In July 1863 at the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, two warehouse buildings occupied the site in front of you. The Sheads-Buehler Building was constructed in 1858 by local merchants Robert Sheads and Charles Buehler as a warehouse for their coal, stove, and lumber business. Located beside the Sheads-Buehler building was a frame structure that served as the local wholesale and retail business warehouse for Robert McCurdy and Jeremiah Diehl. The building was built sometime between late 1862 and early 1863.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, thousands of wounded soldiers from the North and the South received temporary shelter in both buildings as they awaited rail transport via the Hanover and Gettysburg Railroad depot to larger hospital complexes located in the North. These larger hospitals were better equipped to treat the severe nature of their wounds.
As the last of the wounded departed Gettysburg in the fall of 1863, the buildings returned to their previous purposes as warehouses. At the time of the photos, which were taken in the 1880s, the Sheads-Buehler building was also the site of the local Masonic Hall, with the adjacent building serving as a produce store. Both buildings survived into the 20th century, until they were demolished to make way for a gas station in the 1960s.
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