Temporary structure for market vendors.
David Morrison recently asked an engineer about the chances of preserving all the fire-scarred walls of the Broad Street Market’s brick building. The engineer responded with a question and answer of his own.
What is brick used for? Fireplaces, actually.
“There’s really no substitute for 150-year-old material that basically has been very well preserved,” said Morrison, executive director of Historic Harrisburg Association.
ICYMI, Broad Street Market’s brick building suffered severe damage in a July 10 fire. While city and market officials have been working to house displaced vendors in a temporary market building, they are also looking ahead.
There will be codes, historic considerations and the desires of vendors and shoppers to navigate, but hopes remain that, in about two years, the brick building will be restored and open for business.
How to Rebuild
A building that represents “one of the last vestiges of the old school where you can see your neighbor and chat”—that’s City Business Administrator Daniel Hartman speaking—has had its guts ripped out. How does a rebuild recapture that old feeling?
“It’s pretty much going to have to be returned to the way it was, but modernized,” said Hartman. “When you think ‘modernized,’ think of the things that didn’t exist in the 1870s but that exist now, like the Americans with Disabilities Act and fire sprinklers and other safety improvements.”
Here, a reminder that the physical Broad Street Market is owned by the city of Harrisburg. That makes reconstruction the city’s responsibility. The market’s board of directors, like a condo board, oversees business matters inside and outside the market’s two buildings, the shuttered brick building and the undamaged, operating stone building.
“If you pick the building up, turn it upside down, and see everything that falls out—that’s not what we are overseeing,” said City Director of Housing and Economic Development Dennise Hill, a former market manager. “We are making sure that the messaging has to be clear that we’re all working together, but everybody is a subject-matter expert on one thing or another, and really giving everyone the lane and the license to do what they have to do.”
The market’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places, since 1974, places few restrictions on rebuilding and doesn’t preclude interior modernizations. The state Historic Preservation Office has offered to help the city’s planning department, said Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission spokesperson Howard Pollman.
“The market’s National Register status doesn’t mean that the owners are required to work with our office on rebuilding the section damaged by the fire, but we are available to offer advice and assistance to the city and the market’s board about preservation issues related to the destroyed and surviving sections of the market,” he said.
Contractors will be procured through competitive bidding, but historic status means that some contractors will need certifications and specific skill sets “because we can’t just put up a regular flat roof with a rubber finish on it and say we’re done,” said Hartman. “It’s got to be true to form.”
Local building trade unions “are committed to do this and do this right,” he added.
Today’s building materials can deliver modern advantages without sacrificing the historic look, Morrison said. He sees an opportunity to swap some of the “old, rickety windows” with energy-efficient but historically sensitive replacements. The roof, with its distinctive clerestory, could be rebuilt “using historically appropriate new materials and maintain the silhouette.”
“That silhouette is so iconic that it’s part of the Broad Street Market’s logo,” Morrison said. “The roof, the ceiling, the beams, the lighting system, the air handling system—all of that isn’t a question of historic preservation. That’s a question of the best possible reconstruction.”
In the rebuild, architects and engineers will rethink how utilities are run and how ADA access is assured, but in a way that respects the past.
“We can’t build a beer garden on the roof,” Hartman said.
Historic Cooperation
Market leaders expect to continue their partnership with the city along two tracks—operating the temporary market and rebuilding the fire-damaged one, said Executive Director Tanis Monroy.
“The city has said they want our input, especially when it comes to vendor relations and their needs, like the layout and equipment,” he said. “The vendors are looking forward to improvements and upgrades of the building, but they want to see the historic nature stay.”
The temporary structure will include co-op food prep and refrigeration spaces, “with the trust that you won’t take my cheese, and I won’t take your meat,” Monroy said. If they succeed, the rebuilt building could replicate such collaborative efficiencies for cooking, refrigerating and storage. The fire, he noted, offered “a great start for a lot of new relationships and strengthening old ones at the same time.”
The market fire shook up more than vendors and their customers. Harrisburg firefighters are accustomed to putting out blazes, dealing with the immediate needs of the victims, and moving on, said Harrisburg Fire Chief Brian Enterline. Now, he said, “we’re part of the rest of the story.”
“It has been an eye-opener, working directly with the insurance companies and those that are insured,” he said.
The department is considering developing a customer-service approach to help residents post-fire, especially the uninsured or underinsured, and to educate business owners about the importance of adequate fire coverage.
“We really need to look at this holistically and how we can make better use of resources, personnel-wise, to maybe help people navigate some of these issues,” he said.
The building is adequately insured and included in a policy that covers all city buildings, Hartman said, although as of press time, a payment figure wasn’t ready. Whatever the amount, a fundraiser such as a capital campaign is probably ahead because, in part, the market’s stone building needs the same love that the brick building is likely to receive, such as HVAC upgrades.
As for that greatly-to-be-desired air conditioning, it’s wrapped up in a key distinction. The city’s insurance plan covers reconstruction of what was there, plus upgrades needed to bring damaged buildings up to code. Under those considerations, insurance will cover a sprinkler system and full ADA accessibility in the brick building.
But HVAC is not a code requirement. It’s part of what city officials call the “above and beyond,” so funding would have to come from capital campaigns, grants and other non-insurance sources.
The brick building comprises conjoined structures built in 1874 and 1878. On July 10, the wall separating them served as a firebreak. In the rear, destruction was profound from flames and 180,000 gallons of water. In contrast, in the front, menus can still be read on the walls.
The lesser-damaged side could be open for business earlier than the full building, “depending on how the construction team does it,” Hartman said.
To Hill, with her economic development duties, rebuilding focuses on the business owners trying to sustain their livelihoods and the community that depends on them.
“A lot of people don’t have regular access to supermarkets,” she said. “This might be their only place they can regularly go to be able to get a head of lettuce or tomatoes or fresh fruit or meat.”
Hill recalled her time as market manager, when vendors kept an eye on her young daughter, who thought she was a vendor herself.
“The market is ingrained in your family, from vendors to staff to the board and everybody who goes there,” she said.
Based on more than 100 years of success stories coming from the market, the city is confident of future success, said Hartman.
“It’s going to be back, and it’s going to be better than ever,” he said. “It’s going to be something that will surprise people with how modernized it’s going to be, but it’s also going to let them feel like an old friend is back in town.”
This is the second part of our two-part feature on the Broad Street Market fire and its aftermath. See our September issue for part one, which focused on the market’s vendors.
For more information on the Broad Street Market and to donate, visit www.broadstreetmarket.org.
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