The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (LTSG) was founded in 1826, making it the oldest Lutheran seminary in the United States. It merged with the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP) in 2017 to form United Lutheran Seminary. The 52-acre seminary was also a key location during the Battle of Gettysburg. While Gettysburg, PA is a small town, our unique location draws approximately three million visitors per year and is one of the top tourist sites in the country. Learn more about Gettysburg. See the campus map below. The town has plenty to offer both tourists and residents with diverse, restaurants, galleries, boutiques and historical and recreational activities. The Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center, located on the ULS campus, is one of the top attractions in Gettysburg, where you can arrange a tour, including climbing to the top of the cupola to get a bird's eye view of town.
Print version of Gettysburg map
ULS Chapel Welcome Statement:
“Our worship life is foundational to all that we are and do. Our beautiful chapels are sacred spaces providing safe spaces where each of us will find a welcome, regardless of who we are; and where all of us together will offer radical hospitality to one another and the world. Further, in keeping with Lutheran practice, we value ecumenical partnerships and relationships with Christians of many denominations and traditions."
The Church of the Abiding Presence, the ULS Gettysburg chapel, was built during the early 1940s with a dedication service in 1942.
This was the first building on this campus to be erected facing west, rather than east like all other buildings on campus at that time. This was done largely because the government road (built in 1895) through campus was bringing everybody to the Seminary’s back doors!
Today, the chapel is home to many Kindling Faith events, weekly worship, community events and Music, Gettysburg! concerts and is equipped for weekly polymodal services that are streamed to both campus chapels. The chapel is air conditioned.
Built in the mid 1890s, Valentine Hall is home to administrative and faculty offices, classrooms, the mailroom, student computer lab, auditorium for community events, and, gathering spaces for residential students. Valentine Hall is also home to the Gettysburg Black History Museum.
The A.R. Wentz Branch of the United Lutheran Seminary Library traces its roots to the very formation of Lutheran theological education in the United States. Benjamin Kurtz, of the Evangelical Lutheran General Synod, solicited contributions of money and books for its new seminary in Gettysburg, PA. The library still possesses those first donations.
Originally located in the seminary's main classroom and administrative buildings, the current library structure was built in 1947. Today, the Wentz branch houses a collection of over 128,021 titles with over 180,000 items of books, periodical volumes, and A/V material available for use.
The Gettysburg Seminary Archives, and the Archives of Region 8 of the ELCA are a part of the Wentz Branch Collection.
Heiges Hall, built in 1974, provides one bedroom and three bedroom apartment housing for students and their families. Some of the fourteen one-bedroom, air-conditioned units are furnished.
Stuempfle Hall, built in 1974, provides primarily two-bedroom apartments for students and families. All of the air-conditioned apartments are unfurnished.
Learn more about Student Housing at ULS.