Built in 1855, the brick Evergreen Cemetery gatehouse at 799 Baltimore Pike in Adams County, Pennsylvania, faces you now. This brick gatehouse was designed by Philadelphia architect Stephen Decatur Button in mid-1855; its cornerstone was laid by Reverend Samuel Simon Schmucker on September 1, and local masons George and Henry Chritzman constructed the building in less than three months at a cost of $1,025. It served as the cemetery office and as the residence of its caretaker.
The Ever Green Cemetery Association of Gettysburg was chartered in 1853, and the cemetery on this hill between Baltimore Pike and Tanneytown Road remains a private cemetery to this day. During the American Civil War the gatehouse played an important role in the July 1 to 3, 1863 Battle of Gettysburg; Major-General Oliver Otis Howard recognized the strategic advantage of this high ground and lined his artillery along what became known as Cemetery Hill, facing north and west. Today the gatehouse is a contributing structure in the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District, a quiet witness to construction, care, and conflict.
Howard's artillery once lined this very hill, facing north and west across the ground that is now your view.