Harrisburg has long been the centre of the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Reading, Cumberland Valley and Northern Cen tral railroads. It also has in operation one of the most extensive electric street railway sys tems in the United States. The suburban rail way service, both trolley and steam, is excel lent, and has greatly aided in building up this outlying residential section of the city.
Harrisburg has had for years the reputation of being as Church-going Com munity.* There are within the limits of the city 83 churches and permanent church organiza tions. These are divided among 14 regular sec tarian organizations as follows: Presbyterian 11; Methodist Episcopal 11; Lutheran 12; Bap tist 8; Roman Catholic 6; Church of God 5; United Brethren in Christ 5; Protestant Epis copal 4; Reformed 4; Jewish 3; Zion Baptist 3; African Methodist Episcopal 3; United Evan gelical 2; Brethren in Christ. Christian and Mis sionary Alliance, Christian Science, Disciples of Christ, Seventh Day Adventists and Salvation Army, each 1. Harrisburg is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop.
Municipal the act of assembly, approved 27 June 1913, in gov erning cities of the third class in Pennsylvania, the form of the government was changed to the commission form. The legislative, execu tive and administrative powers are vested in the city council, composed of the mayor and four councilmen, elected at large on a non partisan ticket, the mayor for four years and the councilmen for two years, with no re striction as to re-election. All legislative pow ers are exercised by the city council, the mayor, by virtue of his office, being president. The ex ecutive and administrative powers and author ity are distributed into and among the following five departments: Department of public af fairs, department of accounts and finance, de partment of public safety, department of streets and public improvements, department of parks and public property.
The city council determines the powers and duties to be performed and assigns them to the appropriate department. The mayor is desig nated as the superintendent of the department of public affairs, and the council at its first reg ular meeting after its election designates by majority vote one councilman to be superin tendent of each of the remaining departments and has the power to change such designation whenever it appears that the public service would be benefited thereby. The councilman chosen as the superintendent of the department of accounts and finance becomes the vice-presi dent of the city council and acting mayor dur ing the_ absence or inability of the mayor to act, exercising all the rights and powers of the mayor. The council has the power of appoint ment and dismissal of all the employees and subordinate officers of the city, as well as the fixing of salaries and terms, except those fixed by the act of assembly and those appointments regulated by civil service. The following offi cers whose terms are fixed by law are elected by a majority vote of the council: City solici tor, city engineer, city treasurer, city clerk and city assessor. In addition to the above officers,
the council has the power to create any office, public board or department which they may deem necessary for the good government and interests of the city. The schools are governed by a board of control or directors who are elected by a vote of the citizens.
Banks and Finance.— Harrisburg has four national banks and a dozen other banking insti tutions, trust companies and building and loan associations. The assessed real estate (1918) is $62,000,000; the tax rate is constantly chang ing; the municipal income amounts to $875,000. The principal items of expense are: Fire de partment, $48,500; water department, $108,500; street lighting, $68,800; police department, $105, 700; highway department, $172,200.
Municipal Improvements.—As before stated, Harrisburg, through the progn- ireness :.nd enterprise of her citizens in the decade from 1902 to 1912, brought about results which won for her the sobriquet of °Model City?' These results are best shown by the following brief survey of the principal of her improve ments as they stand at present, and the most particularly striking of these are her parks, briefly described as follows: Total acreage of parks, about 1.000. Paxtang park, IS acres, an amuseme ; voir park, 88 acres, con tains the city reservoir, which gives a lake set ting to the park. The scent, view from the ele vations in this park is the best that can be had from any point; Capitol park, 16 acres, con tains the State capitol buildings, the equestrian statue of General and Governor John Frederick Hartranft, and the Mexican monument men tioned elsewhere; Harris park, 4 acres; river front from Paxton street to Mulberry street; Lincoln park, 2% acres, river front from Mul berry to Market streets; Promenade park, 334 acres, river front from Market to State streets; D. W. Gross park, 2 acres, river front from water house to Herr street. These four parks extend along the banks of the Susquehanna River for over a mile and are being farther ex tended at each end. Island park, 18 acres, site of filter plant, and public playground and ath letic grounds; 12th street playgrounds, 8 acres, devoted to the use of children; Wildwood park, 666 acres, with large lake, boating in summer and skating in winter; boulevard or parkway, 146 acres, along streams and through beauti ful ravines and meadows.
Paved Total amount of paving, 1 Jan. 1918, 76.93 miles; total length of mac adamized highways, 1 Jan. 1918, 9.06 miles; total length of earth and gravel highways, 1 Jan. 1918, 43.70 miles. It will be understood that this satisfactory result in the matter of street paving received its impetus from the movement in 1902. The city has more than 90 miles of sewers.
population of Harrisburg under the census of (1910) was 64,186. The present estimated population is 83,000.
Consult Morgan, 'Annals of Harrisburg,' revised by F. M. Black (1906).