Penn Square

Established in 1730 by English businessman James Hamilton, Lancaster City was designed as the county seat, with a courthouse at the center of town where the Soldiers and Sailors monument now stands. City Hall, built in 1794 where the Lancaster Cultural History Museum now stands, housed both state and county offices and served as Pennsylvania’s capital from 1799 to 1812, while Lancaster was also the capital of the United States for one day on September 27, 1777. The city grew quickly, and by the mid 1750s more than 245 local artisans, including shoemakers, carpenters, bakers, wheelwrights, tailors, and tobacconists, lived there. The nation’s oldest tobacco shop, Demuth at 114 East King Street, was established in 1770 and became a favored gathering place for local men; Lancaster native and fifteenth U.S. president James Buchanan was known to give Demuth cigars as gifts to dignitaries and friends. Lancaster also gave notable businessmen their start, including Frank Woolworth, who opened his first successful five-and-ten-cent store there in 1879, and Milton S. Hershey, who learned chocolate candymaking at Joseph Royer’s shop on West King Street. For centuries, Central Market has been the center of activity for residents and visitors and is the oldest continuously operating farmers market in the country, with many stands in business for generations. Another landmark, the Fulton Opera House, was originally built as a meeting hall in 1852 and became a theater for performers including the Barrymore Family, Al Jolson, and Mark Twain, presenting vaudeville, drama, movies, and comedies; today it is home to the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and Opera Lancaster. Over the centuries, Lancaster City has served as a gathering place from its early role for lawmakers and the Continental Congress to its present place as the social and economic hub of Lancaster County.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania · United States