The Eisenhower Farm Gettysburg PA (1955-1979)

 

The Eisenhower Farm
The Main House  at the Eisenhower farm
Type of Activity		Communications Support
Location
Location	Gettysburg PA
Date of Activity	1955 to 1979
Coordinates	39°47'28.83"N/ 77°15'51.18"W

The Eisenhower Farm, located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the weekend retreat and home of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie. Purchased in 1950, the 169-acre farm served as a weekend retreat when he became president in 1953 and a meeting place for world leaders, that eventually became the Eisenhower’s' home after they left the White House in 1961. With its putting green, skeet range, panoramic view of South Mountain and the Gettysburg Battlefield. The  farm was equipped with a helicopter landing pad the president often used when traveling back and forth between the White House, Gettysburg and Camp David. Eisenhower was the first president to use the helicopter as a means of transportation.

The original farmhouse was in disrepair when purchased; and extensive renovations were completed by 1955. 

Eisenhower Farm Main Residence

The Eisenhower's Bedroom

Originally the barn’s milkhouse was established as an office and USSS Command Post (CP) for President Eisenhower’s  protective detail.

The USSS CP at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg PA

During the presidential years, one of the 8 to 10 agents who worked each shift would be stationed in the USSS CP to monitor the alarm control panel and radio communications equipment. The backroom served as a firearms and ammunition cache and was used by the White House Communications Agency who manned a plug-in switchboard teletype machine and microwave radio system to Camp David. Secured within a safe in the back of the room was the satchel containing the “football” containing the nuclear codes that always accompanied the president.

The USSS CP at the Eisenhower farm in Gettysburg PA

The office today appears as it did in the late 1960s and includes some of the original furnishings. One major improvement to the site security in the 1960s was the addition of a closed-circuit TV cameras that allowed the agents to survey the grounds via the monitors above their office desk.

 

 Secret Service guard hut at the main entrance

 The agents left the farm at the end of Eisenhower’s presidency, but returned in 1965 after Kennedy’s assassination prompted legislation providing protection to former presidents and First Ladies. Once again the agents utilized the old milk house as an office.

When I arrived at Camp David in 1965, Det. 3 (Cadre/Creed) was maintaining the radio equipment on the Eisenhower Farm. There was a remote radio console (MIKE) for the secret service CP that terminated in the switchboard room at Camp David. I tested the remote keying circuit on several occasions over the years but was never at the farm.

President Eisenhower passed away in 1969 and although scaled back the USSS provided continuing protection for Maime Eisenhower at the Gettysburg farm.

                                                      

Dedication of the Eisenhower Medical Center

In 1972 I did have the pleasure of meeting Mamie Eisenhower while I was covering an event at the dedication of the Eisenhower Medical Center in Palm Springs CA. Also attending the dedication was President Nixon, Vice President Agnew, Ronald Reagan the Governor of California at the time, along with celebrities Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and John Wayne. The San Clemente CCT provided all the temporary communications required to support three different protective details that were present at the dedication.  

The Secret Service manned the Gettysburg farm until Mamie passed away in 1979. The National Park Service preserves the farm of General and 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower.