An overflow crowd packed into a meeting about the Broad Street Market on Thursday night at the Historic Harrisburg Association Resource Center.
Vendor Tito Tep told a town hall on restoration of the fire-damaged Broad Street Market that his fellow vendors are ready to “march through this and hang in there.”
“We definitely want the historical specs – the windows, the doors, etc., etc. – but we also want to modernize the facility,” he said. “I’ve been there for a long time, and it’s hot. It’s 110 degrees cooking in there in the summer. In the wintertime, sometimes it’s 45 degrees and the vendors are working in there, trying to serve the community.”
Plans for restoring the Broad Street Market’s brick building, half of it destroyed by fire on July 10, 2023, remain top priority for the city agenda and for upgrades to the overall market space, city officials said at Thursday night’s meeting.
In the standing-room-only audience of about 90 people, vendors, residents and Midtown businesspeople said they want more input into those plans for vendor space, dining areas, historic windows, and the proposed enclosure bridging the brick and stone buildings. The meeting was held at the Historic Harrisburg Association Resource Center, across the street from the market.
Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams addressed residents at the meeting.
City officials constantly stressed that plans are in their early stages. Promising to “making it happen,” Mayor Wanda Williams said she was committed to transparency and was there to listen to the community.
“My administration is fully committed to see the brick building restored and thriving once again,” she said. “That is our first and foremost priority. We are not moving forward with any other plans until we ensure that the heart of this market is rebuilt stronger and safer than ever.”
Delays in launching reconstruction were caused, in part, by the city insurer’s extended investigation of the fire’s cause, which kept the city from taking control of the building until December 2023, said Harrisburg Fire Chief Brian Enterline. Endemic procurement delays and silence to the initial call for contractors’ bids exacerbated the problem, he said.
Plans for the restored brick building from York-based Murphy & Diffenhafer Architects suggested dining areas shifted to the east side and a new mezzanine for patron seating on the west. Modular stalls could be adapted to accommodate the comings and goings of large, medium, and small vendors, said architect Rebecca McCormick.
Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, safety, security and fire suppression systems will be updated. The aging and fire-damaged mortar is being analyzed to determine best treatments to “preserve the longevity of the building,” McCormick said.
The exterior “will be preserved to look like the historic building,” McCormick said.
Replacement windows and doors will retain their historic appearance but be modernized for energy efficiency, although the building’s distinctive clerestory windows could not be replicated faithfully because “it is nearly impossible to get a fully divided light, like you had historically, on an insulated window, so there’ll be, probably, a simulated divided light,” she said.
An audience member pushed back against cutting corners on historical accuracy.
“It’s not that it doesn’t exist,” she said. “It’s just that it costs more.”
Some in the crowd also disputed the need for the proposed central pavilion to enclose and shade the market’s courtyard, suggesting trees or a pergola.
Harrisburg Facilities Director David Baker noted that an enclosure could provide more than space for additional vendors.
“We’d be remiss not to look at this as an opportunity for community space,” said Baker, offering ideas for rentals, family gatherings or weddings that could benefit vendors providing catering. Such rental options, he added, would be determined by the Broad Street Market Alliance board.
“There is so much opportunity that we could utilize a middle space like this for, because we don’t have a particular building set in stone,” he said. “We don’t have a particular look set in stone. It’s a placeholder for possibility.”
Attendees asked for improved communications and public avenues for input.
“How will community input be taken in, and how will we know about what’s going on with the market plan?” asked nearby resident Paul Gellerman.
Another attendee noted that stakeholders learn about developments from news stories.
“We’re made aware of things that are happening but aren’t necessarily given time to give feedback or have that conversation,” she said.
Baker repeated that vendors could take their thoughts and concerns to Tep, who would be a liaison to city officials. Tep, well-received by the crowd, said that vendors have been in touch with Baker and have seen the architect’s plans. He called the prospects for revitalization “exciting.”
Baker said that a 13-member committee meets regularly, not in public, to discuss market progress. After the meeting, Williams told reporters that she welcomes public involvement.
“I wish they would have had input sooner, really,” she said. “I wish they would have come to me and had input. I’ve always stated that I would be available to anyone who had concerns about any issues within the city of Harrisburg.”
Williams said that she doesn’t want “committee on top of committee of committee on top of committee telling us what we need to do, how to do it, when to do it.”
“I’m the CEO of the city of Harrisburg, and we don’t need 36 voices telling us what we need to do,” she said. “We just need to comprise it of 13 people. Now, if you want to add two or three people from the meeting tonight, I have no problem with that, but no one has stood up to say they were interested in being on that committee. If you have the names, please give them to me, and I don’t have any problem putting them on that committee.”
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