Midtown Scholar: A History of Celebrating History
In 1719, John Harris, an English trader, settled in a place along the beautiful Susquehanna River. This place would later be known as Harrisburg, and become the capital of the state of Pennsylvania, beating out the historical giants of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 282 years later in 2001, the 38th mayor of Harrisburg, Eric Papenfuse, and his wife Catherine Lawrence opened Midtown Scholar. Midtown Scholar is a bookstore located on North Third Street in Harrisburg and carries hundreds of thousands of books in the store and millions more online.
Founders Eric and Catherine met at Yale University during an American History class (Vegoe). They moved to Harrisburg in 1999, settling along the Susquehanna River, just as John Harris did almost three hundred years prior. They moved into a Victorian townhouse built in 1873 (Vegoe). If the couple meeting in a history course at Yale doesn’t show how much they love history, their historical home that they bought just out of college definitely demonstrates that fact.
Midtown Scholar started because Catherine and Eric wanted to sell their old history books from their time at Yale. They would sell them online, which later translated into them opening a brick-and-mortar store in Harrisburg in 2003. Catherine described to Publishers Weekly the building they purchased as “a languishing old building.” The property is a mismatched blend of an old post office and a townhouse. They would later add onto their building during the 2007 real estate crisis. They bought the theater and furniture store next door and connected the buildings underground through a tunnel-like structure. It is easy to get lost in there, as the sprawling legs go underground, and you can also go up in the mezzanine. The café makes it easy to sit down with a book and a coffee and stay for hours. The store, if you are a book lover, especially a history fan, can turn into an all-day event, even if you were just planning on having a look around.
The couple stuck to their roots in selling academic books, and that is their main point of sale to this day. Midtown Scholar sells specifically historical books. Catherine and Eric did an interview with C-Span showing the bookstore and what they had to offer to customers and booklovers alike. The former mayor of Harrisburg shows off their rare book room, which is a sight to see. Antique photographs and paintings are hung on the wall, vintage bookcases, and of course, rare books. Some of the books are so old and rare that they look like you could brush them with your fingers, and they would disintegrate. Eric also boasts rare prints that are for sale.
In the interview with C-Span, Eric talks specifically about the books that were published locally in Harrisburg. He shows the interviewer what is believed to be the first book published in Harrisburg back when the city had just been renamed from Lewisburg. The book, titled, “Death: A Vision; or, the Solemn Departure of Saints and Sinners Represented Under the Similitude of A Dream,” is about a survivor’s account of a brutal slave rebellion. Papenfuse also shows the interviewer another book from 1816 where on the front of the title page, Pennsylvania’s capital is still called “Hahrrisburg.” They were still working out the name. This shows just how old their books are.
While speaking to the interviewer and camera, you can tell just how passionate Papenfuse is about the books that he carries. Not just about the physical book itself, but the content and history behind the book. His eyes light up when talking about the rich history of the city he serves as mayor of, and you can tell he genuinely cares. In A Free Man’s Books, Archibald MacLeish talks about the trade between a bookseller and a customer. He describes that when the purchase is impersonal, the bookseller just sells the customer a book without giving any commentary or review, then the art of bookselling dies. Papenfuse’s love for historical books shows that he is a tried-and-true bookseller by definition of MacLeish.
Diving deep into the history of Harrisburg, a huge part of their history is their involvement in the Civil War. Pennsylvania was the southernmost state on the East Coast that was firmly a Union state. Harrisburg is not that far from the border of Maryland and West Virginia. The state capital was integral to the Underground Railroad as well as the war effort in supporting the Union army. Right across the street from Midtown Scholar is the historic Broadstreet Market. The market was opened in 1860. Just a few short years later, the market helped feed the 300,000 soldiers stationed at Camp Curtain (Market). Since then, Broadstreet Market has had a long and rich history of providing fresh food and ingredients to the people of Harrisburg.
Down the street from Midtown Scholar on North Third Street, is the State Museum of Pennsylvania. The museum originally opened in 1905 next to the state capital. However, in 1964 it was moved to the location it currently is in down from the Midtown Scholar. A museum representative told Andrea Lowery at Pennsylvania Heritage that they are “extremely anxious to have a thoroughly modern museum.” However, the museum celebrates the history of the state of Pennsylvania and all of its accomplishments. On the website for the State Museum of Pennsylvania, they have all of their exhibits, both permanent and temporary, up for everyone to see. When you first walk in, you are greeted with a statue of the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn. There are also exhibits of transportation, animals, icons of Pennsylvania, and one of the biggest, the Civil War exhibit. Some temporary exhibits that are on display now include the women of Pennsylvania as well as African-American veterans. The history of Pennsylvania is clearly and proudly displayed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania.
With a neighborhood that includes the Broadstreet Market and the State Museum of Pennsylvania, it would be hard for the Midtown Scholar to not have such an array of historical books, specifically those published in Harrisburg and about Harrisburg. The neighborhood individually celebrates their personal history, which includes the history of the city and the state. But when you have a place like the Midtown Scholar that is the culmination and celebration point of, it allows the neighborhood to flourish in its rich history.
In A Free Man’s Books, author Archibald MacLeish discusses the job of bookselling. He says, “the real job is a job which has to do with people – actual people, and books, — specific books. You know your people better than we could ever know them. You know your books and their relation to your people. You and you alone can bring the two together.” Books bring people together. They allow people to discuss matters they would never even think of before reading. Eric Papenfuse and Catherine Lawrence are no strangers to this fact or to Harrisburg. They planted their roots in the city and have grown exponentially since then. They know the people of Harrisburg want a place to sit, read a book, have a coffee, and maybe converse with their friends about the newest bestselling novel. Midtown is just the place for that and will be that place for time to come.
Work Cited
“2023 Festival Books.” Midtown Scholar Bookstore-Cafe, www.midtownscholar.com/harrisburg-book-festival. Accessed 8 Oct. 2023.
“About the Market.” Broad Street Market, broadstreetmarket.org/about/. Accessed 8 Oct. 2023.
Atlantic Communications StudiosFollow this. “Harrisburg Regional News Winter, 2014.” Issuu, 2 Dec. 2016, issuu.com/atlanticcommunicationsgroup/docs/hrn2014winter.
“Changing Exhibits.” The State Museum of Pennsylvania, 25 Sept. 2023, statemuseumpa.org/changing-exhibits/.
Lowery, Andrea. “A Home for History: S.K. Stevens and the Campaign for the William Penn Memorial Museum and Archives.” Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, 20 May 2020, paheritage.wpengine.com/article/home-history-sk-stevens-campaign-william-penn-memorial-museum-archives/.
MacLeish, Archibald. A Free Man’s Books. Peter Pauper Press.
“Midtown Scholar Bookstore.” C, www.c-span.org/video/?422299-1%2Fmidtown-scholar-bookstore. Accessed 8 Oct. 2023.
“U.S. Book Show 2023: Midtown Scholar.” PublishersWeekly.Com, 12 May 2023, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/92294-u-s-book-show-2023-midtown-scholar.html#:~:text=They%20entered%20the%20bricks%2Dand,bookstores%20in%20Cambridge%20or%20Georgetown%2C%E2%80%9D.
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