SECOND SECTION.
PAGES 15 TO 28
LXXXIII— No. 51
HARRISBURG IN 1914-ITS PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES
WAI^T^P' ST WALNUT PROM RA^l^^D'
THE PICTURES AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE GIVE SOME IDEA OF *" r ' > X - ' **" ' 5 Tm3 RIVER DAM AND WALL PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE CENTER OF
THE SCOPE OF THE (CAPITOL PARK EXTENSION NOW IN PROGRESS. —J 1 ! £1 i , J M THE PAGE SHOW THE EXTENT OF THE IMPROVEMENT SCHEME
ALL OF THESE BUILDINGS AND SCORES OK OTHERS ARE TO BE g-jWK 1 * I M WM'c.l' W ILL (51V K 11 A HKISIUIRG A LAKE INSTEAD OF A RAPIDLY
RBMOVBD TO GIVE WAT TO IT. BLOWING RIVER AT ITS FRONT DOOR. AND STEPS LEADING DOWN,
Things Doing in !j 3BB||!r I Things Doing
HARRISBURG plans ill 1014 to take another long step forward in . -.L-'' • ■s*** it,,-/" L
the way of public; improvements ami in the niaJdng or a bigger, *,y&F 2 ; , t 1 , •,'\< | r-pHE V. W. C. A. building will be completed and the uiembembln
better Harrisburg In every sense of the word. BUSS? ~ju* *" t ~ . W J»alMr Jlmamß i I Increased to 1,000.
The city government vvlU expend SIOO,OOO for parks and play- MHu '' The railroads will build new frei It tati
The voters have approved loans for the purchase of $25,000 worth T - o&>* r a ~wu,llc track bridge across tlie Susquehanna river at Mulberry street^
mM&P'r WmaKKm "~ w—«,„
-JMSMm «.
The dam across the Susquelmunu at the lower end of the city will HHWW .*& » - J vicinity bj the ex|>enditiirc of about two million dollars and various
be completed. I 1 . ■*! 'other industries are talking of enlargements.
__...—_J NEW-PIVER- DAM «——» • NEIVRI VE.R. WALL AND-STEP3'-' •
* * —_______— >
Ti THR.E it not for the unsettled condition the entire country
is facing just now Hamsburg mould look forward to
] 9 T 4 as a year of unequaled business activity, extension
and prosperity. , f
As it is,- if the worst should come llarrisburg would find
itself with enough work on hand hr keep the wolf from the door.
rite indications all point to a slozv improvement in trade con
ditions. I hat being so, Harrisburg will not suffer much. In
deed this year should slww a distinct improvement in business
over last. Our salvation lies in the large amount of extension
and improvement work planned, much of which is destined to
<to forward 'whether or not trade is up to the mark.
In the first place the city has set aside SIOO,OOO for the ex- ■
tension and improvement of its municipal park system and play
grounds. It has voted to expend S IOO,OOO for sewers, $25,000
for bridges. $->5,000 for new fire apparatus, $25,000 far paving
repair and $ 25,000 for a public comfort station. ... »
Of course all of this money may not be expended during the
present year, but the bulk of it doubtless will. The park pur
chases will help to stimulate the real estate market and the con
structive work to follow will give employment to a very con-*
siderable number of men.
It is certain that the Dock street bridge will be rebuilt and
this will occupy a force of men all summer and well into the
Pall. Other bridges will be erected from the fund of $ 25,000
set aside for that purpose, the Dock street expense having been
made up from another source. There is talk of several new
bridges on Allison Hill and it is likely that a considerable amount
of the money will be spent there, although under the terms of
the loan it would be possible to get some of this money for much
needed structures across streams in the parks and along the park
way.
The public comfort station loan will be expended for a building
in Market Square, it is understood, although there has been much
talk of taking it elsewhere by th-ose who do not believe the
Square should be encumbered with a building of any kind. It
is the only open space the city has in the heart of town and
would leave us without a single plasa should it be made the
site of a public comfort station.
At all events the station will be a model of fine architecture and
will be made as ornamental as possible, and will contain resl>
rooms for men and women. ■ -
MANY NEW SEWERS.
I he sewers to be put down, under the loan'will no doubt be
given to the outlying sections of the city where they are badly
i XkM jiNi * * ■
f J r ' f *"' "
HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH
HARRISBURG, PA., SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 28, 1914.
needed. Most of the money zvill be expended as soon as pirns
can be completed and the ,contracts let. In this connection it
may be well to say that the Paxton creek improvements a>nd the
Spring Run sewer will be completed this coming summer. They
have been dragging along for more tlum a year, but under the
new system of management will be soon ready to turn over to
the city. There is work on them, however, for several months.
