Gettysburg Park Proposes Fees Including Museum
By Kathryn Jorgensen
(October 2008 Civil War News)

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — An admission fee schedule proposed for Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center would include the museum for the first time. The $7.50 fee for adults to see the movie, Cyclorama and galleries was proposed on Aug. 28 and open to public comment ending Sept. 29.

Because of the pending fee changes, the $12 admission that was to go into effect Sept. 26 for the theater and Cyclorama painting was rescinded. Instead, visitors over age 12 will pay $7.50 for the two venues. That doesn’t mean the proposed fees are being adopted, said park public affairs specialist Katie Lawhon. It’s just less confusing.

If the National Park Service and Gettysburg Foundation go ahead with the requested fees after considering the public comments, the $7.50 admission will stay in place, but will include the visitor center museum. The proposal includes reduced youth and group rates.

The park is receiving comments for and against the proposed fees. “Definitely we will read all of them,” Lawhon said.

The old visitor center charged $4 for the Electric Map and $3 for the Cyclorama. Lawhon said the Cyclorama charge was not raised to $4 because panels were removed for restoration. However, charging $8 for the new 22-minute “A New Birth of Freedom” film wasn’t successful. That ticket was to go up to $12 including the Cyclorama in September.

“Some of the feedback was that $8 was too much,” she said. The Gettysburg Foundation’s pro forma budget projected 33 percent of the visitors seeing the film but only 18 to 24 percent of them did.

According to the fee proposal document, that meant a projected shortfall of $1,784,780 in revenue for the two 150-seat theaters.

A family with two parents and kids ages 11 and 14, for example, would have paid $28 at the $8 (adults) rate. At the $12 charge this family would have paid $43. Under the proposed $7.50 package the family would pay $28 for three venues.

Lawhon emphasized that the battlefield and much of the visitor center, including lobby exhibits, resource room, appointments in the library and with collections and the Refreshment Saloon and museum store, remain free. A season pass with unlimited admissions is part of the proposal.

A majority of national parks have some kind of fee, she noted, including for museum exhibit areas. “There’s a very wide range for kinds of fees.”

Some critics of the proposed fees note the General Management Plan that said the museum would be free. “That’s why we are taking it before the public to explain the need to charge the fee,” Lawhon explained.

In addition to a Sept. 18 public workshop, the park put its detailed fee structure proposal at www.nps.gov/gett (on the Public Involvement page under Park Management).

The interview with Lawhon covered a range of other topics that follow.

Who Gets The Money?
All of the ticket revenues go to the Gettysburg Foundation. “They operate the museum and visitor center on behalf of the park,” Lawhon noted. The National Park Service pays for park rangers and curatorial staff, while the Foundation covers everything else.

She said the Foundation uses the revenues for operating expenses. These are spelled out in more detail in the fee proposal. Briefly, the Foundation’s four obligations are:

Paying down the longterm debt, $15 million in tax-free bonds; operating and maintaining the facility; establishing a building and equipment reserve fund; and donating to the park and National Park Service an equivalent of donations that former book store manager Eastern National made in 1998 when the plan was drawn. Those annual amounts are $393,000 and $420,000 respectively.

Museum store commissions projected at $1,925.715 annually are ahead of forecast and the $422,260 expected from annual food service commissions is slightly below projections, according to the fee proposal document.

Cemetery Ridge
The restoration of Cemetery Ridge, including removing the old visitor center and Cyclorama Center, will cost $9.5 million. The Gettysburg Foundation is responsible for $7 million.

Lawhon said the park received special funding of $2.5 million to put 6,700 feet of power lines along Taneytown Road underground between Steinwehr Avenue to south of Granite School house Lane.

The original plan was to leave 30 car and four bus parking spaces in the Cyclorama lot closest to Taneytown Road. Lawhon said that based on current use of the lot they may leave more spaces, “so as not to make the mistake of not having enough parking for the cemetery and that part of Cemetery Ridge.”

