2024 News

Last month, the Gettysburg Foundation partnered with Historic Gettysburg Adams County (HGAC) and Adams County Trade Institute (ACTI) to host a building trades learning lab at the historic George Spangler Farm & Field Hospital. Eleventh grade students from the ACTI Building Trade program were joined by experts from HGAC and the National Preservation Training Center of Frederick, Maryland, for instruction in skill used in preserving historic buildings.

After an introduction to the history of the property from Gettysburg Foundation’s George Spangler Farm Site Coordinator Paul Semanek, the students learned historical building practices from ACTI Building Trades Instructor Dave Snyder and HGAC Barn Preservation Specialist David Maclay. These skills included timber framing, stone masonry, hand hewing and peg making, with a focus on tool use, measuring skills, communication, teamwork and safety. Throughout the day, participants used their new knowledge to build a “bent”, a basic structural cross section of a timber frame structure. All the methods the students learned had been used when the George Spangler Barn was originally constructed, circa 1850, making this Gettysburg Foundation owned property the perfect location to introduce young tradesmen to historic preservation.

The annual timber framing lab, which has taken place at the George Spangler Farm for the past four years, is a key component of the HGAC Investing in Youth Initiative, formed in 2019 to ignite an interest in historic preservation work and restoration work in high school students.

“Adams County has so many structures in dire need of repair, and there just aren’t that many people out there with the specialized skills that we need going forward,” said Maclay, who has visited countless historical barns across the county, many of which are in desperate need of preservation. “The hope is that some of the kids here today or those who have gone through the program in the past five years really enjoyed it and will go on to specialize in historical building trades,” added Maclay.

“It’s been a great partnership between Adams County Trade Institute and both the Gettysburg Foundation and Historic Gettysburg Adams County,” said Snyder. “We’re really blessed….to get a place like this where students can learn about history and the history of construction with timber framing.”

Community partnerships such as the one shared by the Gettysburg Foundation, HGAC and ACTI is one of many ways that the Foundation fulfills its mission of educating the next generation of preservationists, close to home.  For details regarding HGAC’s Investing in Youth and Barn Preservation projects, visit HGAConline.org.