“Many historically significant locations on the battlefield lie outside the boundaries of Gettysburg National Military Park and are vulnerable to residential or commercial development. Currently, a Comfort Suites hotel is under construction on Cemetery Hill, immediately adjacent to Evergreen Cemetery on Baltimore Pike, the road to the newly built visitor center,” writes the Trust.

A Gettysburg National Military Park spokesperson said there was of course concern about the development, but the property was grandfathered under old zoning laws and there was no way to stop it.

To the west of the park is the Gettysburg Country Club, now bankrupt. This is the site of Confederate attacks on McPherson Ridge. The National Park Service hoped to acquire the land, but the $2.2 million price was out of reach (guess no body is bailing out the NPS). Still, the park seeks to prohibit large-scale development on the site.

Coincidentally, the park will receive $2.2 million from the Fed this year for land acquisition!

The park has managed to demolish a number of defunct commercial buildings—a car dealership and a motel that obscured the battlefield. Plans to remove a 1961 Cyclorama building, however, is a matter for the courts. Architectural preservationists have sued to save it. There’s some irony here, which only goes to prove what is on one man’s endangered list is on another’s demolition list.

NPS believes Gettysburg’s inclusion on the endangered list is appropriate, as 18 percent of the 6,000-acre battlefield is unprotected, i.e., privately owned or there is no easement on it.