Exhibit Description

The Eighth Ward was a neighborhood in Harrisburg Pennsylvania that was demolished to make room for the Capitol Park Expansion in the 1910s. Politicians and others in Harrisburg believed the Ward subtracted from the beauty of the nearby Capitol building. For several years the expansion had been called for, and there had been previous attempts to expand but a bill was not passed until 1911. The destruction of the Eighth Ward was a complex and widespread undertaking. The neighborhood's residents were forced to leave to make room for the expansion. The documents show many properties had to be bought, which cost the state millions of dollars. But how did the process actually happen? We can see through the records that the State bought these properties a few at a time over several years. Some of them sold their properties, others fought for their right to stay but were eventually defeated in court or settled.  In the end, this neighborhood was demolished and the Capitol was expanded, which we can trace using records from the time. The minute meetings and newspaper articles show many examples of properties being bought and sold by the State, and how the rest of the process played out.