Stadium District

Photo Credit: James Street Improvement District

Northwest Quadrant

Traditionally named the Northwest Industrial Corridor, this neighborhood now takes its name from the baseball stadium that was built on a portion of the rail yard that occupied a considerable portion of the area.

The Stadium District is one of the city's principal historic centers of industry, which grew along one of Lancaster's major railroad cuts. See What's Here (and What's New)!

The Stadium District contains a concentration of late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century industrial and warehouse buildings, clustered around a historic railroad cut that enters the city at its northwest corner and extends southeast to Chestnut Street. A limited number of historic residences are located in the area. Major intrusions to the portion of the Stadium District that is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places include the northern portion of the railroad cut and a portion of the YMCA complex.

The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad was authorized by an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1828. Community leaders in Lancaster were instrumental in ensuring that the line dipped down from its generally east to west route to cut through the city. While the railroad failed to generate immediate industrial development in this area of the city, it set the stage for growth in the late 1890s.

Harrisburg Pike is shown on Scott's 1824 map, with land to its southwest indicated as "Hamiltons Estate" and land to the north divided into several large tracts. The railroad line is indicated on the 1850 Moody and Bridgens map as the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad. A single main track enters the city from the northwest and loops down to Chestnut Street and exits the city on the northeast. A "Central Rail Road Depot" is shown north of Harrisburg Pike, approximately where Charlotte Street intersects today, and Prince Street ended just north of James Street. Several buildings are shown in the blocks bounded by Harrisburg Pike, Mulberry and James Streets. Numerous buildings are shown along Harrisburg Pike on the 1864 Atlas, yet are not indicated as industrial sites.

According to Tobacco Buildings in Lancaster City, "... in 1847, Charles Augustus Bitner (later a leaf tobacco dealer) was active with his brother in establishing a successful fast-freight line between Lancaster and Philadelphia. In 1879 Bitner opened an office and freight-house on the Reading Railroad line. Among his various properties were several tobacco warehouse buildings on both sides of Harrisburg Avenue at North Mulberry Street."

The Reading and Columbia Railroad extended a line into the area by 1874, entering the city near the existing line and then proceeding southeast to Prince Street. A number of spur lines radiated from its terminus, extending to a depot, a coal yard and other sites. Bitner's Tobacco Warehouse is shown along the north side of Harrisburg Pike, as are two additional large buildings on the south side. The railroad also split to the south, running along Water Street and out of the south side of the city. By 1887, the Board of Trade's map shows the addition of numerous tobacco warehouses and industries in this area, mostly along the rail lines except for a row of them on the west side of North Charlotte Street. Additional industries, including the Henry Martin Brick Machine Manufacturing Company, the Peerless Emery Wheel Company and the Pennsylvania Traction Company were added by 1899, with much of the remaining areas infilled with dwellings.

The dominant type of historic industrial building in the Stadium District is the tobacco warehouse. Tobacco warehousing and cigar production were among Lancaster's leading industries in the late-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. According to the "Tobacco Buildings in Lancaster City" (1990) Lancaster had 131 buildings related to the tobacco industry in the period from 1880 to 1940. Lancaster City was second only to New York City as the largest seedleaf market in the country by 1883. In 1916 alone, 25 million pounds of tobacco were produced in Lancaster County. County wide investment was over $1.5 million and about 1,000 persons were employed in the industry.

With the enormous increase in the domestic leaf production and cigar consumption after 1860, the industry began to utilize larger and more specialized buildings. Large warehouses specifically for packing and storing leaf tobacco were constructed. According to Tobacco Buildings: "The tobacco warehouses of Lancaster City were described in 1883 as 'immense structures, from two to four stories high and from fifty to two hundred feet long, with a capacity of storing from two hundred to five thousand cases of tobacco each.'" A number of the tobacco warehouses in the Northwest Industrial Corridor are listed individually, or as part of small districts, on the National Register of Historic Places (see Appendix C for a listing).

In addition to the area's tobacco warehouses, there are a number of industrial buildings and residences along the North Prince Street corridor. Notable among these are the Gunzenhauser Bakery, 801 North Prince Street, and the Conestoga Traction Company (Lancaster Street Railway Company) Trolley Barn at 535 North Prince Street.

The Conestoga Traction Company Trolley Barn is the last substantial landmark to Lancaster County's once prominent and extensive trolley system. On 1 April 1887, the land on which the trolley barn sits was purchased by the Lancaster City Street Railway Company the present structure was erected shortly thereafter. The structure initially housed horse-drawn trolleys. The system, which extended to many points in the county and throughout the city, had a major influence on the growth of the city in the late 1800s. By providing relatively inexpensive public transportation, workers were no longer required to live within walking distance of their workplaces. Suburban development resulted and was further spurred by the widespread acceptance of the automobile in the early 1900s.

The manufacturing plant and offices of Armstrong World Industries has visually dominated the northwest end of this area. Constructed in several stages, the Armstrong complex represented the city's largest industrial facility. Armstrong World Industries was founded in Pittsburgh in 1860 as Armstrong Cork. The company's production of linoleum began in 1907 in Lancaster. The company moved its corporate headquarters here in 1929.