Some preliminary work for demolition of the two buildings was scheduled in October and November with demolition to begin in December. “That’s not to say it won’t change,” said Lawhon.

A federal suit to prevent demolition of the Cyclorama Center, which was designed by architect Richard Neutra, is pending. “We’ve been advised that it’s prudent not to proceed with demolition,” she said.

The area to be restored covers 43.5 acres. Seven monuments that were moved when the Cyclorama Center was built will be returned to their historic locations. The center of the Union battle line, Ziegler’s Grove and prominent features on Cemetery Ridge will be restored.

Electric Map
The Electric Map was not moved from the old visitor center to the new one. A number of organizations are interested in acquiring it, but it is not a simple structure.

Lawhon said the map weighs 12 tons, measures 29 by 29 feet and would have to be cut into at least three sections to be taken out.

Recent engineering work turned up a complication and new cost. The map’s two layers of plywood and plaster are covered by protective asbestos under the paint, so asbestos mitigation would have to be done.

Visitor Complaints
Several complaints aired in Civil War News and elsewhere about the new visitor center and museum are being addressed.

One is the low light in the museum galleries. Lawhon said some low light is required in order to protect fragile textiles and artifacts, but they are looking to do what they can to increase lighting levels where possible.

There have been complaints about the location of handicapped parking, the grade, and lack of automatic doors. Lawhon said while every aspect of the building meets Americans with Disabilities Act requirements they are looking at what can be done above and beyond.

That includes the feasibility of putting in an automatic door opener. She said it is a matter of cost, when to do it and how to do it. Benches have been put along the walk to allow people to rest.

Party Invitation
Some people have taken exception to an invitation for a grand opening weekend fundraiser titled “Party Like It’s 1863.” Lawhon said, “There’s no offense meant at all.”

She said the title is meant to look at the achievement of building a new visitor center, something that took 10 years, and to take a little time to celebrate.

Park Visitation
“By many of our measurements we think we have a successful project here,” said Lawhon. She calls the period since April’s “soft” opening the shakedown period and said they are looking at making some changes.

Through driveway counters and a formula the park has used for years, they determined that battlefield visitation is down 10 percent to date at the end of July. Park visitation generally is down 15 percent, she noted, attributing Gettysburg’s smaller decline to additional people coming to see the new visitor center and museum.

That building has counters at the major entrances that tallied more than 880,000 visitors from mid-April through August. Lawhon noted that is more people than visited the old facility.

Generally the feedback has been “very, very positive,” Lawhon said. They are getting good feedback on the building and people are staying longer than had been anticipated. That has led to tight parking at times.

In late July the Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau reported that hotel occupancy was up nearly 13 percent over last year. Some of that was attributed to the new visitor center and the 45,000 people the battle reenactment brought to town, as well as other special events like Bike Week.

The Travel Council targets its marketing and advertising to the Mid-Atlantic area, particularly Baltimore and Washington.

The visitor center is marketing by editorial coverage, as opposed to paid advertising. Lawhon noted that three airline magazines ran stories, for example.

National Cemetery
Lawhon confirmed that fewer people attended summer park ranger programs at Solders’ National Cemetery. Before, with the visitor center across the street, a program at the cemetery could be announced as starting in a couple of minutes and visitors could spontaneously decide to go, something not possible now.

The park is offering scheduled programs under tents near the new visitor center and will be doing meadow programs. Lawhon said those are announced in the visitor center and are well attended.

Guided Tours
The park averaged more than 3,000 licensed battlefield guided tours a month and Lawhon said the battlefield guide operation which allows visitors to reserve their time “has gone very well.”

She said there is more assurance for visitors that they can book a guide. At the old visitor center people waited at the door at 8 a.m. thinking they had to be early to get a guide.

Bus tours have also gone well and more and more people are taking the Gettysburg Tours bus tour with a licensed guide on board, Lawhon said.