Park Service to Pay $4 Million Over Tower
A federal judge has ordered the National Park Service to pay $4 million to the owners of an observation tower that once stood near Gettysburg National Military Park.
The federal government acquired the land by eminent domain in 2000 and demolished the steel structure as part of a campaign to restore the area to the way it looked during the Civil War.
Creator Thomas R. Ottenstein called the 393-foot tower, which opened in 1974, a “classroom in the sky.” But historians and preservationists considered it an ugly modern intrusion.
U.S. District Judge Sylvia Rambo’s order calls for an arbitrator to split the award between the current landowners and Overview Limited Partnership, which was principally owned by Ottenstein.
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