Restoring America’s historic homes is a vital endeavor, one that largely goes unnoticed. Oftentimes, our attention is drawn to the shiny and new structures popping up around our cities. Rarely do we honor properties that have stood on our streets for decades, standing as wordless witnesses to history.
How Restoring Historic Haunted Homes Keeps History Alive
Restoring homes may not be the easiest task, but it’s well worth the effort. Resuscitating old properties, even those with dark or haunted reputations, saves these historic structures and their unique fixtures from landfills.
Yet, sustainability is not the only benefit of this undertaking. Restoration preserves not just the architecture of a certain era, but the stories that live within it. And when these homes are opened to the public by offering tours or housing businesses, it allows the community to experience the past firsthand.
Yes, such homes might have dark pasts — but that only makes them all the more intriguing. While paranormal tourism might seem morbid to some, it’s a curiosity that’s rooted in history. These properties act as a stage to discuss the past, pivotal historical events, and different cultures. Restoring them brings their legacies to life.
Let’s turn our attention to three compelling stories of restoration, exploring how preserving what’s old can truly breathe life into history. Read on to learn the story of three Gettysburg properties that have been revived into historic jewels.
Welty House
The Welty House, as it is called today, was built in the 1830s. Although you might never have known it from the outside, this brick home contains an important piece of Gettysburg history within its walls.
Owned by Solomon Welty throughout the harrowing, three-day-long Battle of Gettysburg, it held a central location in the conflict. Confederate sharpshooters occupied the home, firing from the second-floor windows across a largely empty field at Union forces at Cemetery Ridge. Meanwhile, the Welty family and their neighbors sheltered in the cellar, waiting out the fray raging above.
Remarkably, the house survived despite being directly in the crossfire, being captured in a photograph of President Lincoln making his way to deliver his Gettysburg Address at the nearby Soldiers’ National Cemetery. Yet this compelling story might have been lost without the efforts of those who see beauty in old structures.
With diligent work, this home’s historic identity has been preserved, right down to the bullet holes that still scar the building’s brick exterior. Today a beautiful bed and breakfast, the Welty House completed its conversion to an inn in 2006 under the eyes of Tessa Bardo and Brian Duncan. In 2022, it came under the dedicated care of US Ghost Adventures, which renewed its historic identity, highlighting its role in Civil War history.
On July 3, 2023, a ceremony was held to unveil a historic marker at the home, commemorating its importance exactly 160 years after the battle. The pockmarks remain in the brick walls outside guestrooms, as do the steep stairs that descend below a hefty wooden cellar door where the Welty’s hid many years ago.
Operating as part of the Brickhouse Inn, it’s a place you can feel and touch history, rather than read about it.
Brickhouse Inn
The Brickhouse Inn stands as another prime example of a significant structure that might have been demolished were it not for the hard work of passionate people. Step inside this striking Victorian property today, and you’ll be met with a magnificent sight.
Restored in painstaking detail, a good deal remains from the interior trim and stained glass from the late 19th century, along with several original fixtures. The old-world wooden floors, original to the home’s construction, also stand, beautifully restored rather than being ripped out and replaced.
After the Battle of Gettysburg, the Welty House was sold to the Toot family, who went on to build this Victorian House next door in 1898 as a duplex. Its life as an inn began under the care of Craig and Marion Schmitz in 1996, who lived in the Welty house. Almost thirty years later, it’s still going strong under the care of ghost tour company US Ghost Adventures.
Although decorated with classic period pieces that readily transport you to another era, all rooms in this award-winning bed and breakfast come with air conditioning, heating, and high-speed WiFi. Antiques and period art line the home, along with historic documents detailing the rich history of this town.
A dwelling with a haunted reputation, ghostly enthusiasts flock to this Gettysburg property to experience the perfect combination of history and spooky atmosphere. Whether any ghosts truly live in this historic property is up for debate, but their stories certainly remain, preserved alongside the stunning structure.
Jennie Wade Birthplace House
Within shouting distance from the Gettysburg Battlefield sits one of the oldest residential properties in the city. The 1820-era Jennie Wade Birthplace House comes with a fascinating story. Immortalized as the only civilian to die in the Battle of Gettysburg, twenty-year-old Jennie Wade lived much of her childhood in this humble weatherboard home.
For more than forty years, the home fell under the care of Randy Inskip, a man dedicated to preserving the home’s character and historic identity. During a 2023 project, a hidden room was uncovered. The small 3 ½ foot by eight-foot space revealed colors and wallpaper from a lost era.
Although this might seem disappointing to some, it wasn’t to Inskip. Having worked with a historical architect to choose colors appropriate for the time period, the discovery of the room confirmed that Inskip and the painter were correct in their color choices.
Over the years, the home has housed wine shops, gift shops, and a museum on the second floor. Today, it is under the ownership of US Ghost Adventures, opening its doors for tours and overnight ghost investigations inside this historic home, said to still harbor the spirits of Jennie and her family.
Adorned with a bronze plaque, the structure remains widely unchanged, seemingly frozen in the mid-1800s. Original floors, walls, and furnishings adorn its rooms along with period-appropriate artifacts, lending visitors a glimpse into the modest life of this young woman.
Tragically shot by a stray bullet from a confederate sharpshooter in her sister’s home, Jennie Wade’s presence continues to permeate the property. Exhibits detail her upbringing and family history, offering a personal perspective on an event that can seem too unfathomable to grasp.
Why Restoring Historic Homes Is Important
While statistics and facts about the Battle of Gettysburg are readily available online, these numbers feel impersonal and can lack the intimate details of the lived experience. By restoring historic homes, haunted or not, we maintain a personal connection to the past — seeing the world through eyes far different than our own.
Preserving the past through such properties is a crucial part of history, one that photographs alone cannot provide. Renewing houses instead of razing them is not just a sustainable practice, it’s a necessary one. This labor of love preserves history itself, transforming homes into living exhibits that bring the past into the present.
Whether tourists attend for their legends of hauntings or simply to appreciate the architecture, all leave with a fuller understanding of history and the people who once inhabited these spaces.