Brian (Bryan) House and Barn (Gettysburg)

The reconstructed Brian House and Barn are located on the Gettysburg battlefield just south of town and west of the of the old Cyclorama. It was the home to Abraham Brian (often spelled Bryan), an African-American widower with five children who bought the farm in 1857 when he married his third wife, Elizabeth. The twelve acre farm grew wheat, barley and hay and had a small apple and peach orchard.

The farmhouse was the headquarters of General Alexander Hays' Division of the of Union 2nd Army Corps and was on the front lines during the fighting on July 2nd and 3rd.

When Brian returned to his home after the battle he found it ransacked and nearly destroyed along with his fences, crops and orchards, and the field west of his house a huge graveyard. Brian put his property back into order and resumed farming the land until 1869, when he went to work in a local hotel. He petitioned the government for $1,028 in restitution but received only $15. He died in 1875 and is buried in Gettysburg with his first two wives.