Midtown Scholar: Expanding Onward While Looking Back

You wouldn’t expect a bookstore as established as Midtown Scholar to have only been around for two decades. However, the history of this building and the surrounding area is rich and established. Nestled in the midtown of Harrisburg, in a building that served first as a 1920s style theater and second as a 1950s Boston Department Store, Midtown Scholar melds the two looks of the building’s past into its own unique blend; from the art deco neon signage above the store to the “Boston” department store name preserved on their storefront walk-in (Association). It strives to preserve the history that came before it the same as it cements itself as a staple of Harrisburg’s modern history.

Midtown Scholar’s timeline begins back in the late 1920s when the building that would house the independent bookstore/cafe opened as Central PA’s first non-segregated movie theater (pawalkworks.com). In the present day, where Harrisburg has a rich and diverse population and much effort has been made to elevate the voices of those citizens, discovering that the roots of Midtown Scholar were ahead of their time and striving for equality seemed to be a fitting parallel. In fact, Catherine Lawrence, one of the two married owners of Midtown Scholar, discussed the intentionality of their store’s emphasis on diversity while they were a “Bookstore of the Year” finalist.

“We’ve been very intentional about having a diverse group of what we call ‘famous authors.’ We put new releases, classic works, and works of criticism there. We’re an urban-based store and a majority-minority city, and we have shelves upon shelves of Black history with great scholarly depth.”

-Catherine Lawrence (Publishers Weekly)

The concept of an academic bookstore with emphasis on elevating the diverse voices of the population that frequents it is not an uncommon one. As Davis quotes from Maulana Karenga in Liberation Through Literacy, “Nationalism demands study. Show me a true nationalist and I’ll show you someone who studies” (Davis, 37). The link between activism and academia is undeniable, and the history of Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg has always been a source of such activism, whether that be opening the first interracial movie theater in PA, or contributing to education and diversification past that of the mainstream white canon. 

The building’s past as Harrisburg’s first split-level department store in the 1950s can be found in the lighting fixtures and the architectural foundation of the building itself (Constant Rambler). The co-owners’ preservation of the building’s history is an admirable feat and one that becomes quite clear when walking around the inside of Midtown, now spanning six floors full of academic, historical, and additional genre books. Those genre books are a newer addition as Midtown grows and changes with the population around it. A cafe and a bakery now reside in the expanded building, without overtaking the architectural decisions made in the past. This focus on the historical preservation of the building and surrounding area cements the bookstore’s sense of place within the community and keeps bits of the past alive. 

Midtown Scholar was established in 2001 after the Boston Department Store shut down and the building became available. Under the founding and co-ownership of married couple Catherine Lawrence and Eric Papenfuse, Midtown Scholar, a place for used and new books, came to life. Papenfuse was a local businessman and politician who was elected as the 38th mayor of Harrisburg from 2014 to 2022, well after the establishment of the bookstore. It must have been incredibly relieving to the community to understand so much about his morals and politics from the years they had seen him at Midtown Scholar already. What had started for him and his wife as a small walkup used bookstore and online e-commerce site turned into what we now see it as today, a massive bookstore with a deep care for the community’s history and a strong urge to bring people together (Publishers Weekly). In fact, Papenfuse stated that “It all began with a pile of books in our dining room,” and their business had grown from a used-book online portal to 15,000 square feet of retail space with a staff of fifty (Publishers Weekly). This revitalization of the neighborhood, including the renovation of a former post office next door, demonstrated their commitment to Harrisburg “as a destination for literary culture and political debate,” and encouraged the growth of an educated and activist population, much like that which came before it (Publishers Weekly).

One notable example of the community that Midtown Scholar curates in Harrisburg can be found no further than the Harrisburg Book Festival, an annual festival launched in 2009 by Midtown Scholar to celebrate the power of literature and its ability to unite, delight, and inspire (Midtown Scholar). Much like the popularity and influence of the store, this fest grew in size each year, and they eventually named Alex Brubaker as its director. This yearly attraction not only serves to energize the local community, but the influence and intrigue of the traveling authors speaking at the fest draw in a crowd to Harrisburg, who then are able to partake in the local cuisine, wander the streets, and interact with other parts of the town. The 2023 festival now includes featured authors, a full day of children’s programming, a used-book tent sale, and writing workshops, not only encouraging literary thinking, but thought of how the world around us interacts with itself and these concepts (Publishers Weekly). 

In fact, this expansion of the Harrisburg Book Festival, under the launch of Midtown Scholar, mimics the way in which the store has branched out to curate a larger community than just those who read. Midtown Scholar has engaged with the creative community at large in ways that mimic the surrounding area of Harrisburg, which is filled with muralistic work. The bookstore actually includes their own mural, depicting Sunset at Riverfront Park (Bassart). The preservation of this mural was held in high regard during their expansion, carefully moved to its current location. As Jenison says in Sunwise Turn, “As soon as you begin to think of books as life they connect up with art,” and Midtown Scholar exemplifies that at every turn, merging the worlds of art and literature, as well as the worlds of academia and advocacy (Jenison, 21). This bookstore serves within the community as a meeting space, a place to make ideas and to engage with other literary-minded individuals. Open cafe tables incite conversation, and events of all kinds are hosted within the store itself. The store treats books as life and lets their community find the art within. It strives to reach people of all ages and backgrounds, children and adults alike, and to engage with the creative side of their minds, much like the festival expanded to better encompass the diverse audience it served. 

Despite this long-running festival’s popularity and expansion, when COVID-19 hit, the festival was shifted to a virtual experience. This did little to dissuade the community of literary-minded individuals who were interested in it, however, and the festival had four years of virtual community-building before it became slated to take place in person again in October of 2023. This would not have been possible without the population’s commitment to keeping the literary side of Harrisburg alive, and the idea that books connect art and life, leading to a more enriching experience on all sides. 

Past Midtown Scholar’s success with community building, they have also been nominated for multiple awards over the last two decades. Publishers Weekly crowned them its 31st annual Bookstore of the Year at the virtually produced U.S. Book Show on May 22 (Publishers Weekly). They have also been voted “Simply the Best” independent bookstore for the past 18 consecutive years. These accolades, while less personal than the impact that they have on the individual consumer who stops by to admire one chunk of Harrisburg’s rich history, still emphasize an agreement that Midtown Scholar has established itself as a prime resource, destination, and gathering place for the community around it. 

I admired the decision for Midtown Scholar to keep so much of the businesses and history that make up its roots on display, while still growing in the modern day with its consumers and community. I found myself particularly fond of the way they went about preserving the history of the building through signage and architecture without holding themselves back from expansion of genre, media forms, and community engagement.