The Shriver House - Gettysburg, PA
N 39° 49.589 W 077° 13.871
18S E 309056 N 4410880
This significant civil war house and contributing structure to the historic district is marked by the historical society and has been turned into a museum to teach about local cultural history with regards to the Battle of Gettysburg.
Waymark Code: WMBAV9
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 04/27/2011
Views: 7
The mission of the Shriver House Museum is to provide an often overlooked perspective of the Battle of Gettysburg, the civilian experience during and after one of the deadliest and most historic battles ever fought on American soil.
The Shriver House Museum is located in the Historic District halfway between Lincoln Square in the center of town and the National Park Visitors Center.
Tours of the Museum are conducted by guides in period attire. When I visited on Friday, the house was open and I walked inside but didn't see anyone around so I left abruptly.
The Shriver House Museum is open seven days a week, April through Remembrance Day (mid-November). Groups of ten or more with advance reservations, however, are welcome any time throughout the year. There is also a museum shop located adjacent to the home and I think that may have been the part of the house I entered. There are two identical 19th century brick homes right next to each other.
This historic, Civil War house is marked by an interpretive courtesy of Main Street Gettysburg© and tells the tale of the home, its owners and the property's part in the Battle of Gettysburg. This sign of history/interpretive is part of a much larger series which tells the tale of the Battle of Gettysburg through the eyes of its citizens and their recollections and stories. This sign is in front of the Shriver house/museum, on the sidewalk. The SOH reads:
This 1860 home was the wartime residence of George and Hettie Schriver. The cellar housed Schriver's Saloon and Ten-pin Alley.
At the time of the battle, George was away serving in Cole's Cavalry. In the early afternoon of July 1st Hettie took her daughters, Sadie and Mollie, along with neighbor Tillie Pierce, to seek refuge at her family's farm by Little Round Top.
Confederate soldiers commandeered her home and set up a sharpshooter's position. For the next two days they exchanged rifle shots with their Union adversaries on Cemetery Hill, firing from makeshift portholes knocked through the south attic wall. Their deadly game was not played without a cost. John Rupp, a neighbor noted in a post battle letter that Union snipers "...killed two up in Mr. Schriver's house.."
Bloody fighting conducted from their home would not be the last of the war's cruel fate to touch the Schriver family. On January 1, 1864, Sergeant George W. Schriver was captured during a skirmish with Mosby's Rangers in Virginia and imprisoned at Andersonville, Georgia.
This 1860 house, constructed with a saloon and ten-pin alley, was the wartime residence of George and Henrietta Shriver
From the Civil War Discovery Trail site:
George and Henrietta Schriver were born and raised on neighboring farms just outside of Gettysburg. In the sprin of 1860, they moved into town and purchased a lot on Baltimore Street to build a new home for their growing family with space to accommodate their new business, Schriver's Saloon & Ten-Pin Alley. Their plans were cut short, however, by the eruption of the Civil War. George mustered into Cole's cavalry and Henrietta was left alone to take care of their two children. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederate sharpshooters commandeered the Schriver House and for two days exchanged fire with their adversaries on Cemetery Hill. The half-hour tour offers a glimpse of what civilian life was like during the war. (Site cited below)
The official link for the historic home is HERE