The Harrisburg City Rescue Mission is founded

On December 22, 1914, Harrisburg City Rescue Mission is founded by “uncle” Jim Barker.

In 1914, Mr. Griffith Jones arrived in Harrisburg from Scranton, Pennsylvania for the purpose of starting a City Rescue Mission. He hired a room at No. 3 North Fifth Street, in the rear of a saloon, where he planned for several months. He secured the cooperation of James Barker, a feed and grain merchant who lived on Evergreen Street, and by December 22, 1914 the “Harrisburg City Rescue Mission” was born.

James Barker dubbed the mission a “Christian workshop and workingman’s hotel.”  “Uncle Jim” (as he was known) recruited prominent citizens from the church community to join his new mission board.