Home Sweet Home Motel In Gettysburg is Demolished
By Deborah Fitts
May 2003
GETTYSBURG, Pa. - The Home Sweet Home Motel, a
longtime fixture on the Gettysburg battlefield, was demolished
in late winter as part of a continuing effort to restore the
battlefield to its wartime appearance.
The demolition, carried out in February and March by Pennington
Tree Experts of Orrtanna for $82,901, removed six buildings,
including motel blocks and a large house. The Home Sweet Home,
the last commercial property located inside the park boundary,
was prominently sited on Steinwehr Avenue across from the park's
visitor center.
Shrubs, a sign and a driveway were also removed from the 1.5-acre
parcel, which was to be seeded and left in its wartime state
as a field.
The park also removed a block-long screen of trees across Long
Lane from the motel, providing for the first time in years a
view of the Pickett's Charge field and the Virginia Memorial
in the distance. The park had planted the trees to block the
sight of the motel from the
battlefield.
A spokesman said the park may use the new site for talks by
living-history interpreters. A sidewalk and period lighting
were left along Steinwehr. There are plans for a wayside exhibit
focusing on Union Medal of Honor recipients at Gettysburg.
The motel was purchased in May 2002 by the Friends of the National
Parks at Gettysburg. The $1.2 million cost was funded by a $930,000
mortgage that the Friends obtained from the Conservation Fund,
plus nearly $375,000 in grants. The park reimbursed the Friends
for the
$930,000 appraisal price last summer.
According to the Friends, the site is among the most historic
in the park. It lay between the Union and Confederate lines
July 1 and 2, 1863, and was crossed July 2 by skirmishing Federals.
On July 3 the left flank of Pickett's Charge passed over the
property under
heavy artillery fire.
The 8th Ohio fired into the Confederate flank in this area,
and their monument is on the parcel itself. A member of the
8th Ohio earned the Medal of Honor for action in the vicinity.
