The Second Battle of Gettysburg

It seems, and I know it's been going on for awhile, that The National Park Service is indeed getting ready to tear down Richard Neutra's 1961 Lincoln Memorial at Gettysburg also known alternately as The Cyclorama and The Cyclorama Center. I had heard this before but was reminded in an email from Dion Neutra who asked,

Would be great if you could also publicize the plight of our Gettysburg Cyclorama Center, which is poised for demolition at a moments notice unless we can get to the new President and get him to pardon the building!   See petitions on our website; we just passed the 2000 mark!

The building was built, I went there in the 1970's, to house the Cyclorama, a 40 foot high 377 foot long oil painting on the battle created in 1883-84 by French artist Paul Philippoteaux and a reported team of 20.

Now The National Park Service wants to tear it down. The painting has been restored and installed in a new visitor center and the Neutra building sits and rots, awaiting the wrecking ball. This is Neutra's only government building east of the Mississippi.

[caption id="attachment_230" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Richard Neutra's drawing of his Gettysburg Memorial Building"][/caption]

It just seems strange to me that the organization responsible for preserving the nation's heritage would seek to destroy a part of it. Two other visitor centers created during the Mission 66 program from 1956-1966 have been spared but not this one.

Want to help?

Links:
Neutra.org www.neutra.org
Mission 66 www.mission66.com
National Parks Service www.nps.gov
Sign the Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/neutra2/petition.html