The Alexander Dobbin House - Gettysburg, PA
N 39° 49.361 W 077° 13.938
18S E 308950 N 4410461
This site was built in 1776 by the Rev. Alexander Dobbin & was in use for some 25 years as one of the first classical schools west of the Susquehanna River. It is now a museum (Underground Railroad) refurnished in keeping with the early period.
Waymark Code: WMGR0D
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 04/02/2013
Views: 6
"Four Score and Seven Years" before President Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address (1863-87=1776), Gettysburg's oldest and most historic building, the Dobbin House, was built. Just imagine the residents of the then eighty-seven year old house who probably sat on the balcony to watch as Lincoln delivered his speech on a bluff a few hundred yards away at the National Cemetery!
This historical marker is part of a handsome series scattered about the town and the battlefield erected and maintained by Main Street Gettysburg, Inc.. The marker is planted in the brick-lined walkway at the parking lot. Them marker reads:
In 1776, Reverend Alexander DObbin, a Presbyterian minister from northern Ireland who became one of the area's most prominent citizens, built this two-story Georgian style stone house on a 300 acre property. His home well known as a school and gathering place for important religious and political meetings, is now the oldest building in Gettysburg. After his death in 1809, the house passed through several owners, with strong tradition indicating that is served as a 'station' in the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War.
During the Battle of Gettysburg, Alvira Ziegler and her five children lived here (her husband John was serving in the Union army), and on July 2nd witnessed a Union attack on Confederate sharpshooters sheltered in their barn. Afterwards, the hospital may have served as a temporary field hospital.
In 1940 the house first opened as a museum. The original museum house has been restored to reflect its 18th century appearance, and is open to the public as a colonial tavern.