Media Advisory: General Lee’s Gettysburg Headquarters House to Open for Special Events and Commemorations

(Gettysburg, Pa.) – In conjunction with anniversary programming and other special events throughout 2017, the Civil War Trust will hold open houses at the site of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s headquarters in Gettysburg. The house and grounds, which served as Gen. Lee’s command center during the Battle of Gettysburg, was preserved by the Trust in 2016 as part of a $6 million acquisition and restoration project.

The site is located at 401 Buford Avenue in Gettysburg. In addition to the grounds and interpretive trail – which are open from sunrise to sunset – the headquarters building will be open at the times noted below. Visit Battlefields.org/LeesHQ for details.

Friday, April 28, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Arbor Day Apple Orchard Planting

Friday, June 9 – Saturday, June 10, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
History Meets the Arts Program

Saturday, June 24 – Sunday, June 25
Artillery Encampment and Demonstration

Friday, June 30 – Sunday, July 2
Living History Encampment

Saturday, November 18, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Remembrance Day weekend

Sunday, November 19, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Remembrance Day weekend

Saturday December 9, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Historic Gettysburg Holiday Open House

In addition, interpreters from the nearby Seminary Ridge Museum will be onsite periodically to discuss topics such as the Battle of Gettysburg’s impact on civilians, the major command decisions made at the Lee’s Headquarters site, and the battle action that occurred on the headquarters property on July 1, 1863. Please visit SeminaryRidgeMuseum.org for programming dates and details.

The Lee’s Headquarters building was purchased in trust by renowned abolitionist Congressman Thaddeus Stevens for Mary Thompson, who was the sole resident during the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. Prior to its use as Lee’s command center, the property was the scene of brutal fighting on the first day of the battle, as Union forces attempted to check the Confederate advance on Gettysburg.

The Civil War Trust is America’s premier nonprofit battlefield preservation organization.  Although primarily focused on the protection of Civil War battlefields, through its Campaign 1776 initiative, the Trust also seeks to save the battlefields of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812. To date, the Trust has preserved close to 45,000 acres of battlefield land in 23 states, including nearly 1,000 acres at Gettysburg.

The Civil War Preservation Trust became the Civil War Trust in January 2011; the Civil War Trust became a division of the American Battlefield Trust in May 2018. Campaign 1776 was created in 2014 as an initiative of the Civil War Trust; in May 2018 it became the Revolutionary War Trust, a division of the American Battlefield Trust.