New Gettysburg war museum is designed to resemble a farm

Associated Press

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Architects unveiled the design of a new museum and visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park, where modern, spacious facilities will be concealed in a complex that looks like a cluster of old farm buildings.

"The story of Gettysburg is so big, it needs a bigger, better facility," said Chris Rebmann, a Gettysburg resident and president of the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides. "To have one that blends into the landscape, instead of intruding on it, is going to be wonderful."

The public got its first look Friday at a New York architecture firm’s plans for the $95 million museum and visitor center. The new complex is to be built less than a mile from the current visitor center, which is near the cemetery where President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Although it is designed to look like a turn-of-the-century Pennsylvania farm — complete with a stone grain silo and tin-roofed circular barn — the center will house two theaters, a cafeteria, a bookstore, classrooms, interpretive exhibits and other modern amenities.

"We wanted to draw on the strong building traditions of the area," said Jack Robertson, a principal in the architecture firm Cooper Robertson &Partners. "The structure should look like it belongs in this beautiful, pastoral, agricultural landscape."

The 45-acre site of the new center was chosen because of its relative lack of significance in the 1863 battle, a turning point in the Civil War.

In contrast, the current visitor center is located on Zeigler’s Grove on Cemetery Hill — the site of the Confederate assault called Pickett’s Charge, which brought the Battle of Gettysburg to its climax.

The old building and the Cyclorama Center, which houses a 360-degree panoramic painting of Pickett’s Charge, will be demolished after the new museum is completed in about four years. The painting will be restored and displayed in an auditorium in the new facility.

Landscape architects and historians also plan to restore the site of Pickett’s Charge to its 1863 appearance.

Funds for the project are being raised by the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation, a nonprofit group. The federal government is chipping in about $2.5 million to help with the restoration of the Cyclorama painting, said Robert Wilburn, president of the foundation.

Wilburn said the foundation has received about $9 million in funding commitments. Ground will be broken on the project in about two years and construction will take another two, he said.

The foundation will run the new center for 25 years and then donate the property to the National Park Service unless the government agency decides to have the foundation keep running it.

Each year, the battle site brings in about 2 million tourists who spend more than $100 million for accommodations, meals, sightseeing and souvenirs.

"A new museum won’t particularly spike our attendance," said John Latschar, superintendent of the park. But he said the new center should give visitors a "better understanding of what went on here."