Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania's first on-farm methane digester was built near Gettysburg at the Mason-Dixon Farm in 1978, and generates 600KW.

Demographics

2020 census

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Gettysburg borough, Pennsylvania – Racial and ethnic composition

!Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)

!Pop 2000

!Pop 2010

!% 2000

!% 2010

|White alone (NH)

|6,208

|6,066

|style='background: #ffffe6; |5,249

|82.88%

|79.61%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |73.87%

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|412

|411

|style='background: #ffffe6; |382

|5.50%

|5.39%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |5.38%

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|23

|13

|style='background: #ffffe6; |29

|0.31%

|0.17%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.41%

|Asian alone (NH)

|95

|142

|style='background: #ffffe6; |269

|1.27%

|1.86%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3.79%

|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3

|0.03%

|0.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.04%

|Other race alone (NH)

|15

|11

|style='background: #ffffe6; |35

|0.20%

|0.14%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.49%

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|134

|143

|style='background: #ffffe6; |265

|1.79%

|1.88%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3.73%

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|601

|834

|style='background: #ffffe6; |874

|8.02%

|10.94%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |12.30%

|Total

|7,490

|7,620

|style='background: #ffffe6; |7,106

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

As of the 2010 census, Gettysburg had a population of 7,620, and was 79.6% non-Hispanic white, 10.9% Hispanic or Latino, 5.4% African American, 1.9% Asian, 2.2% all other.

Industry

The main industry of the borough is tourism associated with such historic sites as Gettysburg National Military Park (including the Gettysburg National Cemetery) and Eisenhower National Historic Site. Gettysburg has many activities and tours to offer to vacationers and tourists who are interested in the Gettysburg area and the history of the community and the battle. Tourists for the annual reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg use borough facilities, which include the Dobbin House Tavern and Hotel Gettysburg.

Battle of Gettysburg reenactment

Every year from July 1–3 volunteers reenact the Battle of Gettysburg. Each day re-enactors display a different part of the battle with commentary regarding the hardships of the battles. The battles are narrated by the battlefield guides of the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Transportation

Many roads radiate from Gettysburg, providing hub-like access to Washington, D.C. , Baltimore , Harrisburg , Carlisle , Frederick and Hagerstown, Maryland and Hanover, Pennsylvania . York is east on the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30), the first transcontinental U.S. highway, and Chambersburg is west on it. Today the borough is a hour drive from Philadelphia and a hour drive from Pittsburgh via the Pennsylvania Turnpike and U.S. Route 15.

Gettysburg Regional Airport, a small general aviation airport, is located in Cumberland Township, west of Gettysburg.

The main east–west road through downtown Gettysburg is U.S. Route 30, which is known as York Street east of Lincoln Square and Chambersburg Street west of Lincoln Square.

York Adams Transportation Authority (YATA) operates public transportation in Adams County. Freedom Transit, implemented in 2009, The hub of the bus system, the new Gettysburg Transit Center, is under construction on Carlisle Street. Beginning in 2011, a Rabbit Transit commuter bus to Harrisburg runs two times each weekday in each direction.

Media

The Gettysburg Times, a daily newspaper
Raices De Todos, a bilingual monthly cultural magazine, serves the city's growing Latino/Hispanic population
The Evening Sun, a daily newspaper
Celebrate Gettysburg, a lifestyle magazine
WGET-AM 1320 and WGTY-FM 107.7, owned by the Times and News Publishing Company
WZBT-FM 91.1, a non-commercial radio freeform format station owned by Gettysburg College
The Adams County News was a newspaper located in Gettysburg, which was published 1908–17. (Available in digitized form online.)
Gettysburg is located in the Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York, PA media market. Television stations that cover Gettysburg news include WHTM-TV and WHP-TV in Harrisburg, WGAL in Lancaster, and WPMT in York. Some Gettysburg residents also receive broadcasts from WJZ-TV in Baltimore, Maryland and WDVM-TV in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Films & Documentaries

Gettysburg has been the setting of many films and documentaries surrounding the Battle of Gettysburg including Gettysburg (1993 film), The Gettysburg Address (2017), Gettysburg: Darkest Days & Finest Hours (2008), and many more.

Films not related to the historic battle include A Gettysburg Christmas (2023) and 1000 to 1: The Cory Weissman Story (2014).

Education

K-12 education

Gettysburg is served by the Gettysburg Area School District.

Schools in Gettysburg borough include Lincoln Elementary School and Gettysburg Area Middle School. Gettysburg Area High School is in nearby Straban Township. James Gettys Elementary School, which has a Gettysburg postal address, is in Cumberland Township. While all parts of the school district are assigned to the same middle and high schools, different areas are zoned to different elementary schools: parts of the borough are zoned to Lincoln Elementary, other parts are zoned to James Gettys Elementary, and some parts are given the choice between the two schools.

Vida Charter School is in Cumberland Township.)

Sister cities

Gettysburg's sister cities are:

Gettysburg, South Dakota, since 1997
León, Nicaragua, since 1987
Sainte-Mère-Église, France, since 1993
Morelia, Mexico, since 2004
Sekigahara, Japan, since 2016

Notable buildings

thumb|Gettysburgh Borough Hall

Eisenhower National Historic Site: Preserves the home and farm of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, and its surrounding property of
Federal Building, the main Adams County Library since 1992, was the War Department/National Park Service headquarters of Gettysburg National Military Park from 1912 to 1962
Adams County Courthouse

Notable people

Laura A. Brown (1874–1924), American activist and local politician
Brian Patrick Clarke, American film and television actor born in 1952.
Steve Courson, former NFL player, played football at and graduated from Gettysburg Area High School in 1973. His #71 is the only number to be retired by GAHS.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th U.S. president, and his wife Mamie Eisenhower, retired to a farm near Gettysburg after leaving the White House in 1961. He lived there until his death in 1969.
Julia Jacobs Harpster (1846–1935), American Lutheran missionary in India, born in Gettysburg.
The Rev. Henry Eyster Jacobs (1844–1932), theologian and Lutheran seminary president.
Julia H. Johnston, Christian songwriter who composed Grace Greater Than All Our Sin.
Elizabeth C. Keller (1837–1912), physician
Fritz Pfeiffer (1889–1960), artist.
Eddie Plank, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, was born in Gettysburg in 1875 and played baseball at Gettysburg College.
The Rev. Samuel Simon Schmucker, a founder of Gettysburg College, and Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.
Jeff Shaara (1952-), Award-winning American novelist who has written fifteen New York Times bestselling novels.
Thaddeus Stevens, Gettysburg Attorney and leader of the Radical Republicans as an opponent to slavery.
John Studebaker, co-founder of what would become the Studebaker Corporation automobile company, was born in Gettysburg in 1833.
Elizabeth Thorn (1832–1907), Evergreen Cemetery caretaker who buried approximately 100 fallen soldiers after the Battle of Gettysburg.
William T. Ziegler (1840–1916), member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives

References

External links

Borough of Gettysburg official website
Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau