TBW Daily Diary

Was sorry to hear that plans for a luxury hotel at the corner of Third and State have been terminated. And a proposed high-rise hotel for Second and State also seems iffy at the moment . . . When I came here from Johnstown in 1962 Harrisburg was known as “Convention City” and hosted dozens of statewide conventions. We had many hotels of varying quality all grouped closely together . . . First and foremost was the Penn-Harris at Third and Walnut (featured prominently in the Mae West movie Go West, Young Man) where Strawberry Square stands today. The Penn-Harris had the Esquire Bar, a little French bistro overlooking the lobby (the Rue de la Paix I think it was called), the Commonwealth Room for formal dinners and banquets, the basement Pennsylvania Grille for breakfast coffee and fast lunches, and the Harris Ferry Tavern, a treasure trove of Harrisburg memorabilia. Its demolition went terribly astray, and the dynamite sent it tumbling into a line of Third Street shops that had to be torn down . . . across the street (now the Fulton Building) was the Harrisburger Hotel with its Pickwick Club for lunches and the basement Tack Room that served the best steaks in town (though the flames were so high in the open grill pit that one feared the building might go up at any minute) . . . the Governor stood at Fourth and Market and had a wonderful restaurant for lunch and dinner . . . the Senate was on the Square facing Market and featured a bar frequented by politicos (Durbin’s, I think, but I’m not sure) . . . Lesser accommodations could be had at the William Penn on Market about where Rite-Aid is today, the Plaza next to the train station which burned (the hotel, not the train station!), and the Warner on Market Square where Charles Dickens stayed during his tour of America. The last served wonderful corned beef sandwiches for lunch and the bar entertained a mostly-gay clientele in the evenings. It also provided space for the Arena House theater, our own professional "New York" playhouse. The Warner deteriorated badly in its last days, a haven for drug users and ladies-by-the-hour it was rumored . . . Zimmerman’s Holiday Inn at Second and Chestnut joined this group later and waged a war with the franchise company before becoming Holiday Inn Town (now the Crowne Plaza). It was noted for its portholes in the bar that looked into the swimming pool and for a rooftop revolving restaurant which was never open when I was there and I doubt that it ever revolved (though that would have been a nice sales pitch, I would imagine) . . . Gone are the glory days when a thousand or more visitors flooded the city for a few days, crowding restaurants and shopping up a storm at Pomeroy’s, Bowman’s and Mary Sachs’ . . . (Tried to find you a picture of the Penn Harris on the ‘net but was rebuffed—all those that I found were copyrighted by some brilliant entrepreneur . . .