"It is the only home, truly ours": Making the Eisenhower Home a National Historic Site

An aerial view of the Eisenhower Farm

NPS Photo

Eisenhower National Historic Site preserves the home and farm of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower purchased their Gettysburg farm in 1950, and they retired to the property in 1961 at the end of Eisenhower’s second presidential term. The couple saw their Gettysburg home as a respite from an itinerant lifestyle driven by Eisenhower’s distinguished military service, his stint as president of Columbia University (1948-1953), and two presidential terms (1953-1961).

After decades of being on the move, the Eisenhowers chose to put down their roots in Gettysburg. It is also where they decided to enshrine the former president’s legacy in a national historic site (1).

The National Historic Site Landmark plaque at the entrance to the Eisenhower National Historic Site.

NPS Photo

National Historic Landmark Designation

In the 1960s, the National Park Service renewed its efforts to recognize the significance of presidential historic sites as part of its Mission 66 program to revitalize the national park system (2). The National Landmarks program was created in 1960 to help designate and preserve historic sites with national significance, including sites associated with U.S. presidents (3).

As part of these efforts, Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall asked Dwight Eisenhower which site associated with his life should be designated as a National Historic Landmark. Eisenhower felt that neither his birthplace in Denison, Texas nor his boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas was appropriate for the designation. He wrote to Udall: “After some consideration I have come to the conclusion that our farmstead at Gettysburg would be the most suitable spot because it is the only home, truly ours, that has been acquired by us during almost half a century of public service that has led us to many corners of the world” (4).

In the spring of 1966, Udall approved the designation of the Eisenhower farm as a National Historic Landmark. A bronze plaque marking the designation was installed in the fall of 1966. The plaque was attached to a six-ton boulder (to discourage “souvenir seekers”) at the farm’s front gate.

Donating the Farmstead to the National Park Service

Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower decided to donate their home and farm to the National Park Service in 1967. They never documented why they made this decision, although it seems to have been driven primarily by the former president. Eisenhower was in fragile health and felt that his descendants could not afford to keep the property after he and his wife died (5). By donating the property to the federal government, they could at least ensure its preservation and appreciation by future generations.

An intimate transfer ceremony was held at the Eisenhowers’ Gettysburg farm on November 27, 1967. Secretary of the Interior Udall arrived at the farm by helicopter accompanied by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s close confidant Horace (“Buzz”) Busby. It was a sunny but cold and windy day. To protect his fragile health, Eisenhower’s aides asked him to stay inside and let the visitors come to him. He ignored their advice and walked out to welcome Udall and Busby, and then they all retreated to Eisenhower’s beloved sun porch. Busby noted in a memorandum to President Johnson that “Our conversation was cordial and simple, no ceremonies, no signing, no onlookers" (6). The Eisenhowers gave Udall and Busby a tour of the home, Udall took possession of the deed, and the transfer was complete.

Udall signed the Order of Designation for Eisenhower National Historic Site that same day. It deemed that the national historic site would "constitute a fitting and enduring memorial to General Dwight D. Eisenhower and to the events of far-reaching importance which have occurred on the property."

The Eisenhowers’ donation of their home to the National Park Service came with a provision that Dwight Eisenhower would retain a life estate to the property, and that Mamie Eisenhower could occupy the property up to six months after her husband’s passing (7). The former president passed away less than two years later, on March 28, 1969. After his death, Mamie Eisenhower requested NPS permission to continue living in the Eisenhower home. The NPS agreed, and issued a special use permit that allowed her to remain in residence on the property indefinitely (8). Mamie Eisenhower continued to live in her Gettysburg home for another decade until her death in November 1979.

NPS Planning for Eisenhower National Historic Site

While Mamie Eisenhower remained in residence in Gettysburg, the NPS took modest steps toward planning for the future historic site. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, National Park Service employees in the agency’s Washington, D.C. office carried out a flurry of research, documentation, and interpretive planning for Eisenhower National Historic Site. NPS research historian Edwin (“Ed”) Bearss conducted important early historical research for Eisenhower National Historic Site, documenting the history of the farm from the mid-eighteenth century to 1970. He also conducted oral history interviews with the Eisenhowers’ friends, business associates, farm employees, and local Gettysburg community members, as well as Mamie Eisenhower, the Eisenhowers’ son John S. D. Eisenhower, and their grandson David Eisenhower.

