Demolition/Removal of Select Assets

BACKGROUND: With the support of special funding through the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), Gettysburg National Military Park is planning to remove four structures from the battlefield. This demolition will allow us to focus future efforts on the long-term preservation and maintenance of historic properties that are more directly related to Gettysburg National Military Park Historic District (GNMP District) as listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The 2020 GAOA legislation established the National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF), which provides the National Park Service (NPS) with special funding to address extensive and long overdue maintenance and repair needs for aging infrastructure. The LRF provides a crucial opportunity to repair or replace deteriorating buildings, roads, trails, and infrastructure in our parks. It enables the NPS to complete large-scale projects on a level that is atypical through usual funding sources. The investments are focused on reducing deferred maintenance and making improvements with lasting effects to help guarantee our highly valued historic properties are preserved for future generations.

The goal of this project is to demolish four extraneous structures at the Wright (Guinn) Farm and the Bishop Farm. The GAOA was implemented to reduce as many excess resources as possible to ensure limited funding can be directed to the most significant resources that are fundamental to the Park's mission. Significant resources include buildings in Major Battle Action Areas that provided cover and concealment or created obstacles during the Battle of Gettysburg. This project intends to remove structures from the battlefield landscape that are not needed for future office space, residential housing or storage, and that are not used for education and interpretation. Two of the structures (Wright House and Barn) lack historical significance as non-contributing features within the GNMP District. The other two structures (Bishop House and Barn) are contributing elements to the GNMP District as well as the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District (Battlefield District). They are post-Civil War era and are considered to be proxy landscape features, i.e., 'placeholders', only significant for maintaining the battle-era spatial organization and cluster arrangement of farmstead building complexes.

ASSESSMENT OF EFFECTS: In accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and its implementing regulations, 36 CFR 800, the Park has consulted with the PA State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and other consulting parties (Historic Gettysburg Adams County, American Battlefield Trust, Gettysburg Foundation) and determined that the project will result in an adverse effect to the GNMP District and the Battlefield District. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Park and the SHPO, with invited concurring parties, has been developed with stipulations intended to resolve the adverse effect, pursuant to 36 CFR 800.6.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION: The Section 106 process requires that federal agencies engage the public and provide an opportunity to comment on the proposed resolution of an adverse effect as presented in the MOA. To review and comment on the draft MOA, click on the Document List link to the left.