Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-01-07
Ehrning Ghat

Tearing up of the tracks of the
trolley line in Meadow lane, which
was noted in the columns of the Tele-
graph last night, may not seem much
10 tho average Harrisburger. but it Is
| really the passing of one of the very
Oldest, perhaps the oldest, thorough
1ares in Pennsylvania's capital city
This ancient highway is to give way
TO the march of railroad improve
ments necessitated by our increasing
freight traffic and before long 1t will
be ob1iterated and cars will roll and
shffterse hump over tracks where
| homes formerly stood and where the
| business of the city used to ebb and
How at rate that would probably
| surprise the man who is not familiar
| with Old Harrisburg. or down town."
| as the section below Mulberry street
| used to be known in contradistinction
! to Sheesleystown. Meadow lane has
furnished many an episode for Har-
! risburg and the houses which lined
| Its sides made the homes for a num-
Der of people that would rather amaze
the man who has known 1t only in It's
| forlorn condition of the last decade.
While once in while there might
have been complaints that some few
| of Its folks were always not law
abiding, yet in the vast majority the
lane was tenanted by substantial,
hard-working people whose sons and
daughters fill responsible places in
Harrisburg to-day and who will recall
many happy days spent in that por-
ton of the city.
Meadow lane was originally an In
dian trail that led to the ford which
made Harris Ferry and which con-
tinued on out to what is now PEN
brook and beyond. The man seeking
history from highways and byways
| has but to look at an old map and find
the lane starting at the junction of
Front, Paxton and Vine streets, the
eastern landing place of the ferry, the
space in front of the old Black Horse
tavern. and then to trace the roadway
on over the line of the Pennsylvania
railroad to what was later Chestnut
and other streets and find that it runs
into the Jamestown road, which still
reaches down from the bluff just north
of Market street to meet Cameron
street. Old Jamestown road is now
merged in city streets except for the
little portion that spraWls over the
hillside, but beyond the city limits it
runs on out to the ancient Lebanon
county town which gives it it's. more
than century old name. Meadow lane
once had an official extension in the
shape of Canal street, which, like the
lane, has been all but wiped out by
the encroachments of business and
survives only on few signs on the
sides of the Hickok works and on old
maps or perhaps as a city right of
way jealously guarded. Back in the
days when Harrisburg was a trading
post the "station" of John Harris, the
point where Conrad Weiser used to
come to talk over the frontier sit
uation" in and about what is now our
city, Harris found the Indians using
the line of the lane. They used it to
come to trade, to cross the river and
at times on errands of grim character.
When the town was laid out Meadow
lane was preserved because it was
there and in use and the old maps
show it cutting diagonaily across Har-
risburg, just like Broadway cuts across
Manhattan. Meadow lane was used
extensively in old times and even fifty
years ago was a thoroughfare that
was we'll known for traffic.
What made Meadow lane and which
is proving it's undoing was traffic. cit
started with trade and it will end with
trade. The Pennsylvania Railroad
people with considerable foresight
placed their freight warehouses along
its eastern side. Before that there
were iron works and lumber yards
and various other enterprises lining
the thoroughfare. Tradition even has
1t that the first iron manufacturing
Grated by one Henry Fulton, was
located along the lane back about
1885. This establishment, which was
small affair, and probably run by a
man and boy, is given by James M.
Swank in his notable historical work,
Iron and Steel in All Ages" as the
beginning of the State Capitals promi-
nence in the basic industry of civil
ization. Fulton made nails and shoes
for the horses of the traders. There
were lots of other enterprises along
Meadow lane from time to time, iron,
wooden, warehousing, broom, smith
les, stables, coachshops, vinuous, spir-
1tuous and malt, grocery, coal and
other establishments. which have
passed away and which would not be
remembered by many even if they
were set down here.
The PENNSYLVANIA erected it's big
freight station and it was at the sid
ings and platforms of this plant that
the freight business of the city was
handled. Then the trolley came along
In the shape of part of the Citizens
| lines devious route to South Harris
burg, Allison. HILL East End, Steelton
and Oberlin. 1t passed down the lane
and into Washington avenue, as it
| used to be called long before Councils
| changed the appellation of the mar
rover thoroughfare to that high
| sounding name. Meadow lane never
got paved, although it was provided
for. The railroad marked 1t for its
own a score of years ago, just like the
| State marked out the Capitol Park ex-
tension, and while 1t has been a long
time getting it, Meadow lane is doomed
| to pass. But it will live in a good
many memories, not the least in those
| of flremen who used to load hose car
| riages and engines at its wharves
when summoned to fires in other
places which generally called for heir
| about 1.30 a. m. and by the boys, now
among the prominent men of Harris
burg, who used to gather around those
freight cars that brought the water.
melons from the South, the melons in
whose luscious contents you could
Ftaste the sunshine of Dixie land.
/ DOSE NAUGHTY COPS