Visitor Center Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Antietam National Battlefield, National Park Service

Bartow, Paul; Weldon, Daniel

The Visitor Center Area cultural landscape is a component of the larger Antietam National Battlefield cultural landscape, hereafter referred to as ANTI. The cultural landscape retains integrity to the period of significance which is 1861 to 1965 and includes three sub- periods of significance: The Civil War (1861-1865), Commemoration and preservation (1897-1933) and the National Park Service Mission 66 Planning period of (1955- 1965). The Visitor Center Area cultural landscape is associated with significant themes and contexts that fall within National Register Criterion A and C. The cultural landscape derives national significance under Criterion A as a part of the setting of the Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War and retains local significance as an exemplar of the early attempts of Americans to commemorate and memorialize those who fought in the battle. The cultural landscape is also eligible for consideration under Criterion A in the area of planning and community development (park planning) for its association with Mission 66-era planning of the National Park Service (NPS). The collection of resources at the Visitor Center Area cultural landscape from this era, with the Mission 66 Visitor Center as the anchor, illustrates many important facets of the Mission 66 program, including new visitor centers and services, improved visitor accessibility for automobiles, new and expanded interpretation, and a focus on the preservation of the battlefield landscape. The landscape has local significance under Criterion C (architecture) for its Mission 66- era Visitor Center, which exemplifies the principles of the “Park Service Modern” style. The overall period of significance for the Visitor Center Area cultural landscape is 1861-1965, and encompasses the Civil War, subsequent commemoration activities, and concludes with the Mission 66 era of improvements. The study area for this CLI is located approximately one mile northeast of the town of Sharpsburg in Washington County, Maryland, within the center of the legislated boundaries of ANTI. The study boundary for the cultural landscape is defined by the historic Hagerstown Pike to the east, Sunken Lane (modern day Bloody Lane) to the south, Smoketown Road to the north, and cultivated fields associated with the Mumma Farm to the east. The study area is owned in fee simple by the National Park Service. Through a series of transactions and land acquisitions that occurred between 1890 and 2003, the War Department and then the National Park Service acquired fee simple ownership of the land. The landscape consists of +/- 23.7 acres of the total ANTI parent landscape’s 3,263.49 acres. The study area is classified as a designed landscape consisting of elements pertaining to different eras and distinct landscape activities including commemoration, interpretation, and visitor services. Examples of character defining features include commemorative monuments, such as the New York State Monument, the Maryland State Monument, the 5th, 7th, 66th Ohio Infantry Monument, the 20th New York Volunteer Infantry Monument, and the 3rd Maryland Monument. Other character defining features include Mission 66 era projects such as the reconstructed Dunker Church, the Visitor Center, the Dunker Church/Antietam Remembered Trail, and the grouping interpretive cannons and associated waysides.

Visitor Center Area: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Antietam National Battlefield, National Park Service

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