About the Historical Society of Dauphin County
Founded in 1869, the Historical Society of Dauphin County is one of Pennsylvania's longest-serving county historical societies, dedicated to collecting, preserving, and sharing the history of Harrisburg and the surrounding Dauphin County region. The society is headquartered at the John Harris–Simon Cameron Mansion at 219 South Front Street, a Georgian stone house built in 1766 by John Harris Jr., one of the founders of Harrisburg, who chose the elevated site after river flooding troubled his father's earlier home and lived there until 1791. A rear wing was added in the early 1800s, and the house passed through at least eight owners before the society took it over.
In 1862 Simon Cameron, President Lincoln's first Secretary of War and later a U.S. senator, bought the house for $8,000 and remodeled it in the Victorian Italianate style, adding a solarium, a butler's pantry, and a grand staircase and furnishing it with French mirrors and Italian marble mantels. A later owner, Richard Haldeman, added the west alcove with its Art Deco bathroom. In 1941 Elizabeth Wright donated the house and family furnishings to the society. The mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976 and underwent major restoration for its 250th anniversary in 2016, with nearly $500,000 invested in the work. Tours present the home as the Cameron family and their descendants occupied it from 1862 to 1941.
The mansion's collections number about 15,000 objects, and the society also hosts monthly public programs on second Sundays at 2:30 p.m., publishes a quarterly newsletter called The Oracle, offers educational programs, rents the mansion for events, and operates a museum shop stocked with local history books, maps, and merchandise.
Collections and Research Services
The Alexander Family Research Library and Archives, housed in the 1890 brick stable behind the mansion, holds approximately 3,700 books on regional history and genealogy and roughly 20,000 archival items, including letters, diaries, legal documents, deeds, ledgers, scrapbooks, maps, and newspaper clippings documenting Dauphin County individuals, families, businesses, churches, schools, and military units. Its photograph collection contains more than one million images dating from the 1850s to the present. The library is open Tuesday through Friday and the second Sunday of each month from 1 to 4 p.m.; call ahead to confirm, and contact the librarian at library@dauphincountyhistory.org to discuss resources before a visit. Members research free, non-members pay $10 per day and students $5. Staff research costs $20 per hour ($40 minimum) on site and $25 per hour ($50 minimum) at the state archives, state library, or courthouse; newspaper searches run $20 to $40 and Harrisburg birth and death certificate lookups $10 each. Children under 12 are not admitted except for approved school projects. Our guides to finding old photos of a house or neighborhood and dating a house show how to use deeds, maps, and photographs like these.
Planning Your Visit
The society is at 219 South Front Street along the Susquehanna riverfront in Harrisburg, PA 17104, with free parking behind the mansion. Guided mansion tours are given Tuesday through Friday at 1, 2, and 3 p.m. and on the second Sunday of the month at 1 p.m.; reservations are suggested, and group tours of 15 or more can be scheduled at other times. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors 65 and over, $6 for children 6 to 12, and free under 5, with reduced group rates. One entrance has no steps, but there are three steps up to the dining room and a tall spiral staircase to the second floor; an accessible restroom is off the solarium. The office is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at (717) 233-3462 or office@dauphincountyhistory.org, and current programs are listed at dauphincountyhistory.org.
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