May 11, 2023 by Community Contributors
From The Gettysburg Connection
Historic Gettysburg Adams County volunteers have begun conducting weekly Underground Railroad tours at McAllister’s Mill, located adjacent to the National Military Park. HGAC encourages everyone to discover a part of the battlefield unknown to most visitors. Tours leave from the south end of the old Mulligan MacDuffer’s Golf Course parking lot at 1360 Baltimore Pike every Saturday at 11 a.m. through August.
The site, now a ruin with foundations and waterways still intact, was most probably the first site in Adams County that people seeking freedom found on their flight north from slavery. The mill site is privately owned and is not open to the public. HGAC has the permission of the site’s owner to access the property.
McAllister’s Mill was designated as part of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom program in 2011 and was the first property to receive that designation in Adams County.
The mill was built in the late 18th century. The owner of the mill in the 1850s, James McAllister Jr., operated the mill as a safe house in support of the Underground Railroad and sheltered more than 200 runaways from nearby Maryland, which was a slave state.
For more information, please call 717- 659-8827. Suggested donations are $5 for students and $10 for adults. Contributions support the society’s preservation activities, including maintenance of the society’s historic headquarters in the G.A.R. Hall, 53 East Middle Street, Gettysburg.
Gettysburg Area High School Technology Education program students display the Civil War Hospital signs they created. Back row, left to right: Stan Licharowicz, Technology Education Teacher, Eli Cann, Wes Coolbaugh and Dalton Redden. Front row, left to right: Johah Fleck and Zach Sentz.
Over the past year, Historic Gettysburg-Adams County (HGAC) has undertaken the mission to replace the old, metal Civil War hospital signs scattered across the Gettysburg area — with the help of students in the Technology Education program at Gettysburg Area High School.
Under the purview of HGAC’s Preservation Committee and in coordination with HGAC’s Investing in Youth Initiative, a total of 14 replacement signs have been fabricated. Eight have already been installed. The other six signs have recently been delivered to HGAC for installation.
These signs are produced by students in the Technology Education program at Gettysburg Area High School under the guidance of their instructor, Stan Licharowicz. The students use the latest computer-aided design and laser manufacturing technologies to produce these weather-resistant, long-lasting signs. The signs are then installed by HGAC volunteers.
This partnership with the Technology Education program grows out of the Investing in Youth Initiative’s goal to foster interest among the younger generation in historic preservation and restoration — and to build a base of appreciation for our area’s history.
HGAC thanks these students for the obvious care and attention they have given these signs.