the Tunnels to Towers Veterans Village is finished next year, it is anticipated that it would shelter up to 84 veterans.
A portion of the Capital Area Greenbelt must be permanently redirected as part of the project. When work on another housing project for homeless veterans on South Front Street started last year, it was temporarily moved up Sycamore Street and down Cameron Street.
This map shows the existing state of Harrisburg’s south end of the Capital Area Greenbelt along with the plans for three homeless housing developments that are supposed to be built there. Four plots are represented by the pink outline. The greenbelt’s existing route through the land is shown by the black dashed line. The intended buildings’ footprints are represented by the green outlines. The red line, which represents one potential reroute for the greenbelt that was discussed at recent Harrisburg City Council sessions, was added to this graphic by PennLive.The Capital Area Greenbelt Association provided the image.
In order to assist pay for the permanent rerouting, the council also approved applying for a $1 million state grant. No new path has been chosen.
The 20-mile greenbelt trail winds through and surrounding Susquehanna Township, Swatara Township, Harrisburg, Paxtang, and Penbrook. Here is the history of this capital region institution.
In Harrisburg, Riverfront Park and Front Street are depicted circa 1913, during the height of the City Beautiful movement.The PennLive file
Ring around the city
The concept of encircling the city with a greenbelt of parks dates back to the turn of the century. Harrisburg became a modern city in the early 1900s because to a civic renovation initiative called the City Beautiful movement.
Along with design, paving, and sanitation, the parks in Harisburg were among the most important features of this change.
Warren H. Manning, a landscape architect from Boston, was hired by Harrisburg officials to suggest enhancements for the city’s parks. Manning, taught by Frederick Law Olmsted, a pioneer in American landscape architecture, published a report in November 1901.
He suggested establishing a boulevard around the city that would connect the big parks, enlarging Reservoir Park, converting Wetzel’s Swamp into a landscape park, and converting the riverside into a single park.
This final suggestion—which would eventually become the greenbelt—was impacted by Olmsted’s research in Buffalo, New York, and Boston.
Harrisburg voters chose Vance McCormick, proprietor of The Patriot and a supporter of City Beautiful, as mayor in 1902 after approving a $1.09 million bond issue to fund City Beautiful upgrades.
Ideas for City Beautiful could start to be implemented.
The Harrisburg Park Commission was established that year as well, and it hired the landscape architect as a consultant to start carrying out Manning’s plan.
According to historian William H. Wilson, the park’s size increased from 46 in 1902 to 958 in 1915.
Wilson and newspaper stories of the time list the following as some of the modifications made to the city park system during this time:
In 1919, The Patriot stated that a true Harrisburger would never get weary of the park system. From nearly nothing to vast stretches of lovely parklands, sprinkled with flowers, streams, woodland, bridges, monuments, drives, lakes, playgrounds, fountains, a golf course, and the entire area surrounded by a gorgeous roadway, he has witnessed its growth.
In 1982, the city of Harrisburg closed the Paxtang Parkway to traffic due to erosion and a failing road.The PennLive file
Decline of City Beautiful
However, the greenbelt, or driveway, was not finished.
Wilson claims that the enthusiasm for the City Beautiful waned with time.
Following World War II, the Great Depression, and the postwar suburban upsurge, Harrisburg had additional concerns and less money for upkeep.
City parks were neglected. A portion of Wildwood was a dump by the middle of the century. Other parks were also littered.
The Patriot stated in 1962 that the Cameron Parkway is gradually being used as a landfill.
Nevertheless, Manning’s idea of a parkway surrounding the city persisted over the years.
Manning’s route was mostly followed by the 14-mile Harrisburg Bikeway, which was created in 1974 at a period when environmental awareness was rising both locally and nationally.
The crumbling Paxtang Parkway was closed to traffic by the Harrisburg parks director in April 1982, and The Patriot-News recognized an opportunity that would have appealed to City Beautiful sensibilities.
In an editorial, The Patriot stated that Harrisburg officials would be better served focusing on repurposing the parkway as a bike or pedestrian path rather than worrying about finding the funds to reopen it to traffic.
It would require several years.
In 1991, Bob Diethorn, Janet Flynn, and Norman Lacasse excavated tree holes for the Capital Area Greenbelt at the intersection of state Route 441 and Cameron Parkway.The PennLive file
Resurrecting the greenbelt
The Paxtang Parkway was discovered in 1989 by Norman Lacasse and Ellen Roane of the state Bureau of Forestry when they were working on a street-tree inventory for the Paxtang borough.
According to a history on the website of the Capital Area Greenbelt Association, Lacasse and Roane were intrigued by what they had found and looked into it further. They intended for locals to use the land as part of a greenbelt for recreational purposes.
This led to the establishment of the Capital Area Greenbelt Association, a nonprofit organization, in 1990 and the endeavor to revive and expand on Manning’s concept of a park loop that circles the city.
In 2007, a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was dedicated on Swatara Township’s Capital Area Greenbelt.Joe McClure, Local Advance
CAGA has reclaimed, constructed, and maintained the greenbelt with the help of federal and state grants, a master plan, local and state governments, community organizations, and volunteers.
The trail is peppered with landmarks including the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, the Five Senses Garden, which features plants that appeal to all five senses, a pedestrian bridge beneath Interstate 83, and Dock Woods, which is named for City Beautiful leader Mira Lloyd Dock.
The Capital Area Greenbelt extension opened in July 2020 and is seen being ridden by a cyclist at Wildwood Park at Industrial and Linglestown roads. (PennLive, Dan Gleiter)
A 2-mile extension that connects Fort Hunter Park to the northern portion of the route at Wildwood Park was finished in recent years. Additionally, the city of Harrisburg and CAGA are now working together to enhance the Paxtang Parkway.
In the approximately 125 years from Manning’s inception, the greenbelt has experienced expansion, regeneration, rediscovery, apathy, and abandonment. At this point, the belt looping around Harrisburg requires some tweaking. One of the most recent challenges from a developing metropolis is rerouting the section in south Harrisburg.
Joe McClure works at The Patriot-News as a news editor. Follow him at @jmcclure5nine on Instagram. He has volunteered with the Greenbelt Association of the Capital Area.
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