Wisler House

The new Wisler house parking lot has been installed.

NPS Photo

The grounds of the Wisler house are now OPEN.

As of March 28, 2023, the new gravel parking lot and driveway have been installed and visitors are now welcome to drive to, and park, at the site.

 

Ephraim Wisler house along the Chambersburg Road.

 

Design drawings of the Wisler house rehabilitation project.

On the morning of July 1, 1863, the 8th Illinois Cavalry established a vidette post at the home and blacksmith shop of Ephraim Wisler. From its position on Knoxlyn Ridge, the Wisler House was an ideal location from which to spy any Confederate advance toward Gettysburg down the Chambersburg Pike. At 7:30 am, Union cavalrymen detected the advance on Henry Heth's Confederate division, which had departed their Cashtown bivouac to conduct a reconnaissance in force toward Gettysburg. Lt. Marcellus E. Jones, who commanded the picket line of the 8th Illinois, borrowed the carbine of Sgt. Levi Shafer, rested the weapon on one of the Wisler's fence posts, and from the western yard of the home fired the first shot of the Battle of Gettysburg. The Ephraim Wisler home would become enshrined in Gettysburg lore as "The First Shot House"...the location from which the great Battle of Gettysburg was inaugurated.

 

Duration:

29 minutes, 17 seconds

National Park Service preservationists are at work restoring the Ephraim Wisler home. Subsequent owners of the house made changes and additions to its size and footprint. Luckily, physical evidence of the many modifications to the house are visible to trained Park Service staff, and will allow preservation experts to stabilize and restore the home to its 1863 appearance.

 

Duration:

2 minutes, 43 seconds

Park preservation staff begin to carefully remove modern additions to the Ephraim Wisler house. Commonly known as the "First Shot" house, the first shots of the Battle of Gettysburg occurred around this property. Park preservation staff will continue to rehabilitate the structure to help bring it back to its 1863 appearance.

 

Duration:

17 minutes, 35 seconds

Park preservationists are nearing the end of the rehabilitation work for the Wisler House. Join Park Service specialists as they examine the renovations that have been made to the site, and discuss some of the plans for the Wisler home.

 

Duration:

2 minutes, 50 seconds

National Park Service preservationists continue their work to restore the Ephraim Wisler house back to it's 1863 appearance. This home is known for being the location where the first shots of the Battle of Gettysburg occurred.

 

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