(May 2006)GETTYSBURG, Pa. - After more than half a century selling books at Gettysburg National Military Park, the Eastern National Park & Monument Association has lost its bid to continue when the park's new visitor center opens in 2008.

"We were very disappointed we were not chosen," said Chesley Moroz, president of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit. The museum foundation that is building the visitor center has instead chosen a relatively new for-profit retailer called Event Network.

The Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation solicited proposals from five vendors and got responses from four. They chose Event Network in January after receiving a green light from the park. Park spokesman Katie Lawhon said the two key criteria were "the best possible service to visitors," and "best revenue generator."

Event Network runs shops for museums and other cultural institutions, including the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill., the Philadelphia Zoo, Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and the Boston Children's Museum.

Eastern National, established in 1947 as a nonprofit cooperating association of the National Park Service, has stores at 288 locations, mostly national parks. They have more than 70 employees at Gettysburg, where they have operated the park's bookstore, Electric Map and Cyclorama. Under their "sharing philosophy," Moroz said, Eastern returns about 20 percent of its sales income to the National Park Service every year.

The store at Gettysburg is Eastern National's largest, according to Moroz. From sales at Gettysburg alone, last year Eastern returned $413,000 to the park and sent another $592,000 to other, smaller parks whose stores don't achieve such profits.

Elliot Gruber, the museum foundation's vice president for external affairs, said Event Network provided "the most financially appealing package" of the four bidders. He acknowledged, however, that the new store would not pump as much money back into the park as Eastern National - at least not at first.

Based on Eastern's returns in the late 1990s, the museum foundation pledged at that time to send a total of $393,000 annually to the park and another $420,000 to other, less-profitable National Park Service sites. Both those numbers fall below Eastern's totals for last year, but Gruber said the foundation hopes to raise the amounts "once we're up and running."

He also said Event Network provided "excellent" customer service and was "aggressive" in terms of marketing and promotion.

The store in the new visitor center will comprise 5,000 square feet, Gruber said, "certainly more than double" the space of the current bookstores that Eastern National runs in the visitor and Cyclorama centers. The new store will be a combination bookstore and museum store, with many more non-book items than Eastern National sells.

Gruber noted that the park has final approval over all items to be sold. The park's Lawhon echoed that, saying there would be "a high level of review and oversight" by the park over "every decision by the foundation."

"The National Park Service has the ultimate authority over the museum foundation," Lawhon explained. "Event Network understands that's the operating rules."

Asked whether Event Network will continue Eastern's practice of hosting Civil War authors to set up at the store, Gruber said, "Those are the kinds of things we're looking to expand greatly. You really want to make it a friendly and engaging environment around the whole facility."

Moroz said Eastern National was hopeful of placing some of its 70-plus employees in the new store when it opens in 2008. She said Eastern would also seek to place them elsewhere in Gettysburg businesses.

Moroz predicted that Event Network would sell "more souvenir-type products" than Eastern. "What matters is the kind of product," she said. "I would hope it doesn't become a souvenir shop." She added of Event Network, "We wish them the best of luck."

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