Dick Norford has led hundreds of bicyclists on Greenbelt rides, and newbies always have the same reaction when the trail crosses into the lush grounds of the former Harrisburg State Hospital.
“They’re absolutely in awe that there’s that much green space right in the middle of the city, right next to one of the busiest roads in the city, with Cameron Street and that huge parking lot for the Farm Show building, and how close it is to Interstate 81, and yet here’s these hundreds of acres of green just sitting there,” says Norford, a spokesperson for the Capital Area Greenbelt Association and president of Bicycle South Central PA.
The verdant slopes and tall trees of the former State Hospital grounds are open to the public but largely unknown. Now, the state is preparing to sell several hundred acres of the largely undeveloped grounds, and the pending sale raises questions.
Is the State Hospital’s emergence into the light of day a blessing or a curse? Is it time for a hidden gem to take on a larger role as community asset? Will the sylvan setting be lost to developers hungry for rare urban acreage off an interstate highway? Can a local coalition help balance the preservation of natural and historic assets with the site’s economic development potential?
Tremendous Space
The Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital was founded in 1845, after reformer Dorothea Dix crusaded for humane treatment for the mentally ill. Her self-sustaining city offered peaceful, rolling hills, secluded from the capital city that would grow up near its boundaries. Even as government peeled off pieces of the 1,000-acre grounds for agency offices and the Farm Show complex, the State Hospital’s original core remained largely untouched.
Today, employees from the state Department of Public Welfare, Pennsylvania State Police and Department of General Services work in the old buildings, in what’s known as the DGS Annex, but they’re slated to exit for new digs at Strawberry Square’s Verizon Tower in 2016.
Before the land can go up for sale, possibly not until mid- to late-2016, DGS must develop a plan for legislative approval, recommending how to parcel it off.
“We’re at the very beginning of this process, and a lot of things have to take place before any sale could happen,” says DGS spokesperson Troy Thompson.
The targeted area includes part of the Capital Area Greenbelt. It also includes about 30 buildings from the original asylum and 183 acres in a surrounding arboretum that won National Register Historic District designation in 1986.
As news of the pending sale began to spread in early 2014, a Committee for the Future of Harrisburg State Hospital emerged to promote a balance of historic and environmental preservation with economic development.
The site’s original obscurity was, by design, to create “a refuge and an enclave” for the mentally ill, says David Morrison, interim executive director of Historic Harrisburg Association, a CFHSH leader. Maybe, adds Harrisburg historian and coalition member Jeb Stuart, a certain mystery has kept the site “not on the public radar. It’s a tremendous space, but it’s never been marketed, never been promoted.”
The site’s obscurity also explains why the Capital Area Greenbelt winds through it today, says Norford. Completion of the original Greenbelt, begun in the early 20th century, stalled before it could circle the city, he says. By the 1990s, the reborn Capital Area Greenbelt Association, striving to close the loop, sought out lands that had escaped the march of post-war development. The pristine State Hospital grounds helped close a gap from Reservoir Park to Wildwood Park.
“I don’t know if it’s been preserved or ignored or sacred ground,” Norford says. “At the end of the day, it was preserved.”
But even Norford, a self-described “student of the Civil War,” hadn’t known of the site’s pre-Civil War origins or its role as a kitchen for Union soldiers training at nearby Camp Curtin until he got involved in CFHSH.
A 60-foot easement protects the Greenbelt from development. On the buildings and grounds with National Register designation, private owners would face restrictions only if they sought public funding or federal or state permits. But large tracts remain available outside the green and historic sections, and the CFHSH hopes for a mindset that rises above restrictions and views development “through the lens of future opportunity,” says Morrison.
Perhaps “the stigma of being an off-limits institution” could be lifted by transferring recreation areas to Dauphin County or Susquehanna Township, where much of the land is situated, says Morrison. The CFHSH also hopes the state will declare the National Register portion eligible for federal historic rehabilitation tax credits.
“There are companies all over the country that look for these opportunities,” says Morrison. Pair up reuse of the historic portion with development of the non-historic areas, and “the net benefit to the region, to the community, to the municipalities, to the general public is enormous.”
“We’re not only not wringing our hands over the sale of this property, we’re saying it offers tremendous potential benefit,” says Morrison.
The sale offers “an exciting project from an aerial perspective,” says Chuck Heller, senior associate with Landmark Commercial Realty, based in East Pennsboro Township. “You have 600 acres there at the crossroads of 322 and 81 and quick access to downtown Harrisburg, the Farm Show complex.”
Many Uses
Other area developments, such as TecPort near the Harrisburg Mall and Rossmoyne in Upper Allen Township, have successfully converted open space into bustling commercial spots, with such uses as high-end office, research and development and warehousing, Heller says.
At the State Hospital grounds, “There’s going to be a lot of people pushing for large, big-box industrial,” Heller says. “That is a perfect location, but there’s enough for many uses.”
The site’s development potential far exceeds the vacant lots and buildings of nearby Cameron Street, Heller says. There, city taxes, flooding risks, low ceilings and brownfield remediation hinder reuse. The State Hospital grounds would probably require rezoning to allow development, but a lack of neighboring residents and many nearby assets—a large post office, Harrisburg Area Community College, Dauphin County’s Wildwood Park, PSECU, state offices—make it “a very interesting site.”
“It’s a good opportunity for the state to do something that’s forward-thinking to help the community,” Heller says.
CAGA doesn’t want to interfere with land sales, but “it would really be nice to save the historical and environmental and recreational value of the whole area,” Norford says. The sale could become a blessing or a curse, he believes, but, for now, the attention is elevating the site’s profile as a unique asset for all to enjoy.
“It’s very much a blessing that we can go just a short distance from any of our homes and enjoy that beautiful setting. We haven’t really used it. This is a facility that I don’t think we’ve ever exploited as a park setting, so maybe this whole effort will put this area into the focus of more people.”
