Casino Is Proposed Near Gettysburg

June 2005

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — A proposal to build a casino near the Gettysburg battlefield has generated dismay among some preservationists.

In late April 10 investors unveiled plans to seek a casino license from the state to build their proposed Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa. The slot-machine facility would be located about a mile and a half from Gettysburg National Military Park on a 42-acre tract at U.S. 30 and the U.S. 15 Bypass.

The Associated Press quoted Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War historian James McPherson as saying of the soldiers who fought at Gettysburg, “It would be a desecration of their memory and sacrifice to establish such a tawdry, tasteless enterprise next to their fields of honor.”

A 10-month-old Pennsylvania law allows legalized gambling in the state. The law authorizes up to 14 venues, including horse-racing tracks, free-standing facilities and resorts, with 61,000 slot machines. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board must license them.

The investors’ group is led by David LeVan of Gettysburg, and the property in question is owned by developer Robert Monahan, who competed unsuccessfully several years ago to be named the builder of the battlefield park’s new museum and visitor center.

Monahan is building “Gateway Gettysburg," a complex of hotels, convention center, shops, restaurant and theaters across Route 30 from the proposed casino site.

The Civil War Preservation Trust issued a statement calling Gettysburg “such an inappropriate location for a casino it is hard to believe that the proposal is receiving serious consideration. Casinos can be built anywhere; land where thousands of Americans ‘gave the last full measure of devotion’ cannot be moved.”

Trust spokesman Jim Campi said the casino proposal “is a symptom of a larger issue, all the sprawl being generated around that interchange” — sprawl that threatens the battlefield to the west. He expressed concern about the proposed casino’s proximity to East Cavalry Field, and noted that the Trust “has invested considerable resources” in protecting portions of that part of the battlefield.

The Trust statement also pointed out that the battlefield has proved “a gold mine” in tourism dollars, pumping $121 million into the local economy last year alone. “It would be folly to flood that gold mine with a wave of inappropriate development,” the statement said.