Gettysburg's New Visitor Center Looks Imminent

Many have called it the second battle of Gettysburg. Others find all the hype a ridiculous waster of energy. I am referring to the fight over the proposal for a new visitor center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After several years of proposals, counter-proposals, protests, and Congressional inquiry, it seems that the plans for the new facility, like it or not, are going to proceed.

The National Park Service proposed that a new visitor center be built when it was realized that the majority of its collection of historical artifacts, over 90 percent, was rotting away in storage due to inadequate facilities. Only having room enough to display and adequately preserve about eight percent of the Park's collection was deemed unacceptable. The new visitor center came as a way to address this problem.

The projected visitor $40 million center was originally going to consist of a larger bookstore, an IMAX theater, room for small commercial shops, and a cafeteria, as well as space for existing attractions such as the electric map and the cyclorama painting. The target site for building the facility was at first a considerable distance east of the town, far from any of the fields of battle. They then changed the proposed site to be behind the current visitor center just southwest of the famed National Tower, right in the middle of park boundaries. The land where the current visitor center and cyclorama building lie would then be restored to a similar look of 1863. This new facility would be built using zero tax dollars. Rather, a proprietor would be in partnership with the Park Service, but would have financial control of the facilities for a period of roughly 20 years.

The minute the Park Service disclosed its proposal, opponents came out of the woodwork. Preservationists were outraged at the prospect of yet another piece of hallowed land being ruined by expansion. Local merchants feared that the new facility would undermine the business of many of the small businesses that thrive mostly during tourist season. And there were those who saw the plan as simply a wasteful scheme that would cost too much and reap few benefits.

The debate over the proposal became quite heated and continued for well over a year. The proposal even faced the possibility of Congressional oversight and a veto from President Clinton. However, this prospect never occurred and the plan's approval came down to a Philadelphia judge's decision as to whether or not to support the Park Service's general management plan of which the new visitor center was a part. And in November of this year, Marie Rust approved the plan, essentially laying the first stone.

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