"Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" was the familiar political slogan of the 1839 Presidential Campaign. The Campaign began when William Henry Harrison and John Tyler were nominated as the Whig candidates for U.S. President and Vice President in this church, now altered from its original appearance. The Whig Convention here made Harrisburg the smallest city to ever host a U.S. presidential convention. Both men won and both eventually became President. The congregation of Zion Lutheran Church has been rooted to this property since the erection of its predecessor church on the same site in 1814, which burned in 1838. Having split from the German Reformed congregation, which built Salem Reformed Church (now Salem United Church of Christ) around the corner on Chestnut Street in 1822, the present Zion Lutheran was completed in 1839, just in time for the Presidential Convention. The graves of the original cemetery at the rear of the Church were relocated to Harrisburg Cemetery in the mid-19th Century when this portion of the downtown became more developed.

Photo

Late 1880's view of Zion Lutheran Church after alterations made in the 1860's. The buildings at right, though now commercial are still standing.

Marker is at the intersection of 4th Street and Market Street, on the left when traveling north on 4th Street.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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