Much as the City of Lancaster is the hub of Lancaster County, the Central Business District is the hub of the city. The area includes Penn Square, the center of Lancaster and the site of major buildings, at first governmental, and then commercial. See What's Here (and What's New)!

The Central Business District has been a center for county, state and national government in Lancaster County for more than two and a half centuries. From the 1730s to 1853, two different brick Courthouses stood in the center of Penn Square. In the first Courthouse, which burned in 1784, the Continental Congress met on September 27, 1777, making Lancaster the national capital for one day. Lancaster twice was Pennsylvania's capital: first in the winter of 1777-1778, and later from 1799 to 1812. The present Heritage Center, built as the County's Public Offices between 1795 and 1798, was rented for offices to the Commonwealth after 1799, when the Legislature sat in the second brick Courthouse. The county has occupied its present Courthouse at the northwest corner of East King and North Duke Streets since the main part of that building was erected in 1852.

Lancaster was incorporated as a city on 20 March 1818. At the time it was one of three cities in the state. Between 1854 and 1931, the present Heritage Center served as Lancaster's City Hall; since that time, city government has been centered in the former Post Office of 1891-1892 at 120 North Duke Street. In Pennsylvania, only Philadelphia and York share with Lancaster the distinction of having been county seat, state capital and national capital at different times.

Many businesses in Lancaster's Central Business District played roles in the community's economy. The marketing of farm products is a testimony to the economic and commercial relationship of the city to its rich surrounding farmland. For about 250 years, markets have been held near Penn Square. Central Market (1889) illustrates the continuing interaction of town and country.

The town's first newspapers were printed on the first block of West King Street. Today, Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. is headquartered in this same block. The Lancaster Press building, at the northeast corner of North Prince and West Lemon Streets, formerly housed a descendant of the old New Era Printing Company, which once functioned in the 1890-1891 building at 39-41 North Queen Street.

The earliest bank in Lancaster County - a branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania - was opened in 1803, one block from Penn Square. Today, the largest concentration of banks in Lancaster County is found in Lancaster's Central Business District.

A visible product of the roles of center city Lancaster in commerce and business was the increasing commercialization of this area in the half century following circa 1850. Indeed, by the 1870s, the mixed residential-commercial character which the area had possessed since the 1700s had largely disappeared. The streetscapes of this area were transformed into blocks of stores, mostly of brick, three stories in height, with occasional warehouses and rental properties. In general, the residential area of the city moved outward about the middle of the nineteenth century. Hence, the character of the Central Business District evidences a past centralization of the community's businesses, and a continuing change in patterns of residential development. Today, fewer than ten percent of the buildings in the Central Business District are single family dwellings.

Regional theatrical history possesses a unique monument in the Fulton Opera House in the first block of North Prince Street (see photo on page 29). This 1852 building is one of the oldest theaters in continuous operation in the United States. The late-nineteenth century Orange Street Opera House, a small second floor theatre, represents the city's only other surviving historic theatre. A number of motion picture theatres were also built within the city. Most of these fell victim to changing patterns in the entertainment industry or, as in the case of the city's theatre district along the 100 block of North Queen Street, to urban renewal.

The architecture of Lancaster's Central Business District is a veritable sampler of most of the styles encountered in Lancaster County in the circa 1760 to 1930 period. Key examples of the Georgian style include the Jasper Yeates House at the southwest corner of South Queen and West Mifflin Streets, the Sehner-Ellicott-von Hess House at 123 North Prince Street, and the Heritage Center, constructed circa 1795-1799. Notable examples of the Federal style include the Montgomery Mansion (1804) on the first block of South Queen Street, and the somewhat altered Hamilton-Reynolds House at 42-44 West King Street.

Commercial buildings and storefronts of the circa 1870 to 1930 period constitute the strongest legacy of Lancaster's Central Business District. Particularly noteworthy are the facades of the buildings on the south side of the first block of West King Street. These include such diverse features as the Queen Anne Style facade of the former Steinman Hardware Store and the bracketed storefront of the Royer Confectionery Building. Very important, but less well-known are the early 1870s storefront of the Miller and Hartman Building at the northeast corner of Market and West Chestnut Streets, the sole surviving cast iron storefront in the city, and the longest late Victorian storefront in Lancaster, located on the west side of the 300 block of North Queen Street.

