Home Sweet Home Motel Land Purchased: To Be Added To Gettysburg Battlefield Soon

[ami]

<font size="+0">Home Sweet Home Motel Land Purchased: To Be Added To Gettysburg Battlefield Soon</font>

June 3, 2002--The Home Sweet Home Motel at 593 Steinwehr Avenue has been purchased by the Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg for eventual turnover to the National Park Service, Civil War Interactive confirmed today.

Spokespersons for both the Friends group and the motel management confirmed that the sale had taken place. Confusion still exists on the exact date that the turnover from the Friends to the NPS will take effect. The Friends office said the turnover would take place on or before July 15, but motel officials were emphatic that they would continue in operation until at least November 2002.

Sources at the Friends offices told CWi on Monday that the price paid for the business and land was $1.2 million, which was $335,000 more than the government's appraisal of the property's worth.

To cover the difference between the motel owner's appraisal and the government's appraisal amount (which is all the NPS is allowed to pay for land), the Friends relied on grants from two foundations, the McKenna Foundation and another which wished to remain anonymous.

The transaction was a financially complicated one, with the Friends relying on a substantial loan from The Conservation Fund to permit an immediate transaction. The loan, which will cover the government's payment for the property; will be repaid when the NPS repurchases the site from the Friends.

The land on which the Home Sweet Home now sits was the site of a famous flanking maneuver during "Pickett's Charge" on the third day of the battle. The 8th Ohio Volunteer Infantry found themselves in a position to pour a withering flanking fire into the side of the advancing Confederate troops.

A marker to the regiment's actions that day sits in the motel parking lot.

The park service reportedly already owns the three lots directly behind the motel, meaning that the removal of the business will greatly restore the north end of the Third Day battlefield. The land in that area has been home to a number of diverse enterprises over the years, including a tank practice range during and after World War I and a camp holding German prisoners of war for seven months during World War II.

More details on the Home Sweet Home purchase will be presented as they become available from the various groups involved in the transaction.



Courtesy of:
Civil War Interactive: The Daily Newspaper of the Civil War
www.civilwarinteractive.com

[hoosier]

I'll have to check out that marker in the parking lot next time I'm in Gettysburg.

Although the entire Confederate advance is commonly known as Pickett's charge, my guess is that, from that position on the battlefield, the Ohioans would have been pouring their fire into the flank of Pettigrew's North Carolinians, rather than Pickett's Virginians. Anyone have any good maps that can confirm this?