Visiting Downtown Gettysburg Pennsylvania

Back in the early Fall of 2016 we had the pleasure of spending several days in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. While we were there we visited the classic tourist sites like the Gettysburg Battlefield, the Lincoln Train Museum, the Gettysburg Diorama, the Gettysburg Railroad Station and Soldiers' National Cemetery.

One of the things I like to do on our travel blog is show you the downtown areas of places we visit. Let's face it, often times you have to visit the "heart" of the city if you want to really explore everything that destination has to offer. So today, I'm going to share with you some of the things we saw while exploring the downtown business district.

First up...the Lincoln Square, also known as the roundabout. It sits in the center of town and you won't find any red lights there. When driving through you'll have to pay attention to where your going and to all of the traffic and people around you. Lincoln Square is always beautifully decorated for the season. During the late Spring & Summer seasons you'll see a bunch of beautiful flowers. During the Fall, you'll see Autumn decor and during the holiday season the square gets all decorated up in the finest of holiday decor.

Once your in the downtown district you'll need to find a place to park. There are at least 2 parking garages nearby and many of the streets have parking meters. We typically look for a parking meter if we're only staying for 2 hours (many have a 2 hour time limit) or we will look for a parking garage if we plan on spending the afternoon. You'll see signage directing you towards both of the large parking garages when your in Lincoln Square.

There are 4 streets that branch out from Lincoln Square - York Street, Carlisle Street, Chambersburg Street and Baltimore Street. All four of these major streets have restaurants, souvenir stores, boutiques, coffee shops and historical attractions located on them. You will want to park your car and make sure you take a little walk down each of these streets for at least 2 blocks, so that you don't miss anything that you may want to see.

As you're walking around the downtown business district you'll notice some beautiful old buildings that have been lovingly restored. I love seeing them painted in the traditional colors from the late 1880's and during the Civil War. A lot of these buildings were made into make-shift field hospital during the Civil War to help take care of the wounded soldiers. Those buildings are typically marked with plaques on the building or in front of them. A lot of them have businesses on the first (ground) floor and residences (apartments) on the second and third floors.

One of the things we really enjoyed when we were walking around downtown was seeing various Civil War memorials, historical markers that are loaded with information related to the building or memorial and of course...the famous President Lincoln statue that is found right on Lincoln Square. It's a statue (shown in the first photo in this travel feature) of President Abe Lincoln talking to a visitor to Gettysburg.

There are a lot of nice places to eat in the downtown business district. You'll find restaurants that offer fine dining, casual dining, take-out and little cafes along the way. One place we really enjoyed visiting was the Gettysburg Pub & Restaurant that sits right on the corner of Carlisle Street on Lincoln Square. Their food is absolutely delicious!

If your visiting the city and plan on checking out all of the tourist destinations and doing some shopping while you're here, I highly suggest that you wear comfortable shoes! You'll be doing a lot of walking up & down the streets and in & out of various stores and attractions. In addition, when I plan on shopping, I like to take along a large tote bag so that I can store all of my smaller packages in one bag and once it's full, I run it back to the car and get another one. Just my 2 cents on that!

So, there you have it! All of the photos in this travel feature were taken in downtown Gettysburg Pennsylvania. I wanted to give you a good look at what this business district looks like as well as give you some ideas on things you can go to see and do while there. Visiting this charming city is something that everyone should do at least once in their lifetime!

Note: All photos in this blog post are clickable and mobile-reader friendly. You can click on each image and it will automatically open up in a new browsing window and in an enlarged size. This will allow you to view the smaller details up close.