The impact of French Renaissance/Beaux Arts style is well illustrated in the facades of the Watt and Shand Department Store (1891 and later) on Penn Square, the Hager Building (1910-1911) on West King Street, the Bausman Building (1906) on West Orange Street, and several other structures. The Queen Anne style Southern Market (1888) and the Romanesque Revival Style Central Market (1889), both in very intact condition, are major period pieces of architectural design.

The Central Business District also has a rather unexpected concentration of buildings in the Art Deco or Moderne Style, including the Lancaster Newspapers Building of 1926 - 1927 by M. R. Evans, and the late-1920s Shaub Shoe Store and the building at 28 West Orange Street, both designed by Henry Y. Shaub.

The development of modern architecture was heralded by the concrete and steel framework of the warehouse of the Herr Hardware Company (pre-1909) in the 200 block of North Water Street, and more fully manifested by Lancaster's first and only skyscraper, the 1924-1925 Griest Building.

Lancaster's Central Business District also can boast several buildings by architects of national reputation, such as the Montgomery Mansion (1804) by Stephen Hills, who later designed capitols in Harrisburg and Missouri, and the Fulton Opera House by Samuel Sloan of Philadelphia. This area also possesses the strongest concentration of commercial buildings designed by the noted Lancaster architect, C. Emlen Urban (1863-1939). Of at least fifteen buildings by Urban in the Central Business District, the earliest is the 1888 Southern Market, and the latest is the early-1930s remodeling of City Hall.

For descriptive purposes, the Central Business District has been divided into five sub-areas: Downtown, Uptown, St. Mary's, Shreiners and Strawberry Hill. Downtown is generally bounded to the north by Chestnut Street, to the east by Duke and Lime Streets, to the south by East Mifflin and West Vine Streets, and to the east by Water Street. This is the concentrated core of the city. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument sits at the center of Penn Square. Buildings facing the square include the Heritage Center, the Griest Building, the Watt and Shand Building and two modern banks. Commercial buildings line Queen, Prince, Orange and King Streets. Other than upper floor apartments, this area of the city includes primarily a mixture of office and retail space.

The Uptown area is located immediately north of downtown and is bounded by West Lemon, North Christian, East Chestnut and North Water Streets. The area along North Queen Street includes a series of retail shops. The Keppel Candy Company is located at 321-329 North Queen Street and is one of the few remaining resources from the city's late nineteenth to early twentieth century candymaking industry. Two large former tobacco warehouses at the southern corners of North Prince Street and West Lemon Street are part of the North Prince Street Historic District (National Register). One of these, at 352 North Prince Street, was built as the Standard Caramel Company and has recently been rehabilitated as City Crossings. The freight station for the Pennsylvania Railroad was formerly located at the northwest corner of West Walnut and North Prince Streets. The site is now occupied by the Lancaster House high-rise apartments. A series of tobacco related buildings is located along the 200 Block of North Prince Street, as are several retail and office facilities.

St. Mary's, the area south of the Central Business District between South Duke and Strawberry Streets, has been named to reflect the visual prominence of St. Mary's Catholic Church within these few blocks. Located along South Queen Street is the modern production plant for Lancaster Newspapers as well as the historic Southern Market. This latter building has been adaptively reused as the offices for the Chamber of Commerce and as City Council Chambers. Across the street from the Southern Market is the former Hotel Swan and the associated Dr. Clarkson Freeman House. The Hotel Swan was built for Dr. Freeman, who operated a tavern in the building and also advertised the opening of the Lancaster Infirmary and House of Recovery on this site in 1824. The building is one of Lancaster's oldest standing taverns. A mix of small retail shops, office conversions and residences define the character of the remainder of the South Queen and South Prince Street corridors.

Immediately west of Downtown, north of West King Street, is a transitional area between the concentrated commercial activity of the Central Business District and the residential neighborhoods that surround it. Referred to here as Shreiners, to reflect the Shreiner Cemetery that defines its northwest corner, the area includes a mixture of residential, retail and light industrial buildings. Located within the area are St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Robert Fulton Elementary School.

Strawberry Hill, bounded by West King, South Water, Strawberry and North Mulberry Streets, is also a transitional area between the Central Business District and adjoining neighborhoods. The most prominent visual landmark of this area is the former Follmer, Clogg and Company Umbrella Factory at 254 West King Street. This large late-Victorian industrial building was recently adapted for use as apartments. This award-winning project included the reconstruction of the building's corner tower, its most significant architectural feature, which had been removed many years prior.