During the same time period, Alan (“Al”) Kent, who led NPS interpretive planning in the agency’s Washington, D.C. office, began outlining his vision for interpreting the site to the public. Kent wanted visitors to see the house and farm as the Eisenhowers did in 1967, with an emphasis on preserving the agricultural landscape. Kent believed that the site had the potential to be “the Mount Vernon of the 20th century" (9).

Despite these early efforts, the NPS did not begin substantive planning for Eisenhower National Historic Site until the late 1970s. By that time Mamie Eisenhower was growing more frail, and the NPS realized that there would be tremendous public pressure to open the historic site after her passing. NPS staff therefore began creating an interim operating program (1976) and interim interpretive plans (1979) to guide the site in its early years.

Mamie Eisenhower suffered a stroke at her home in Gettysburg on September 25, 1979, and passed away on November 1, 1979 (10). With her passing, the National Park Service began preparing in earnest for the site’s opening.

Winona Peterson, Interpretive Ranger at Eisenhower National Historic Site in 1986.
Also pictured are David Eisenhower, Superintendent John Earnst (wearing the ranger hat),
and Gettysburg/Eisenhower Chief of Interpretation and future Site Manager James Roach.

NPS Photo

Opening Eisenhower National Historic Site to the Public

Eisenhower National Historic Site has always been jointly managed with Gettysburg National Military Park. In the brief period between Mamie Eisenhower’s death and the site’s public opening in June 1980, Gettysburg staff--and eventually, the newly-hired Eisenhower staff--had a tremendous amount of work to accomplish (11). These tasks included creating a transportation system and ticket system, establishing a security system, hiring protection and maintenance staff, getting the house ready for the public, recruiting and training interpreters, creating comfort facilities for visitors, creating a tour leaflet, accessioning and cataloging house furnishings, restoring the putting green, sprucing up the skeet range and tea house, creating information signs for inside the house, and creating an opening day program (12). They also needed to come to an agreement with John S. D. Eisenhower about the future of the home’s furnishings, which they finalized in April and May of 1980. Eisenhower agreed to donate more than 1,500 of his parents household furnishings and personal items, and another 650 as a long-term loan. A third group of items were loaned temporarily so that the NPS could make copies or find replacements (13). These donations ensured that the home would be furnished for visitors to Eisenhower National Historic Site.

In the final two weeks of May 1980, Eisenhower National Historic Site’s staff members participated in an extensive training and orientation program at the site. Over the course of several days, they met their fellow staff members, were given an overview of park operations, and were trained to interpret the Eisenhowers’ lives in Gettysburg for visitors.

From June 2 to June 14, Gettysburg area residents were invited to attend a “sneak preview” open house at Eisenhower National Historic Site. When visitors arrived they were given a brochure with a self-guided tour of the house and grounds, and tour guides were stationed throughout the house to provide additional interpretation. The site formally opened to the public on June 15, 1980. The NPS rightly anticipated a dramatic wave of interest in Eisenhower National Historic Site. In its opening months, the site was regularly at capacity, and tour tickets often sold out by early afternoon. Visitors often had trouble finding parking at the visitor center, and sometimes had to be turned away. The site was immediately popular with the public.

Sunrise over the Eisenhower Farm

NPS Photo

Dedicating Eisenhower National Historic Site

A ceremony dedicating Eisenhower National Historic Site was held on June 29, 1980. Some 150 invited guests gathered “under threatening skies” to celebrate the new historic site. The weather did little to deter the assembled crowd, which included a long list of state and local politicians and judges, as well as several distinguished figures associated with the Eisenhowers. The Gettysburg Times newspaper observed that for some attendees, the guest list provided “an opportunity to ‘rub elbows’ with the famous” (14)

The dedication program included a welcome from Superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site John Earnst, and a speech by NPS Director Russell E. Dickenson. Dickenson presented John S. D. Eisenhower with an NPS certificate of appreciation. John Eisenhower gave an address to the crowd that hinted at some of his family’s mixed feelings—“sadness, nostalgia, and gratitude”—about the transformation of their family home into a national historic site. He emphasized that he could think of “no better way to pay tribute to my parents” than to preserve their home for the public’s education and enjoyment (15).

