Eisenhower National Historic Site
Gettysburg, Pa.
Visited: April 9, 2006
NPS Site Visited: 282 of 353
NPS Website; Local Website
WHAT IS IT?
Longtime home and Black Angus cattle farm of the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
 BEAUTY (6/10)
Dwight Eisenhower found the endless fields of rolling Pennsylvania farmland to be eminently peaceful. In fact, so much of Ike’s life seems to center around finding a sense of inner tranquility. Ike’s two most noted calming methods, golf and watercolor painting, are on full display here.
A putting green sits in the front yard of the three-story white sided home, in full view of a Gettysburg NMP observation tower. In fact, the Eisenhower’s land’s entire eastern border is the Battlefield. Inside the house, Ike’s watercolors hang everywhere; they are the walls’ primary decorations. The painting Ike was working on prior to his death still sits on the easel in the family’s sunroom.
HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE (4/10)
The Eisenhowers purchased this Gettysburg farm home in 1950, aiming to retire and relax in the pastoral Pennsylvania countryside. It was the first home that World War II’s Supreme Commander of Allied Forces had ever purchased.
The quiet life eluded Dwight and Mamie, however, when, in 1951, Harry Truman appointed Ike head of NATO. A year later, the Eisenhowers moved to Washington D.C. when Ike was elected president of the United States. During his tenure as president, Dwight often entertained foreign dignitaries at his Gettysburg home.
When Dwight left the Presidency in 1961, he and Mamie finally got to enjoy retirement in Gettysburg. There are few historical displays on exhibit at the Site; instead, the farm opens a window into the personal life of one of the 20th century’s most beloved and accomplished world leaders.
CROWDS (6/10)
The amount of people you tour the Eisenhower Home with is the same number that can fit on the shuttle bus. Our living room tour would have been unbearably “stuffy” (to borrow Ike’s word) had the Boy Scout troop not decided to wander off elsewhere. As it were, we had ample room to eye up Mamie’s knickknacks.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The Eisenhower NHS is inaccessible to foot and drive-in traffic. You must purchase a ticket for the Site at the Gettysburg NMP Visitor Center and take a short bus ride into the Eisenhower farm grounds. Buses leave once every hour during most of the year. The heavy summer season sees buses depart once every half hour. The second floor of the Eisenhower house is not handicap accessible nor is the steadily inclining woodchip path to Ike’s Show Barn.
The current Gettysburg NMP Visitor Center is located just south of downtown Gettysburg along PA Route 134 (Taneytown Road), a few miles from U.S. Route 15. If you do not have a map, the easiest entry is from the south. The PA Route 134 exit will take you directly north for about 2 miles. The VC is on your left.
 CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
We were prepared to be disappointed after seeing the Gettysburg NMP’s miniscule selection of Ike and WWII books; the two parks must have the same book purchaser, right? Wrong. The Eisenhower NHS stocks an impressive array of Ike bios (nearly 30), WWII tomes and 1950’s retrospectives.
Even the children’s titles, Escape to West Berlin; Cameras on the Battlefield and The Orphans of Normandy spark interest and feel unique. The aforementioned Boy Scout troop did not purchase any books. They were too busy flinging their bookstore-bought Lancaster R.A.F. Power Prop paper airplane Bombers at each another. One plane even smacked headlong into Michael’s chest.
Perhaps the most tempting gift on sale was a replica of Eisenhower’s golf towel emblazoned with Ike, a golf bag and the words: fore, birdie, quiet and par. It is delightfully retro. Remember, Ike is still the only president to have made a hole-in-one.
COSTS (2/5)
The Site costs $5.50 per adult. The National Parks Pass is not valid here.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
One Ranger greets you at the shuttle bus drop off point, tells charming Ike stories, answers questions and takes you to the Eisenhower home’s front door. A different Ranger is posted in the Living Room. Our guide pointed out the interesting gifts of state and showered us with Central PA hospitality.
It is so difficult to find a Ranger at Gettysburg NMP, that it might be a good idea to save your Civil War questions for the NPS staff at Eisenhower NHS.
TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
We appreciate it when Ranger talks and interaction are the educational priority, especially when they are engaging and accompanied by a smile. Still, a little more about Ike’s immense role in 20th-century history would have been nice. Our shuttle bus driver kept us in stitches with Ike stories on the drive back to the Gettysburg NMP. The Ranger's anecdotal teaching style would have been enhanced by more actual anecdotes.
The Eisenhower home gives you enough of a taste of Ike’s life to make you want to hear more. The Park’s emphasis on personal life is similar to nearly all of the NPS’ presidential homes and birthplace sites. The problem here is that Ike’s home is one of the few not accompanied by a Presidential Library located in the same state.
For the three preceding presidents, Hoover, FDR, and Truman, the Library is less than a mile from their longtime home. But if you want to learn about Ike’s storied past, you must make the long trip to Abilene, Kansas.
 FUN (6/10)
Dwight Eisenhower is never someone we associated with central Pennsylvania history until our visit. Ike’s familiar landscape was our familiar; his happy place was our happy place. His prized Black Angus cattle won their ribbons at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the same Farm Show building located less than five miles from where we grew up. The Eisenhower’s bathroom tiling is exactly the same as our bathroom tiling. It was almost too much to take.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (6/10)
We had never before visited the Eisenhower home despite the multiple times (it is pushing 40) that we have visited the Gettysburg Battlefield. Heck, Michael’s sister went to Gettysburg College (where Ike kept an office) and she never went to the Eisenhower house.
Would our lives have been empty had we not made this visit? Probably not, but a trip to the Farm home is definitely a welcome respite from the manic Battlefield crowds and an effective way to travel back in time to the 1950’s, a much more pleasant atmosphere than the 1860’s evoked by the town’s innumerable Civil War reënactors.
TOTAL 47/80
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