Adams County Pa. Related Historical Articles
The History of the Old
Home Sweet Home Motel Property
Elwood W. Christ
In 2003 the National
Park Service demolished
the Home Sweet Home
Motel at the southern
end of Gettysburg's
Steinwehr Avenue strip.
The earliest claimant to
the land was a John
Potts who was listed as
an adjoining property
owner in the Rev.
Alexander Dobbin's
Penn-agent deed dated
1793. Potts retained
title to his 156 acres
until about 1793, when
Cumberland township tax
assessors implied he
sold it to Stephen
Weible. According to the
U. S. Direct (or
"Glass") Tax of 1798,
Weible's property was
improved with a
two-story log house
measuring 26' x 27' and
a log barn, 22' x 25'.
We suspect that the site
of these structures was
the location of the
Bliss Farm buildings.
During the next 118
years, the motel site
parcel change hands ten
times: 1804 to James
Scott; 1807 to John
Murphy; 1808 to Robert
Hayes; 1813 to Ralph
Lashalls; 1822 to Samuel
S. Forney; 1838
sheriff's sale to Joseph
Miller; 1851 to James
Pierce; 1878 to Beniah
Cassatt; and 1882 to
Frederick G. Pfeffer.
On April 1, 1911, the
widow Mary A. Pfeffer
sold a four-acre tract
that included motel's
future site to William
H. Johns, who later laid
out lots along the
Emmitsburg Road. On
September 1, 1927, Johns
and his wife Sarah R,
sold a 60' x 170' parcel
to Earl J. and Margaret
L. Waybright for $700,
and within a year we
suspect the Waybrights
built a two-story, brick
Prairie-style house.
Over the next eleven
years, the Waybrights
purchased additional
parcels. On March 29,
1929, they bought two
additional lots that
adjoined their home from
Johns. Their property
then fronted some 220'
along the Emmitsburg
Road and ran back to the
northwest 170' to "a
proposed alley." Between
1929 and 1938, the
Waybrights built several
cottages about their
home, which became a
tourist motor hotel or
camp. In U. S. Army
Signal Corps aerial
images taken during the
75th Anniversary of the
Battle of Gettysburg on
July 1, 1938, the motor
hotel, consisting of ten
cabins can clearly be
seen.
Possibly due to the
success of the 75th
Anniversary, the
Waybrights purchased
additional lots in the
fall of 1938 to expand
their business - one
from Andrew V. Weikert
and another that
included the 8th Ohio
Volunteer Monument.
Johns sold that parcel
in 1927 to a husband and
wife who then sold it to
the Waybrights. They
were Herma and Robert H.
Long, undoubtedly the
family for which Long
Lane was named. Johns,
however, retained a lot
that separated the Long
parcel from the rest of
the Waybright property
until October 1, 1948,
when he sold it to them
for one dollar.
The Waybrights retained
their home and motor
hotel property for 47
years. Shortly after
their 1948 purchase,
they expanded their
business, calling it the
Home Sweet Home
Cottages. Eventually,
they added units,
encasing some of the old
cottages with brick, and
renamed their
establishment the Home
Sweet Home Motel. After
the death of Earl
Waybright's widow,
Margaret L., her
executors sold the
property to RMR
Enterprises for $1.295
million. That
corporation retained it
until May 30, 2002, when
the Friends of the
National Parks at
Gettysburg, Inc.
purchased it for $1.2
million.
Have information on a building or property in Adams
County?
If so, send it to us at: History@myGettysburg.net
Read More articles by Elwood Christ