Strawberry Square fills this stretch of downtown Harrisburg with retail, offices and ten restored 19th- and 20th-century buildings. Owned and managed by the Harristown Development Corporation (HDC), a non-profit organization, this place was part of the city’s modern urban revitalization. Phase I originally opened in 1978, bringing 1,400,000 square feet (130,000 m2) of office and retail space that looks out toward the Capitol, built after the Penn-Harris Hotel closed and was demolished in 1973.
Eleven years after Phase I, HDC completed the $21 million Phase II expansion, which included the restoration of ten 19th- and 20th-century buildings now listed in the National Register of Historic Places and representing the city's oldest remaining retail establishments. The site takes its name from the alleyway that runs along the complex’s east–west axis; Strawberry Alley still exists from Front Street to Third Street, though a portion was vacated for the complex and is now a commons area beside the second-floor escalators. When it first rose in the 1970s people also called it the 'Key Block.' Notice Strawberry Alley, the escalators, and the restored façades that stitch downtown together.