Another big improvement started last year and to be finished
in ipi fis the river wall. This wall is ir/ended to cover the in
tercepting sewer along the river front and render it free from
the danger of ice and flood. While they were about it those in
charge of the work deemed it proper to make the job ornamental
as well as useful, so it is taking the form of a series of concrete
steps which will extend from a concrete walk down to the water's
edge. At intervals there will be electric light standards and the
back ground will be a river bank terrace, tvhich will be planted
with shrubbery and parked. This will give Harrisburg a beau
tiful sunken walk along the waters edge from the lower end of
the city all the way to Seneca street.
The river dam at the lower end of tdzvn will be finished also
next summer and this will back water up as far us Maclay street
to a minimum depth of three feet, which it is calculated, zvill
cover all of the flats in the river in summer time and rid the city
of the pest of mosquitoes and the danger of malaria, as zvell as
keeping the current in constant motion along the eastern shore,
where an outlet to the dam is provided.
This dam zvill be of concrete and of most modern construc
tion. In times of high water it will not block the river, but zvill
be entirely out of sight, the water completely covering it so that
the current zvill not be disturbed in the least. This removes from
the lower end of the city the fear of flood that zvas so much in
mind when the dam project was at first discussed.
This river work combined zvill keep a force of three or four
hundred men busy a greater part of the summer, although the
state of the weather zvill enter considerably into the speed of the
contractors.
RAILROAD IMPROVEMENTS.
■
The railroads ai'e Harrisburg's chief stand-bys. When they
are doing little business, Harrisburg as a whole is suffering from
business depression. It is therefore gratifying to note that the
big freight station and yards the Pennsylvania pi-oposes to build
this year in the lower part of the city zvill move along no matter ,
how dull times may become. This nezv freight development has
been planned for many years but it is expected that there zvill
1 be no more delays. The contract is to be let within the next
The Accompanying Etchings Are From Photographs Showing the Great Public Im
provement Work Now Going Forward in Harrisburg. Left to Right, the First Two
Pictures Are of an Incompleted Set of Steps and Part of the River Wall From the
Lower End of the City to Seneca Street, and a Section of the Completed Steps and
Wall; the Third Is a View of the Construction Work on the Sanitary Dam Across
the Susquehanna River and the Fourth a Photograph of Paxton Creek, Which Is
Being Turned Into a Great Concrete Gutter ,
yS.IL
i thirty days. It zvill involve the demolition of a large number
of houses, to say nothing of the construction of two subzvays,
one at Mulberry and Second streets and the other at Front and
Mulberry streets. More detailed mention of this improvement
is made elsewhere. N
Account in detail is also given on another page of this issue
of the Cumberland Valley railroad's intention of double track
ing its line into tozvn by the rebuilding of the Mulberry street
bridge ozrer the river. This structure is nearly a mile in length
and the task of rebuilding will keep a big force of skilled zvork
men steadily employed all through the summer and possibly
longer.
Next to the building of the great Rockville bridge, the longest
four track structure in the zvhole world, the reconstruction of
the Cumberland Valley bridge zvill be the biggest piece of that
kind of improvement work ever attempted in Harrisburg. The
cost zvill range very close to the million dollar mark, it is esti
mated.
The Pennsylvania Railroad has also in mind the improvement
of the union station plaza, several yard changes and other work
but none of it of sufficient importance to mention in detail.
SOME OF THE NEW BUILDINGS.
Several buildings of more than ordinary sine zvill be completed
this year. The new Young Women's Christian Association build
ing at Fourth and Walnut streets zvill be finished and ready for
dedicaticm .next summer. This building zvill cost about $400,000
and zvill be one of the finest of its kind in the State. It was
built as the result of a wltirlzvind campaign and everybody in Har
risburg, from the highest to the lozvest, has had some share in it.
The building will have an outlook over the new capitol park ex
tension when that improvetnent becomes an accomplished fact.
It may be tioted here that another big building zvill have a similar
outlook from the other extremity of the park extension, the pro
posed new Scottish Rite Cathedral of the Masons, ground for
which has just been purchased and plans for which zvill be made
the coming summer. The outlook is for a fringe of noble struc-
routing on the proposed park along Walnut and Fourth
streets.
Perhaps it may not be amiss to say here that the Capitol Park
extension work will be carried on more rapidly than ever dur
ing T914 and that as soon as the weather opens sufficiently a
large number of old buildings purchased by the State will be de
molished and their cellars filled to street level. This will have
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1914 EDITION OF
THE TELEGRAPH
14 PAGES.