Adams County Pa. Related Historical Articles
The History of the Wills
House
Elwood W. Christ
In 2000, the Borough of
Gettysburg purchased the
Wills House on Lincoln
Square. Plans currently
call for the dwelling's
conversion into a museum
and visitor contact
station, part of
Mainstreet Gettysburg's
interpretive plan.
But from a historian's
perspective, the
commonly-used name is
misleading. This
three-story, brick
Federal style structure
was named after David
Wills, a prominent 19th
century Gettysburg
attorney and county
judge, and host of
President Abraham
Lincoln 138 years ago.
However, when Lincoln
slept in the house on
November 18-19, 1863,
the structure had
already stood on the
town's square for 47
years, and Wills had
owned it for only four
of them.
The Wills House was
built about 1816 for
Alexander Cobean, a
merchant and one of the
founding fathers of
Adams County and the
Bank of Gettysburg, now
a branch of PNC. We
suspect that the
structure was built as a
commercial building and
not a private dwelling.
He might have hoped it
would serve as the first
permanent home of the
bank. It did not.
After Cobean's death,
the Wills House was
purchased in 1824 by the
Bank of Gettysburg, who
retained it for 35
years. For the first
fifteen years, the
building served as the
home to eight stores
whose proprietors were a
who's who of early
Gettysburg merchants –
Michael C. Clarkson,
James Hersh, Joel B.
Danner, Thomas C.
Miller, George Arnold,
and Samuel Witherow.
The year 1839 marked a
transition for the Wills
House. Anthony B. Kurtz,
a tavern keeper,
converted the building
into the American Hotel,
a landmark on the square
for nearly nine years.
In 1848, Kurtz converted
the building back to a
store where he and his
son, Keller, operated a
general store, book and
stationary shop until
1855. For the next four
years, the Wills House
served as the home of
three additional stores.
Purchased on April
Fool's Day 1859, David
Wills used the building
as his private home and
law office. In 1860 he
improved his property by
building a two story
brick commercial
structure that abutted
the east end of his
home. For a number of
years the studio of the
Tyson Brothers, two of
Gettysburg's leading
photographers, was
located on the second
floor of the "Wills
Building." Wills,
however, did not convert
the Wills House's one
store room into a parlor
until 1878.
After Wills death in
1894, the Wills House
was converted back to a
store building, and was
sold three times between
1897 and 1911. During
that time, possibly as
early as 1897, the first
floor exterior was
changed with the
addition of a store
front.
In 1911 Parron Ward
Stallsmith, or "P. W.,"
purchased the building.
He added new store
fronts on the York
Street and center square
facades and gutted the
first floor interior,
making it one large
room, the home of his
New Stand Drug Store
until 1936 when the
business was sold to Rea
and Derick, Inc. In 1953
the drug store was
expanded into the
Masonic Building.
After Stallsmith's death
in 1955, the Wills House
was purchased by Leroy
E. Smith who made
additional exterior
alterations. Then in
1976, Smith renovated
the first floor
exterior, taking it back
to a more
nineteenth-century look.
Shortly before his
death, Smith sold the
Wills House to the
Eisenhower Society in
1986.
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