Gettysburg Welcome Center

OPENING IN 2026!

The future Gettysburg Welcome Center will be located at 340 Baltimore Street, centered between Steinwehr Avenue and Lincoln Square. This public building will meet all ADA requirements and will provide a central location for transportation, event, and tourism information, and fully accessible public restrooms.

The vision for Baltimore Street is a long-range strategy for local economic stability to support our business district. In 2017, our Ten-Year Strategic Plan identified public restrooms and access to local information as critical inefficiencies in our downtown amenities for our residents and visitors. Thus, the project is built around two primary concepts:

Information: Directions, event, tourism, and transportation information will be available. It will be helpful for visitors, but it will also be a great place for locals to find out about events and projects, including volunteer opportunities and other ways to be involved in our community. 

Public Restrooms: Establishing this resource is vital to provide amenities otherwise unattainable by individual businesses. Restrooms will be ADA-compliant, individual facilities with changing stations for families with children.

NO ELEPHANTS WITHOUT HAY

For Main Street Gettysburg, that’s the Gettysburg Welcome Center. After eight years of planning, fundraising, and coordination, we are building this critical project: tourism information and public restrooms in the heart of the historic district!

What are the moments people love?

• The groundbreaking

• The construction

• The ribbon cutting

You know, the stuff you can see, touch, point to, and say, “I was part of that. I helped build that elephant.” But, we don’t talk as much about what happens next. Once the welcome center opens in August 2026—it will need hay. That’s where our designated endowment comes in, to:

• Staff it.

• Clean it.

• Operate it.

• Maintain it.

• Sustain it.

Because without a sustainment plan, all we’ve created is a future liability. Eventually the burden will shift—back to the organization, to taxpayer, to the next generation… or worse, the project or service disappears altogether. Without a designated endowment, “no elephants without hay” would just be a warning to figure it out somehow. But with a designated endowment—it’s sustainable; it’s legacy.

So, thanks to the Adams County Community Foundation, we have this amazing tool that turns the generosity of today into the stewardship of tomorrow.

Although not everyone will use the Gettysburg Welcome Center, it still creates long-term benefit for our community:

• A walkable district for residents and visitors.

• A better experience downtown.

• More foot traffic for our businesses.

• Support to our tourism economy.

All programs and organizations in the Giving Spree create shared benefits—that comes with shared responsibility. It’s time to buy hay!