  The gamma-ray burst of 28 February 1997 (GRB 970228) ushered in the discovery
of the afterglow phenomenon. Despite intense study of the host galaxy, however,
the nature of the host and the distance to the burst eluded the community. Here
we present the measurement of the redshift of GRB 970228, and, based on its
spectroscopic and photometric properties, identify the host as an
underluminous, but otherwise normal galaxy at redshift z=0.695 undergoing a
modest level of star formation. At this redshift, the GRB released an isotropic
equivalent energy of E = (6.8 +/- 0.5) x 10^51 erg [30-2000 keV restframe]. We
find no evidence that the host is much bluer or forming stars more rigorously
than the general field population. In fact, by all accounts in our analysis
(color-magnitude, magnitude-radius, star-formation rate, Balmer-break
amplitude) the host properties appear typical for faint blue field galaxies at
comparable redshifts.
