Clement Redding Farm: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Eisenhower National Historic Site

NPS Northeast Regional Office

The 690-acre Eisenhower National Historic Site consists of the home and farm of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, two neighboring farms related to the agricultural operations at the Eisenhower farm, the Clement Redding Farm, and an additional sixty-acre tract. The 238-acre Eisenhower home and farm was designated a national historic landmark on May 23, 1966. The site is significant for its association with the life and work of General Eisenhower, and because of its relation to the historic battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War. The Redding family retained lifetime tenancy of the Clement Redding Farm until Irene Redding's death in 1993 upon which the NPS assumed full management. Although not historically associated with the Eisenhower Farms, the Clement Redding Farm was acquired to provide a buffer for the Eisenhower site, thereby preventing adjacent development that might intrude on the historic farm scene. This action assured the western view, which was such an important part of the experience of the Eisenhower’s farm, would be preserved. The 132-acre Clement Redding Farm sits on rolling land about three miles southwest of the Borough of Gettysburg. The site is characterized by a tight farmstead with a distinct residential building cluster and a distinct agricultural building cluster separated by a main road, Redding Lane. The remainder of the site is open fields and pasture, some of which is leased and farmed by a local farmer. The farm cluster sits on high ground between Marsh Creek and its tributary Willoughby's Run. Located west of a major fall line that runs through Gettysburg, the farm occupies land believed to be among the earliest settled in Cumberland township. Unlike the thin rocky soils directly to the east of Clement Redding Farm, this bottomland appears to have been much more suited to agriculture. A review of aerial photographs from 1946, maps dating from 1901, and on-site inventory reveals that many of the landscape patterns have remained intact. The Clement Redding Farm represents a simple area farmstead with a long continuum of farming activity.

Clement Redding Farm: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Eisenhower National Historic Site

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