Gettysburg Friends Buy Rupp House For Their Headquarters
By Deborah Fitts
July 2002

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — The Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg paid $775,000 in May for the historic Rupp House, most recently known as the Tannery, a large Victorian home near Gettysburg National Military Park that will serve as the nonprofit's new headquarters.
The Friends closed on the Baltimore Street house May 1. The building will continue as a bed-and-breakfast through July under the former owners. The Friends plan to occupy it in August, undertake renovations, and move in by the end of October.

Improvements will include an "education center" focusing on the battle. The center, expected to cost from $250,000 to $350,000 to create, represents a new venture for the Friends and is designed to attract battlefield visitors off the street.

The Friends are currently located in rented quarters off York Street, distant from the tourism area. Friends Executive Director Vickey Monrean said the new location would secure "good visibility" — an element that the Friends believe is necessary in order to increase membership, she said.

In discussing the move a couple of months ago Monrean said their lease on York Street was to be up at the end of this year. "We knew we had to move from where we are," said Monrean, "and we decided that at Gettysburg there was only one good place to be, and that was Baltimore Street."

The Friends actually approached the B&B owners, George and Nan Newton, asking if they would sell. The prominent 1868 Victorian structure, boasting 6700 square feet, is located on Baltimore just north of the intersection with Steinwehr Avenue and the Sheetz gas station.
"The building is beautiful, and we think it is the most desirable location," Monrean said. "We sat outside and did a lot of observations on Baltimore Street. There's a lot of foot traffic at night — people looking for things to do."

The second floor will be devoted to the organization's offices. The current staff totals seven full-time employees and two part-time. The first floor will be converted to "an interactive education center."

The Friends are soliciting exhibit and design firms for displays that will engage visitors in what Monrean termed "more of a sensory experience" of the battle. The Friends have budgeted a one-time cost of $250,000 to $350,000 for the education center, according to Monrean.
"We hope to have for the visitors a way to enhance the battlefield experience," Monrean explained. "We want to find some way of asking military action questions for them to answer," as well as "the confounding questions of the time."

They will also address preservation. In this way, curious walk-ins may make donations, or become members, Monrean said, and the park will ultimately realize additional support from the Friends.

In the years since their founding in 1989, the Friends have had a "successful" direct-mail appeal to members, Monrean said, "but we have not had an active, visible role" to attract battlefield visitors.

The Rupp House will be open to the public into the evening throughout the 225-day season, Monrean said, and on weekend evenings out of season. As a benefit for members, the Friends may offer tours from the house and may open a small adjoining structure as a members-only space. The Friends also plan to retail Civil War-era replica items, Monrean said, such as an artillery chest, camp desk and sheet music.

A tannery was operated on the property during the war. The house sits on the footprint of a wartime structure owned by John Rupp, who wrote his sister 16 days after the battle that his house "was under fire by both armies."

On the second day of the battle, "Our men occupied my porch," Rupp wrote, "and the rebel (men) the rear of the house, and I in the cellar, so you can see I was on neutral ground … Our house is pretty well riddled."