This week's featured memorial on the Gettysburg Battlefield--the Eternal Light Peace Memorial--holds special interest to me for two reasons: 1) I live directly up the road from it, and 2) my current home has as its source one (perhaps two) of the 18 Peace Light Inn Cabins, which accommodated guests of the Peace Light Inn, built in 1941. The Inn and cabins were constructed for tourists visiting the Eternal Light Peace Memorial, dedicated in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The dedication of the Eternal Light Peace Memorial is itself a significant historical event, dedicated on July 3, 1938 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. Over 250,000 people attended the ceremony (of which there is an actual video . . . search online). For more background on the monument and its dedication, see the link below, which will take you to the web site Stone Sentinels:
http://www.gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/Other/Peace.php
And if you're interested in learning more about the Inn, which "was destroyed by a fire on March 16th, 1979," and the cabins, you'll find an immensely interesting link below to the Gettysburg Daily (a blog currently on hiatus) This blog provides numerous photos, both historic and current, of the area where the Inn and cabins stood.
http://www.gettysburgdaily.com/?p=10162
As I understand my own tie to these cabins, one (perhaps two) was relocated, sometime in the 1950's, to my current property. The prior owners expanded and built over these structures to create the home I now enjoy. But I'm not alone in living this history. Two of my adjacent neighbors' homes were also constructed over these cabins. In fact, while you cannot see the "cabin" in my home or my immediate neighbor, the home two doors down maintains the form of the Peace Light cabins, where two cabins have been joined. Quite an interesting architecture, to my mind!
Until next Tuesday . . .
Georgia Anne
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