A new stone wall was constructed at Meade’s Headquarters (Lydia Leister Farm) last month. This stone wall doesn’t exactly match the style of stone walls that were in this area in 1863, but a stone wall does show up here on the Warren Map and created what is known as Leister Lane. This stone wall will be higher, and reach the height of 30 inches when it is completed. A “rider fence” will also be added. At the moment, this is a shorter version of the “commemorative era” walls that we previously featured.This image was taken facing west at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

A glimpse of a stone wall behind (north of) the Leister House can be found in this photograph taken a couple of days after the battle.This image was taken by Alexander Gardner facing northwest circa July 6, 1863.

Above one of the 17 dead horses that Lydia Leister claimed were on her farm after the battle, and to the left of the white fence, are a couple of large stones, and what appears to be a stone wall.This image was taken by Alexander Gardner facing northwest circa July 6, 1863.

Above the dead horses, and to the right of the outbuilding which is no longer standing, appears to be a continuation of the stone wall.This image was taken by Alexander Gardner facing northwest circa July 6, 1863.

The stone wall that formed the northern boundary of Leister Lane would have been removed when Meade Avenue was constructed in 1897. Notice the white picket fence that connects the Leister House to the Leister Barn. A stone wall was not present when this photograph was taken. The Taneytown Road is in the foreground from left to right or south to north.This image, courtesy of Fred Hawthorne, was taken facing west circa 1900.

Compare the previous photograph to this photograph. Notice that the white picket fence doesn’t connect the Leister House to the Leister Barn. A stone wall, along with the Meade Headquarters marker, is now present. That stone wall is probably a replication of the stone wall that was in this location in 1863.This image was taken facing west at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

In 1912, Hunt Avenue, on the other (east) side of the Taneytown Road opened. Drivers with increasingly powerful vehicles sometimes moved too quickly down this hill by the Leister House and its foot traffic.This view was taken facing east circa 1915.

By the early 1930s, the National Park Service decided to close the intersection of Meade Avenue with the Taneytown Road. The vehicle is making a right turn from the Taneytown Road onto Meade Avenue.This view was taken facing northwest sometime after 1926 and before 1939.

However, the National Park Service did not close down Meade Avenue in the 1930s. They moved it. This photograph shows Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers digging up Meade Avenue and preparing to reroute it.This view, courtesy of The Center for Civil War Photography, which has more than 1,000 historic Gettysburg Park images like these on their Flickr, was taken facing west circa 1939.

Meade Avenue was moved to the north, farther away from monuments, such as the monument to the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment with the figure standing on top and away from the Leister Farm.This view, courtesy of The Center for Civil War Photography, which has more than 1,000 historic Gettysburg Park images like these on their Flickr, was taken facing west circa 1939.

Meade Avenue now ended at a turnaround and at a small parking lot. The monument to the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment is on the far right of this photograph. Between the parking lot and the farm buildings, the old Leister Farm Lane was recreated. It was more pedestrian friendly.This image was taken facing east circa 1940.

The relocation of Meade Avenue allowed for the building or rebuilding of stone walls in this area by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to recreate Leister Lane. During the 1930s the stone wall featured here (which we’ll call the north wall), and a stone wall near the Meade’s Headquarters marker (we’ll call this the south wall) and the Leister barn were constructed. The south stone wall approximates the stone wall seen in the 1863 photograph by Alexander Gardner.This image was taken facing west circa 1939.

Here is a modern, similar view to the previous picture. The monument is to the Oneida, New York Independent Cavalry. The monument to its left is to the eight companies of the 8th United States Infantry Regiment. The monument partially visible behind the sign is to Companies E and I of the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry.This image was taken facing northwest at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

The design of the CCC built stone walls comes closer to matching the STYLE of the stone walls on the Gettysburg Battlefield in 1863. Hopefully when the wall they are now (2016-2017) constructing will also have that look when it is completed. This image shows the Taneytown Road in the foreground. The stone wall running north to south or parallel to the Taneytown Road was probably not here at the time of the battle.This image was taken facing west circa 1940.

Let’s look at another Alexander Gardner photograph taken of the Leister Farm a couple of days after the battle. Look behind (north of) the house along the Taneytown Road.This image was taken facing northwest circa July 6, 1863.

There was not a stone wall paralleling the Taneytown Road in this area. This image appears to show that there was a wooden fence. Not too many, if any, stones.This image was taken facing northwest circa July 6, 1863.

By 1940 the National Park Service had built/rebuilt stone walls in this area that had the same appearance as stone walls that soldiers encountered in 1863. Part of Leister Lane was recreated. The stone wall on the left with the wooden rider fence (“pig tight, cow high”) was later removed. The stone wall on the right is in the same location as the stone wall that was seen in the background of the Alexander Gardner photograph.This image was taken facing east circa 1940.

At the moment, this recently constructed stone wall has a “flatter” top than the stone wall constructed in this same location by the CCC. It also has a different look than the other stone walls in the area, including the south stone wall built by the CCC.This image created facing south at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

The north stone wall will have a “rider” fence like the stone wall by the Meade’s Headquarters marker, and it will be higher than the stone wall we are now showing you.This image was taken facing southwest at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

The north stone wall is approximately the same height as the stone wall by the Meade’s Headquarter’s marker, or would be if the older stone wall was rebuilt a little. We will have to see how close it comes when it is finished.This image was taken facing southwest at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

The newer stone wall does not extend to the top of Cemetery Ridge. It ends close to the monument to the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment which is out of sight (farther to the right) in this view.This image was taken facing southeast at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

We hope that the newer stone wall, which is very well built, will come closer to matching the look of the stone wall on the left.This image was taken facing west at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

Here is a drawing (oriented to the north of course) from the 1984 Historical Architecture Building Survey of the Leister Farm. Notice how the stone wall near Meade’s Headquarters marker has been moved from south of the marker to incorporating the marker within the wall. Notice the sidewalks on either side of the stone wall that is the subject of today’s post.This image is courtesy of the Library of Congress.

We noticed a couple of interesting items from this view taken from the Ziegler’s Grove tower.This image was taken facing southeast by National Park Service Historian Frederick Tilberg in 1958.

First, there was a wooden fence near the Leister Barn that helped to connect the two walls and limited vehicle traffic near the Leister Farm. Second, the fence closest to the camera, and placed by the CCC, does not stretch as far to the right (west) as does the fence that was recently constructed.This image was taken facing southeast by National Park Service Historian Frederick Tilberg in 1958.

Again, the modern stone wall, which we hope gets worn and weathered over the next couple of years to match the look of the stone wall with the rider fence, stretches almost to the monument to the 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment.This image was taken facing west at approximately 11:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.

In this photograph taken of the excavation of the Leister House in the early 1960s, the wooden gate connecting the two fences is easily seen near the Leister barn.This image was taken facing west in 1961.

With the two stone walls the National Park Service recreated not only the Leister Lane, but they created a pedestrian buffer.This image was taken facing east in 1960.

By the time that the Leister Barn was redone in 1987 the north stone wall of Leister’s Lane was also in the process of being removed. Remnants of the connecting wall and gate are seen in the right background of this photograph.This image was taken facing southwest in the spring of 1987.

So from that time to now, the north stone wall wasn’t present because someone felt that it was not historically significant.This image was taken facing southeast at approximately 7:30 AM on Saturday, May 26, 2012.

But now its back because it is felt to be historically significant. Hopefully, when it is finished, it will have the 1863 “battlefield landscape” look.This image was taken facing southeast at approximately 7:30 AM on Monday, December 26, 2016.