Last reviewed 16 October 2026 · A three-minute read · 1763–1966
Sharpsburg, Maryland, founded in 1763, became the site of the single bloodiest day of the American Civil War on September 17, 1862, when 23,000 men fell near the town. Five years later, the Lodge House rose as gatehouse to the national cemetery that gathered the dead.
The short answer
The Lodge House is the Gothic Revival limestone gatehouse of Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, Maryland, built in 1867 to the design of Paul J. Pelz as his first independent commission. It served as the cemetery superintendent's residence and the battlefield's only public building for decades, and now holds National Park Service offices.
Robert Wood and Company; Boucher, Jack E, photographer; Searle, David D, delineator; Allen, Lori Ann, delineator; Wenchel, Andrew, delineator; Price, Virginia B, transmitter — 1933 · Public domain
1867
An architect's first building still guards the gate
The Lodge House is a stone gatehouse now used as office space for Antietam National Battlefield, with seasonal public restrooms tucked inside. It stands right at the cemetery gates, where Shepherdstown Pike meets Bloody Lane, built from rough limestone in a Gothic Revival style, with a small tower rising over its steep roofline.
The Lodge House went up in 1867, the same year the cemetery itself was finished and dedicated. The builders were a firm called Grant, Jackson & Co. The design came from Paul J. Pelz, a young Washington architect who would later design the Library of Congress. This was his first building on his own.
For its first decades, the Lodge House carried more weight than its size suggests. The cemetery superintendent lived inside it, and the building doubled as the visitor's first stop and an administrative office for the Maryland Cemetery Commission. Until a separate battlefield superintendent was hired in 1900, this gatehouse was the only public building tied to the whole battlefield. Its tower gave visitors a view out over the fields where the fighting happened.
The U. S. War Department took over the lodge and cemetery in 1877, and the National Park Service has run both since 1933. Workers added public restrooms in the late 1920s, then rearranged them into office space in 1970. In 1939, crews from the Works Progress Administration repaired the iron fence and stone wall around the grounds.
September 17, 1862
Thousands died in four hours along the Sunken Road
The Antietam National Cemetery beyond the gate holds nearly 4,700 Union dead from the battle fought here and nearby. The fighting on September 17, 1862, left about 23,000 casualties across the fields around Sharpsburg. Union losses ran near 12,400, Confederate losses near 10,300, and more than 3,600 men died that single day.
The worst of it happened along the Bloody Lane, a sunken farm road a short walk from the Lodge House. About 5,500 Union troops attacked 2,600 Confederate soldiers dug into that road for nearly four hours. Confederate dead piled three deep along its 800 yards. Blood pooled inches deep in places by the time the firing stopped.
1880
A 30-ton granite soldier stands beyond the gate
At the center of the cemetery, past the Lodge House gates, stands the The American Volunteer (statue), a colossal granite soldier known locally as "Old Simon." Sculptor Carl Conrads and architect George Keller designed it, and it was carved at the Rhode Island Granite Works in Westerly. The statue stood on display at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where more than ten million visitors saw it, before it came to Sharpsburg and was dedicated at the cemetery in 1880. It weighs about 30 tons and stands 21 and a half feet tall, set on a pedestal that brings the whole monument to over 44 feet.
Nearby, regimental monuments mark where New York units fought. The 45 feet marker and the 80 feet stone both stand inside the cemetery grounds, placed by the men's old comrades to mark where they served.
late 1920s to 1970
Visitor restrooms gave way to park offices
Public restrooms went into the Lodge House in the late 1920s, built for visitors touring the cemetery and battlefield. By 1970, staff reworked that space into offices instead, as the National Park Service's own needs grew. The building's limestone walls and gothic tower have stayed close to their 1867 form through all of it.
now
The gatehouse still opens onto the battlefield beyond
The Lodge House still stands at the corner of Shepherdstown Pike and Bloody Lane, doing office work for Antietam National Battlefield, with seasonal restrooms open to visitors. Its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, granted in 1966, protects it as a contributing piece of the battlefield's history. Walking through its gate still puts a visitor on the same ground the cemetery's first superintendent walked in 1867, with the fields of the battle spread out beyond the wall.
The Piper House stands about a quarter mile from here, another building that watched the fighting unfold around it.
The Lodge House still stands at the cemetery gates, its limestone walls and tower largely unchanged since 1867.
Read the ground you are standing on
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Sourced records, high and medium confidence. Era background is marked as such.
Deep time
The bedrock under Sharpsburg is the Conococheague Formation's Big Spring Station Member, a Cambrian-era dolomitic sandstone and dolomite laid down roughly 500 million years ago.
Era background — not a record of this tile · Macrostrat
Early modern
1763
The town of Sharpsburg was established in 1763, making it one of the older planned towns in western Maryland and a fixture of the Great Wagon Road corridor.
Mountain View Cemetery in Sharpsburg has records reaching back to 1768, nearly a hundred years before the war dead were brought to the national cemetery beside it.
Burial details worked fast and carelessly after Antietam, laying soldiers in everything from single graves to long shallow trenches scattered for miles across the Sharpsburg countryside before the national cemetery existed.
On September 17, 1862, about 5,500 Union troops under Major General William French attacked 2,600 Confederates holding the Sunken Road, known afterward as Bloody Lane, for nearly four hours.
Joseph K. Mansfield, Israel Bush Richardson and Isaac P. Rodman, all Union generals, died in or near Sharpsburg from wounds suffered at Antietam in 1862.
Washington, D.C. architect Paul J. Pelz designed this Gothic Revival limestone lodge in 1867, the same year Antietam National Cemetery was dedicated, and it was his first independent commission before he went on to design the Library of Congress.
Antietam National Cemetery, dedicated September 17, 1867 on the fifth anniversary of the battle, holds the remains of roughly 4,700 Union soldiers killed or mortally wounded nearby.
Maryland's own cemetery trustees ran the lodge from 1867, the U.S. War Department took it over in 1877, and the National Park Service has held it since 1933.
Before a separate battlefield superintendent was authorized in 1900, the lodge's resident superintendent oversaw both cemetery and battlefield, making it the only public structure associated with Antietam for its first thirty years.
The Private Soldier Monument, a 44-foot-7-inch granite statue called The American Volunteer, has stood over the cemetery since 1876, sculpted from 27 pieces of granite.
The Lodge House has been recognized as a contributing property on the National Register of Historic Places since 1966, part of the Antietam National Cemetery listing.
Before the national cemetery existed, soldiers killed at Antietam were buried quickly and carelessly in shallow trenches and single graves scattered across the Sharpsburg countryside for miles, in the weeks after the September 1862 battle.
What happened at Bloody Lane near the Lodge House?
On September 17, 1862, about 5,500 Union troops attacked 2,600 Confederate soldiers holding the sunken farm road known as Bloody Lane for nearly four hours, leaving Confederate dead piled three deep along its 800 yards.
Who designed the Lodge House at Antietam National Cemetery?
Paul J. Pelz, a young Washington, D. C. architect, designed the Gothic Revival limestone Lodge House in 1867 as his first independent commission, before he went on to design the Library of Congress.
Who used the Lodge House before it became offices?
The cemetery superintendent lived inside the Lodge House, which also served as the visitor's first stop and an administrative office for the Maryland Cemetery Commission, and it was the only public building tied to the battlefield until a separate battlefield superintendent was hired in 1900.
Is the Lodge House a protected historic building?
Yes, the Lodge House has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1966 as a contributing property within the Antietam National Cemetery listing.
