(NPS)

Visitor Center

The new Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center is located at 1195 Baltimore Pike in Gettysburg. The center features a new museum and exhibit hall that will take visitors through the story of the Civil War and the Battle of Gettysburg, the significance of the Gettysburg Address, and how the war shaped the future nation. There are also special exhibits in the Gilder-Lehrman Exhibit Room, a Resource Room where visitors can further explore our electronic databases, an orientation film entitled "A New Birth of Freedom" and the famous Gettysburg Cyclorama (opening in September 2008).

The center has tour information for the battlefield and is where a Licensed Battlefield Guide can be hired for a personal tour of the park. There are other amenities in the center including a vast bookstore and refreshment saloon, reminiscent of the saloons that offered food and drink to Union soldiers on their way to war.

The Visitor Center is open all year but closed on the days specified below.
Regular center hours are from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. During the summer season from June 1 through September 1, the center is open from 8 A.M. to 7 P.M. After that date, the center returns to an 8 A.M. to 6 P.M. schedule. Phone (717) 334-1124 for further information on location and closures.

Closures
The Visitor Center is closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. 

Visitors in the museum and visitor centerlobby are oriented to the building and program offerings.

Special Programs
A 20 minute film entitled "A New Birth of Freedom" about the Battle of Gettysburg is shown every 30 minutes throughout the day. There is a fee for this film. Volunteers staff the museum gallery and Resource Room throughout the day. Park ranger programs are held just outside of the center during the summer months.

Reservations for a battlefield tour with a Licensed Battlefield Guide are available at the Visitor Center.

Exhibits
The Gettysburg Museum of the Civil War, featuring one of the largest collections of Civil War relics in the world, is available for viewing during regular center hours. Access to the museum is free of charge.

Facilities for Disabled Visitors
The Visitor Center has restrooms accessible from the lobby of the building and museum area, an information service desk and a book store. Handicapped parking available adjacent to the building, which also has provisions for mobility, hearing or sight impaired visitors.

Book Store
The museum and visitor center bookstore is operated by Event Network. For information on holdings and titles, contact the store at (717) 334-2288.

Refreshment Saloon
The center has a refreshment saloon operated by Aramark and offering a selection of snacks, sandwiches, and drinks. For information about the saloon, contact Aramark at (717) 334-5629.

Access to Eisenhower National Historc Site
The shuttle to Eisenhower National Historic Site is located at the Visitor Center. Visitors can purchase their tickets for the shuttle out to the Eisenhower Farm at the ticketing counter.

(Adams Co. Historical Society)

The Wills House, ca. 1890

The David Wills House

Opening in February 2009 as part of Gettysburg National Military Park, the David Wills House in downtown Gettysburg will welcome visitors to the downtown area. The exhibits here will tell the story of a town recovering from the devastation of battle and a war-worn President who came to dedicate a national cemetery. David Wills’ home was the center of the immense clean-up process after the Battle of Gettysburg. In a second-floor bedroom, President Abraham Lincoln put the finishing touches on the Gettysburg Address - the speech transformed Gettysburg from a place of sorrow to the symbol of our nation's new birth of freedom.

The museum will include seven galleries, including the restored office where David Wills coordinated post-battle recovery efforts and invited a President to deliver “a few appropriate remarks,” and the famous Lincoln bedroom where the President finished revising the Gettysburg Address.

Visitors will enter the home through the York Street entrance, which was the original entrance to the building used by the Wills Family.  The Reception Area includes an information desk where visitors may learn more about visiting the Wills House, and other activities and tours in the town of Gettysburg.  An admission fee will be charged for entry into the museum however the Reception area is open without a fee. A small bookstore will offer books and other educational items for sale.

Main Street Gettysburg will operate the museum in cooperation with the National Park Service.