Erie Neighborhoods: Downtown Erie

 Erie Neighborhoods: Downtown Erie

Article Written: December 9, 2022 at 5:45 PM

Map of Downtown Erie
Downtown Erie, Erie, Pennsylvania

On this segment of Erie Neighborhoods, we are gonna discuss the Downtown Erie neighborhood, one of Erie's most historic parts of town that was once the main hub for shopping, dining and playing. Downtown Erie is divided into three different districts, Lower Bayfront, Center City and Upper Midtown. The neighborhood runs from Bayfront Parkway to the north, West 14th Street/East 14th Street to the south and is between Sassafras Street and Holland Street. Downtown Erie was founded in 1815 and the first building that was built in Downtown was the Perry Memorial House, located at 201 French Street in Downtown Erie, the building later became known as Dickson Tavern during the prohibition. Downtown Erie during this time was pretty much undeveloped and mostly country. Over the years, more and more buildings were built during the late 1800s to early 1900s, Boston Store was built in 1885, demolished in 1929 and was rebuilt in 1931 to the building it is today at 716 State Street in Downtown Erie. The Erie Trust Company, now known as Renaissance Centre was built in 1928 and is the tallest building in the City of Erie. Downtown's Perry Square which was the city's first recreational area was founded in 1795 during Erie's creation, it has remained since and has even expanded more over the years to two street blocks. Other historic buildings in Downtown include the Cashier's House at 417 State Street, Modern Tool Company at 333 State Street, Ford Hotel at 515 State Street, West Park Place at 24 North Park Row, Erie County Courthouse at 140 West 6th Street, Gannon University's Old Main Building at 109 West 6th Street, Old First National Bank Building at 901 State Street, Erie Window Glass Company at 1229 State Street, Old United States Postal Service Building at 1314 Griswold Plaza, and the Union Station at 123 West 14th Street. Downtown Erie's decline started to begin once the Millcreek Mall in Millcreek Township opened in 1975, most of the stores packed up and moved to the new major mall and Downtown began seeing less and less traffic. Most of the popular stores like Sears, F.W. Woolworth, G.C. Murphy, S.S. Kresge, Eckerd Drug, W.T. Grant and many more either closed or moved to other shopping centers in suburban Erie or elsewhere in the City. Violent crime began rising in the 1980's in Downtown during the Crack Epidemic of the 80's which caused Downtown Erie to get a bad reputation for crime and being unsafe, by the 1990s, Downtown was a ghosttown of what it once was with the only shops being open were small local shops and many bars. 16501, the zipcode for Downtown Erie became known as the poorest zip code in America in recent years. The cycle kept continuing up until 2017 when Joe Persinger, founder of Erie Downtown Development Corporation (EDDC) began purchasing the dilapidated structures and demolishing some for new stores and luxury apartment buildings to be built. EDDC's recent finished projects are Flagship City Food Hall at 22 North Park Row and the Flagship City Public Market at 34 North Park Row which both opened in 2021, it's the first of improving the North Park Row district of Downtown Erie. EDDC also purchased the former McDonald's at West 5th Street & State Street in Downtown Erie to demolish it and replace it with a new store building that will house a rock climbing gym and luxury apartments upstairs and well as more spaces for stores in the back and more apartments. "Downtown Erie will soon be making a comeback in the future, it is just in the development stage right now and is in progress for so many new things happening here in our heart of town." says Joe Persinger. Downtown Erie is just an example of how Erie can rebrand itself from being the poorest zipcode in America, to being a newly refreshed lifestyle area for college students and families to live, work and play, like Downtown was always meant to be.