In 1981, the staff of Eisenhower National Historic Site were awarded the “Unit Award for Excellence of Service” by Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus for their work in opening Eisenhower National Historic Site to the public the previous summer. The citation outlined the many challenges the staff faced and the massive amounts of work they performed to get the site up and running quickly for an eager public (16). The citation was well-deserved.

In At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote that when he and Mamie visited Gettysburg to look at farms to purchase, he was drawn to this property because although there was some “run-down soil,” there were “enough lush fields to assure me that I shall leave the place better than I found it.” Today, Eisenhower National Historic Site’s staff have sought to carry on this legacy. Each generation of the site’s staff has worked to improve the historic site so that it can be preserved and enjoyed by future generations (17).

Endnotes

(1) This essay is adapted from Dr. Laura A. Miller’s administrative history, Eisenhower National Historic Site: Preserving Presidential History in the Shadow of Gettysburg (National Park Service/ U.S. Department of the Interior, August 2024).

(2) For more about the Mission 66 program, see https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/mission-66.htm.

(3) Geoffrey Burt, “Roots of the National Historic Landmarks Program, Part One,” National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/roots-of-the-national-historic-landmarks-program.htm.

(4) Dwight D. Eisenhower to Stewart L. Udall, January 4, 1965, Box “Eisenhower NHS Administrative HistoryBX 01,” Folder “EISE-503,” Eisenhower Museum Collection, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

(5) J. Tracy Stakely, Margie Coffin Brown, and Jeffrey Killion, Cultural Landscape Report for EisenhowerNational Historic Site, vol. 1: Site History, Existing Conditions, and Analysis, ed. Carol A. Hegeman (Boston,Massachusetts: National Park Service, 2005), 176–77.

(6) Horace Busby to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Memorandum for the President, November 29, 1967, Folder “Donation-Eisenhower Farm to NPS,” Vertical Files, EISE headquarters.

(7) Eisenhower National Historic Site, Order of Designation, November 27, 1967, 33 F.R. 16031, in National Park Service, Proclamations and Orders Relating to the National Park Service, Vol. II: January 1, 1945 – January 20, 2001, “Section II. National Historic Sites,” 26, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/legal/upload/Proclamations_and_Orders/Proclamations_and_Orders_Vol_II/2_National_Historic_Sites.pdf.

(8) “United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Special Use Permit, The EisenhowerNational Historic Site,” Box 3, in collection of documents entitled “Development of Eisenhower NationalHistoric Site, H. J. Res. 81, 91st Congress-1st Session,” Former EISE Site Manager’s Files, unprocessed records,EISE offsite storage.

(9) Alan E. Kent, “Proposed Interpretation: Eisenhower Site,” undated (ca. 1969), Box 2, Folder “L1425 - Eise Land Gen. File,” Former EISE Site Manager’s Files, unprocessed records, EISE offsite storage.

(10) “Mamie Eisenhower Dies in Sleep At 82 in Hospital in Washington,” New York Times, November 2, 1979,https://www.nytimes.com/1979/11/02/archives/mamie-eisenhower-dies-in-sleep-at-82-in-hospital-in-washington.html.

(11) For more information on how the relationship evolved between the two parks, see the full administrative history.

(12) Squad Meeting Minutes, February 15, 1980, Box 62, Folder 9, Park Central Files, 1953-Present, GETT.

(13) “Deed of Gift,” May 15, 1980, and “Agreement between the National Park Service and the Honorable John S.D. Eisenhower Relating to the Loan of Furnishings in the Eisenhower Home, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,” April 28,1980; both in folder “Accession No. 5, Part I, Ownership Documentation,” Accession Files, EISE headquarters.

(14) “Eisenhower Home Has, for Those Who Knew It Well, Remained Same,” and “John Eisenhower Is Speakerfor Program Dedicating Homestead,” both in Gettysburg Times, June 30, 1980.

(15) “Eisenhower Home Has, for Those Who Knew It Well, Remained Same,” and “John Eisenhower Is Speakerfor Program Dedicating Homestead,” both in Gettysburg Times, June 30, 1980.

(16) Secretary of the Interior, “Citation: Unit Award for Excellence of Service, Eisenhower National Historic Site/Gettysburg National Military Park,” Box 3, untitled brown folder, Former EISE Site Manager’s Files,unprocessed records, EISE offsite storage.

(17) Dwight D. Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1967), 193–194.