Goodbye Cyclorama Building

It has been a fixture on the Gettysburg battlefield since 1962, but it is apparently time for the Cyclorama Building to go.  It will be torn down later this winter.

Here is a taste of an article on the WITF website:

(Gettysburg) -- The National Park Service has chosen to demolish an architecturally significant building on the Gettysburg battlefield.

The Cyclorama building was designed by famed architect Richard Neutra and once housed a 360-degree painting of Pickett's Charge.

The structure, which closed in 2005, has been the center of a struggle between the park service and modern architecture experts for more than a dozen years.

In an August interview with witf, NPS spokeswoman Katie Lawhon says tearing down the building would allow the agency to restore Cemetery Ridge to the way it would have looked during the three-day Civil War clash in July 1863.

"There were actually some monuments associated with soldiers from the Union Army that had to be moved when they built the building," Lawhon says. "So, the first thing we would do is put the monuments back where the veterans had originally placed them."

The park service reviewed the environmental impact of destroying the building before making its decision.

The agency says demolition could begin later this winter.

The Cyclorama painting is now on display at the Gettysburg National Military Park's visitors' center.