To enter the Shrivers' home today is a step back in time. Meticulously restored to its 1860s appearance, visitors today are able to visualize what life was like back in mid-1800, south-central Pennsylvania and gain a better understanding of how the battle affected the 2400 citizens who called Gettysburg "home." The home of George and Hettie Shriver was selected to be used as a backdrop to tell these stories. The house, which had been abandoned for nearly thirty years, had been divided in two at some point, had missing window panes, no electricity, no water, no heat and a serious leak in the roof.

In was a chance of fate the Shriver's home has been altered very little since it was built just months before the Civil War began. Two major changes, although drastic, fortunately did not affect that portion of the home originally occupied by the Shriver family. In the early 1900s, the house was divided into two rental properties and two separate additions were added to the rear of the house, one on each half. Although this was an unfortunate alteration it presented one small bit of luck. These two additions were built to accommodate indoor plumbing for each side of the divided house; modern kitchens and bathrooms were never placed within the original Shrivers' home. Thus, the house appears much the way it did in 1863.