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CURRENT GETTYSBURG NEWS IN THE MEDIA
Gettysburg Times
BY MARIANNE MCKIM RUMBAUGH
Times Staff Writer
Nothing is going to stop Dion Neutra from trying to save the Cyclorama
Center at the Gettysburg National Military Park.
“It means too much to me to just sit back and watch this,” the 77-year-old
California native said of the park’s intention to demolish the building
in the next one to three years.
In the late 1950s, Neutra’s father, Richard and his West Coast architectural
firm were commissioned to design the Cyclorama Center. Richard, an immigrant
from Austria, said at the time, that he was designing “the shrine of
the nation — the main visitors center in Gettysburg.”
Both Dion and his father worked on the project design together. Now,
the National Park Service is planning to demolish the building in order
to restore the battlefield on which it stands back to its appearance
at the time of the battle.
Dion said that he will fight to protect his father’s legacy. “If they
come with a bulldozer, I am going to chain myself to the building,”
he said during a press conference Tuesday, while wearing a heavy linked
chain around his neck. “If they tear it down, they are gonna tear me
down with it.”
The building has been planted in its location for more than 40 years
and is visited by nearly 2 million tourists annually. It has been said
that it is Richard’s greatest public commission and the finest example
of his work east of the Mississippi.
“None of those fast-food places are being taken away, but here they
are taking away a piece of history,” Dion said.
In September 1998, the Cyclorama Center was determined to be eligible
for the National Register of Historic Places. In December 1999, the
Society of Architectural Historians nominated Neutra’s Cyclorama building
as a National Historic Landmark — the highest honor a building can receive.
The design of the building was of utmost importance. The group who
desired the building chose the exact spot where it would stand. The
talented French painter, Paul Philippoteaux, who depicted the action
of Pickett’s Charge that is housed in the Cyclorama Center (the wraparound
cyclorama) stood at the precise area on which the building is located.
When visitors take a step out on the deck, they are able to see a large
portion of the battlefield.
The Neutras were also told it should be hidden within the battlefield,
so they positioned it adequately to be surrounded by the trees in Ziegler’s
Grove. “It’s true that is doesn’t look like a Pennsylvania barn, but
it would be hard to put the cyclorama painting in a barn. It is an honest
expression of its purpose,” Dion said. “To be in another location misses
the point.”
Richard also wanted to make sure that people who would find it difficult
to look at the painting, have another reason to go the the Cyclorama
Center. “Lincoln’s speech was 200 yards away and my father wanted to
commemorate the speech and not just what action took place on the battlefield,”
Dion said. “
Even though the fight is growing increasingly difficult, Neutra isn’t
alone in his fight to save the building. More than 1,500 people have
written letters on “what a scandal this is.” Not only people in the
United States but many around the globe.
Dion claims that the National Park Service is wasting money and wasting
35,000 square feet of space. He said that if the building isn’t suited
for the Cyclorama painting, they can still use the building for something
else. “This is an important historic piece,” he said. “Twenty million
people visited the park in the past 40 years and most of those people
come through this building.” But Neutra’s Cyclorama has become the prime
target of a campaign to restore Cemetery Hill and much of the battlefield
to its appearance in 1863.
“We’ve had plans to restore the battlefield for nine years,” said Katie
Lawhon, park spokesperson. But she added that other problems are plaguing
the building — moisture has been sucked inside and there has been a
lot of leaks in the roof over the past few years. The humidity and moisture
has played a hand in endangering the cyclorama painting, the reason
why the building was erected, Lawhon said.
Also, according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, “there
are other Neutra buildings, but there is only one Gettysburg Battlefield,”
the group stated in a written statement to the Gettysburg National Military
Park. It also states that it is “not necessary to enter upon any examination
of whether the building can be adapted to another use or can feasibly
be altered to accommodate the cyclorama painting or whether the painting
can be accommodated without any such alteration. To engage in this examination
is to presuppose that the building can trump the objective of battlefield
restoration and rehabilitation.”
The Park Service is looking to complete a $95 million complex that
will house both the cyclorama painting and the the new Visitor Center
and Museum. But no matter what, Dion Neutra says he will stand on the
grounds fighting until there is nothing left. “I may get hauled off
to jail, but it’s for a good cause,” Dion said. “‘It ain’t over ‘til
it’s over.’”
Marianne McKim Rumbaugh
Staff Writer
Gettysburg Times
1570 Fairfield Road
Gettysburg, PA 17325
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