Midtown Scholar: Not Simply in the Background

At 1302 N. Street in Harrisburg, housed in a repurposed 1920s movie theater, lies the Midtown Scholar Bookstore and Cafe. This behemoth of a bookstore is a focal point in Harrisburg’s rich culture and history, sporting over one hundred thousand used, discount, & rare books and now extending over two buildings. Surrounded by notable arts centers and more than enough fine dining options, this bookstore is as much a staple of the community it resides in as the marketplace down the street. The historic Broad Street Market, a collection of over forty vendors founded in 1860, acts as one of many possibilities for quality cuisine near the bookstore. Past that, there are several opportunities for engaging with the arts, spirituality, and nightlife activities in Harrisburg. This culminates in a well-established, exciting area to explore, brimming with personality and charm.

The first time I went to Midtown Scholar, I was overwhelmed with the bustle and life of the area. Everywhere I looked, there were people going about their days, walking dogs, talking loudly on their cell phones. Brightly colored murals decorated alley walls, and as I took a moment to stand back and take them in, I was reminded of one of Cresswell’s quotes in Defining Place, “This anonymous space has a history–it meant something to other people” (2). What would have been nothing more to me than an alleyway or building side has become a showcase of the population’s care in adorning their space with something that makes it their own. This showcase of the place’s history through the artwork that adorns it is a beautiful one, and while walking through a space I don’t feel is mine, the marks that others made to show their love for this area are abundant and vibrant, and they make the space feel comfortable.

A few streets north of Midtown Scholar is the Susquehanna Art Museum, and two blocks further from that is the Midtown Cinema. If you walk south from Midtown Scholar, you can easily get to the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center, and just past that, The State Museum of Pennsylvania and Capitol Park. A deep dive into the demographics of Harrisburg reveals the reason for the artistic emphasis that the town holds. With a reasonable cost of living and a wide variety of enriching arts events, this walkable city is a draw for single individuals and child-free households with time to spare on artistic endeavors and eating out. In an area predominantly made up of individual households, the event-heavy, artsy midtown of Harrisburg makes for the perfect weekend outings, and while a sizable portion of the population is white, Harrisburg offers one of the most culturally diverse experiences PA can offer (Niche). This is reflected within much of their art, as many of the murals and other artwork the town showcases “bring[s] forth artwork that celebrate[s] Black lives” (Balentine).

Midtown Scholar’s front is illustrated well by a quote from Kristin Doyle Highland’s In the Bookstore; “Not simply background, the buildings framing the scene assert their own visual and textual presence, contributing firm and store names and advertised goods and services to the visual cacophony of the street” (214). A look at the front of the store illuminates how the facade of the building, the repurposed piece of Harrisburg’s history, itself invites residents and visitors to engage with it. Carts and shelves of dollar-apiece paperbacks clutter the entryway, where moviegoers previously dawdled under the marquee, now bibliophiles can browse for a moment on their morning walk. The presence of the store emphasizes it as more than just part of the background, it invites you to include it on your walk itself. 

As I exited from under this integration of shop and sidewalk and continued wandering through the midtown of Harrisburg, arms heavy with books, I allowed myself to immerse entirely in the ambiance of the area. Cresswell states that “Place is also a way of seeing, knowing, and understanding the world. […] To think of an area as a rich and complicated interplay of people and the environment –  as a place – is to free us of thinking of it as facts and figures” (11). Instead of thinking of Harrisburg as a collection of roads and sidewalks, the culture displayed at every turn allows a simple walk to entirely recontextualize the roads I drove down as more than just a means to an end, but as an opportunity to learn more about my understanding of the world, and the complicated interplay of people and place within it.