Here We Go Again

[csabugler]

Re: Here We Go Again

Target said 'There were no concrete plans for the site". Of course not. The parking lot will be asphalt, thereby making their statement accurate. :(

[Dignann]

Re: Here We Go Again

Press Release

Gettysburg Group Claims Progress
Preserving Camp Letterman Site

Feb. 13 2008--A threat of commercial development on a portion of what was once the Camp Letterman field hospital appears to have suffered a setback due to efforts by the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association and its supporters.

Last fall, the GBPA learned that the Target chain was considering placing one of its stores in a proposed “Gettysburg Station” shopping center on Route 30 with an access road going through where the Camp Letterman monument marks the field hospital’s entrance. Metro Commercial Real Estate had advertised for smaller businesses to locate to the proposed development, which would be anchored by a Target.

The Camp Letterman monument was erected in 1914 by the Army of the Potomac Medical Department to memorialize the Herculean effort to treat thousands of wounded and dying Union and Confederate troops, the first such joint medical facility of the Civil War.

The GBPA mounted an offensive, calling on Civil War preservationists to bombard Target and other potential developers of Camp Letterman land with letters and petitions opposing development on portions of the remaining Letterman property determined to be historically significant.

Initially, a Target representative response to letters and e-mails was a statement that the chain had “no concrete plans at this time for this location,“ a message that left plenty of room for plans to quickly change.

Thousands of letters and signatures later, the corporation’s message has changed to become much more definitive: “Any information that Target is pursuing a store is inaccurate. In late 2007 we made a decision not to pursue a store in this area at this point in time.

"This is certainly a victory for Gettysburg preservation, but it by no means settles the issue,“ said GBPA President Kathi Schue. "The potential developer could still seek another anchor store or possibly even elect to build the shopping center without it. Then, there remain the treat posed by overly-aggressive residential development plans elsewhere on the Letterman site."

Schue reiterated that GBPA is not opposed to any development of the property, just development that would erase irreplaceable historic features of the massive field hospital site. The GBPA is continuing its effort to have more of its own property, the Daniel Lady Farm, further studied by archeologists to lean more about Letterman’s layout, a portion of which extended onto the preserved Lady Farm.

“I would urge our friends, ’keep your powder dry’ and be ready to respond with another editorial volley as the situation evolves,“ added Schue.

GBPA is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was founded in 1959 as the first public/private partnership at Gettysburg. The GBPA has played a continuous role in purchasing endangered battlefield land such as the Meals Farm, Timbers Farm, Wolf Farm, Taney Farm, the Colgrove tract, the Willoughby Run tract, the East Cavalry Field tract, and other parcels to save them from development.

The GBPA has a web site at www.gbpa.org.

(Press Release GBPA)


Eric