 In 1884, Townsend acquired land in Crampton's Gap, the site of the Battle of Crampton's Gap and one of three gaps on South Mountain where the Battle of South Mountain had been fought between Union and Confederate forces in an early encounter in the Maryland Campaign.Townsend purchased the land as a retreat and immediately began designing the buildings that would become Gapland, his estate.His first project, Gapland Hall, an eleven-room house, was built in 1885.