From 1682 until the late 1700s, Philadelphia had served as the commonwealth’s capital city. By 1799, the center of population had shifted and, after citing disease and the unfair influence of city and national politics, the legislature voted to move the seat of government to Lancaster.
State government first met in Lancaster in April of 1799. Because Pennsylvania contained 30-some counties, many of them to the west of the Susquehanna, almost immediately the debate began about when and where to again move the government seat.
In 1801, there were calls to move to the Susquehanna Valley, but the measure failed to get the necessary votes. In 1809, the citizens of Northumberland County sent a surprise petition to the Senate, asking that the capital be transferred there. This petition seemed to open a wide-ranging debate with Philadelphia, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Middletown all vying to be the new capital city.
By 1810, the House and Senate seemed to come to an agreement that the new and, hopefully, final capital should remain somewhere in the central portion of the state. Harrisburg was eventually selected, voted and agreed upon, but only after Northumberland, Lancaster, Bellefonte, Carlisle, Columbia, Reading and Sunbury had all been rejected. It may be that John Harris Jr.’s 1785 gift of four acres of land for the commonwealth’s use prompted the legislature to select Harrisburg. In any event, on Feb. 21, 1810, Gov. Simon Snyder signed the act moving the seat of government to Harrisburg, on or before October 1812.
As part of this 1810 act, Robert Harris, George Hoyer and George Zeigler were appointed as commissioners to supervise the removal of all state documents to Harrisburg and to find suitable lodging and accommodations for the legislature. The cost of the move was estimated at $2,000. The commissioners also hired master builder Stephen Hills to build two “fireproof” buildings on Harris’ tract and arranged with Dauphin County to use the courthouse, which Hills also renovated, for legislative sessions. The legislature would meet in the old court house from December 1812 until the completion of the Hills Capitol in 1822.
In 1816, the legislature, partly through the sale of Independence Hall to the city of Philadelphia, began funding the construction of a new Capitol building in Harrisburg. Hills began stockpiling materials on the site and, after winning the design competition of 1819, started building the structure.
Work progressed fairly rapidly for the size and scale of the project and was completed in less than two-and-a-half years. The Hills Capitol measured 180 feet along its front and was 80-feet deep. The front portico had 56-foot-high Ionic columns measuring 4 feet in diameter. The red-brick, Federal-style building was dedicated on Jan. 2, 1822 and served the commonwealth for 71 years before it was consumed by fire, creating the need for a new Capitol, which was completed in 1906.
Jason Wilson is an historian for the Capitol Preservation Committee.
