Casino fight secures its place in history
By MEG BERNHARDT
Evening Sun Reporter
Evening Sun
Article Launched:03/01/2007
The battle fought over a failed proposal to build a casino near Gettysburg is now history. Literally.
Ben Neely, the collections manager of the Adams County Historical Society has been gathering items from No Casino
Gettysburg and Pro Casino Adams County to document the recent controversy. He will place them in the society's
archives for study, and predicts they eventually could become an exhibit.
"There is a lot of emotional response from seeing these items," Neely said. "We will wait for more time to pass
before putting it on display."
On Wednesday, he made a trip to Gettysburg Antiques at 15 Baltimore St. to pick up a neon sign that reads "No
Casino" and has hung in the window since April 2005.
Tim Flagg, the owner of stained glass and light shop Glass Flagg, volunteered to build the sign. Paddock looked for
a shop owner near the downtown square who was willing to hang the sign. Gettysburg antiques owner DiAnne Smith was a
passionate No Casino member who volunteered.
The bright sign was pictured in television broadcasts and magazine and newspaper articles, including one Las Vegas gaming industry magazine, said No Casino chairwoman Susan Star Paddock.
For the most part, Smith heard little about her sign until after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted to deny
a license to the proposed casino on Dec. 20. Then, those in favor of the casino started coming in and saying she
ruined the town, she said.
So she didn't take the sign down until Neely wanted to take it.
Neely is looking for items representing both sides of the debate that are unique and have "enduring historical
value."
The society archives contain a collection of items from the Gettysburg Electric Railway, a trolley system once built
across the battlefield. It was eventually was taken by the National Park Service by eminent domain and the case went
all the way to the Supreme Court, who affirmed the seizure. The trolley system was taken down, and represented the
conflict of entrepreneurs and preservationists in much the same way as the casino, Neely said.
The preservation of those artifacts help modern historians understand that controversy, and he hopes the casino artifacts will serve the same function.
The light will be one of the few things in the archive that actually plugs in, Neely said. Most of the society's
archives are paper documents – like a manumission paper for the slave Francis Scott Key freed in Gettysburg, or a
1786 map of the town created by James Gettys.
This will be the most modern piece in the collection, he said.
Neon lights are traditionally associated with casinos, which is why Flagg created the light.
"I made it because of the humorous idea of it," Flagg said. "This is a neon sign that says No Casino."
He built the sign by bending straight glass tubes into the shape of letters and then blacking out portions of the
tube he did not want to light. He filled the "No" with neon gas to make a red light and "Casino" with argon and
mercury to create a bright blue. It took him about two days to build it.
Neely plans to wrap the sign in acid-free foam and place it in a wooden crate for storage. The State Museum of
Pennsylvania in Harrisburg has also taken some items from the controversy, like T-shirts, bumper stickers and signs to place in their political and social memorabilia archives, Paddock said.
Contact Meg Bernhardt at mbernhardt@eveningsun.com.
TO DONATE:
Ben Neely is collecting items from the casino controversy for the Adams County Historical Society archives. Call him
at (717) 334-4723 ext. 203 if you have items to donate.
|
