Steinwehr Ave.

The National Civil War Wax Museum  opened April 19, 1962 at 297 Steinwehr.    At that time offering 35 scenes containing over 150 individual figures highlighting the Civil War and Gettysburg.

In March 2018 much of the contents were auctioned off as the current owner moved to refocus the attraction.  It was renamed The Gettysburg Heritage Center.   March 2018 also brought an end to the massive blacktop parking lot across the street that had served the old visitor’s center (formerly the National Museum - torn down in 2008) and the Cyclorama (1962-2013) building, built the same year as the wax museum and torn down in March 2013.  In the preceding 25 years other tourist landmarks disappeared,  including the Lincoln Room Museum (1945-2005) and the National Tower (1974-2000).

"Just after the Civil War ended, a memorial Association constructed a wooden observation tower strategically on East Cemetery Hill so that people...could have a realistic overview of the area.... So popular was this tower that in 1895, the Federal government authorized the erection of four additional steel observation towers on the Battlefield. The public's continued enthusiasm was so favorable that in 1896 an additional fifth tower was erected by the Federal Battlefield Commission. The 1896 Annual Report to the commission praised the towers.... We are happy to report that visitors in great numbers from all sections of our own country, as well as from abroad, are constantly thronging these historic grounds and tracing out the complicated phrases of the titanic struggle."