Not Another Steinwehr: Nonprofits Try to Protect Gettysburg's Baltimore Pike
By Deborah Fitts
July 2005

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — A team effort is under way to keep the Baltimore Pike corridor at the doorstep of the Gettysburg battlefield from going the way of Steinwehr Avenue, with its motels and fast-food franchises.

“The economic forces are working against us,” cautions Superintendent John Latschar of Gettysburg National Military Park. “But we have reasonable hope that we can succeed in preserving the corridor.”

Ground was broken on June 2 for a new park museum and visitor center off Baltimore Pike, setting the stage for new commercial opportunity along what has been a relative backwater.

Joining the park in attempting to safeguard the historic roadway are the Civil War Preservation Trust, the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg, and the nonprofit that is building the visitor center, the Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation.

The Trust bought a key property, a 0.7-acre parcel on Baltimore Pike immediately across from Hunt Avenue, which will be the access to the new facility. The $132,000 cost was borne by both the Trust and the museum foundation, with each paying $66,000. A home on the parcel was to be removed and the land eventually turned over to the park.

“We’re advancing one step closer to restoring the historic character of this special place,” said Trust spokesman Jim Campi. “We’re very supportive of the new visitor center and believe it will be a great tourism draw. But we do remain concerned about how much development it will attract.”

The Baltimore Pike corridor has been placed on the Trust’s annual listing of most-threatened battlefield sites for several years in a row.

“It’s been tough trying to find willing sellers,” Campi said. “The owners realize that the visitor center will increase the value of their land.”

At present the National Park Service owns three of 33 parcels along a 1.5-mile stretch of the pike from the borough of Gettysburg to Rock Creek. The museum foundation owns nine.

According to museum foundation spokesman Elliot Gruber, “Both organizations share a common mission to preserve appropriate portions of the battlefield. This is one small step to enhance the visitor’s experience.”

The Friends have also done their part. Since 1999 they have collaborated on the purchase of three parcels on Baltimore Pike, including homes, totaling about 4 acres. They placed protective easements on two of the lots and resold them. The third, inside the park boundary, the Friends sold to the National Park Service (NPS), and NPS razed the house.

As attention focused on the new facility, in 2003 Cumberland Township rezoned the pike corridor from agriculture-residential to a “mixed use” status that allows some commercial development. The zoning bars certain businesses, however, such as gas stations, auto repair and fast-food shops.

Friends spokesman Dru Neil said park supporters were not so concerned about the rezoning as the exceptions to it. The Friends asked the township to make exceptions harder to get, but without success.

The park also made a pitch to the township against rezoning along the pike. “We thought it was a better way of keeping its historical appearance,” said Superintendent Latschar. Failing that, he said the park is pursuing a goal of acquiring “every other property.” They reason that, with parcels so small, protecting them in a checkerboard pattern will prevent major commercial development.

Latschar noted that the park’s land-acquisition funds have run out, leaving the corridor project up to the Friends, the museum foundation and the Trust.

But he said the borough and the township “are as eager as the Park Service not to allow the corridor to turn into Steinwehr Avenue.” He noted that the pike properties are not served by sewer or water.

As for the land for the new museum that was acquired by Robert Kinsley, the park’s private partner in building the facility, it has been transferred to the museum foundation. All the land the foundation owns, and the money it raises, Latschar said, “cannot be put to any use contrary to the best interests of the park.”

The Baltimore Pike was crucial as an access to Gettysburg for Union troops and supplies, as well as a staging area for battle.