This year, the popular Over the Mountain Studio Tour (OTMST)—the oldest studio tour in West Virginia—will host its 30th Anniversary Tour, landing on Saturday and Sunday, November 9 + 10, from 10am-5pm. The rare occasion allows the public to meet artists throughout Jefferson County, observe their studio spaces, and learn about their processes. Read the Full Story >>
Charles Town & Ranson
A Delicious Mexican Legacy Lands on Main Street
Every country, culture, and family has a person within it like Mave Ortega Greene (Ortega). The type of person that, upon meeting, you feel like you’ve known forever. Mother. Wife. Chef. Businesswoman. Raconteur. Professional. Friendly. Quick with a story. And like any leader, she keeps her audience in rapt attention. Read the Full Story >>
African-American Cultural and Heritage Festival Leaves Lasting Mark on Panhandle
If you walked down the 300th block of South Lawrence Street in downtown Charles Town during a recent late August weekend, you might have seen a little bit of the past, present, and future of the Jefferson County African-American community. Read the Full Story >>
Fit after Fifty (and Beyond!)
Dorothy Davenport celebrated her 95th birthday in May and received 145 birthday cards—many from her Silver Sneakers friends at Gold’s Gym in Charles Town where she has worked out for the past ten years. Silver Sneakers is a fitness program for older adults. Dorothy participates to the best of her ability. Read the Full Story >>
Two Public Art Projects Set to Transform Downtown Charles Town
Mural, mural on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all? This story may not include a fairy tale about a wicked witch or a poisonous apple, but it does involve a world-renowned artist and a community pulling all its resources to boost, attract, and celebrate art, culture, and heritage in downtown Charles Town. Read the Full Story >>
Charles Town’s New Fresh Food Market
October 7 saw the launch of Bushel & Peck in the historic Charles Washington Hall, returning the site to a use it hasn’t enjoyed since the 19th and early 20th centuries. Read the Full Story >>
A Positive Return to the Community
Ronda Lehman has worn many hats over the years—hospice nurse, expert witness, political candidate, clean water advocate, softball coach—and since November of 2013, she has added one more, coordinator of the Jefferson County Teen Court program. Read the Full Story >>
Opening of Park in Charles Town Represents Long-Term Plan
The City of Charles Town officially christened a new nature park housed on a former brownfield site and kicked off the first piece of a large-scale project in its urban center. Read the Full Story >>
WV’s One Remaining Abortion Clinic Mirrors National Trend
The recent closing of the Kanawha (WV) Surgicenter, which left Charleston’s Women’s Health Center (WHC) the state’s only abortion provider, is part of an unnerving national movement decreasing access to women’s reproductive health, experts say. Read the Full Story >>
A Push to Revitalize West Virginia’s Downtowns
A robust movement advocating for greater state tax credits for the rehabilitation of historic properties is spreading throughout West Virginia—and is picking up steam in the state’s legislature. Read the Full Story >>
Remodeled Charles Washington Hall to Celebrate Grand Opening
After a remodel nearly 16 years in the making, Charles Town’s Charles Washington Hall is set to have a grand re-opening on April 7 at 10am. Read the Full Story >>
A Love of Food and Family
Pizza, salad, appetizers, wings, subs, burgers, pasta: hungry yet? Well there’s a not-so-secret destination in Ranson that will take care of any or all of those cravings for you. It’s Andy’s Pizza, located conveniently at 733 N. Mildred Street. Owner Andy Colandrea is no stranger to the pizza business; he was born into it. His Read the Full Story >>
A Walk Through Living History in Jefferson County
I met Mr. Washington about a week after Independence Day. Walter Washington, that is, not George. And the year was 2016 not 1776. But it was an odd feeling nonetheless; a brush with the closest thing that America has to a royal family Read the Full Story >>
Briggs Animal Adoption Center Provides More Than Just Shelter
Anna Reynolds was born in D.C. in 1909; her father died when she was three. Her mother was too poor to care for her children, so Anna was placed in an orphanage for four years, then farmed out to an aunt, and finally returned home at 13. She considered her life a parallel to the way animals in a shelter feel. And during those early years, she longed for an animal companion, eventually finding one in an abused dog that she nursed back to health. Read the Full Story >>