Shepherdstown’s Mecklenburg Inn is an English-style pub with a beer garden that simply feels like home. Solar powered and cozy, and draped in historic architectural features, visitors can order a favorite drink and sip on the comradery inside, or step outside into a peaceful sanctuary of old-growth trees and flowering plants. Read the Full Story >>
Shepherdstown
CATF Designers Inspired by Rare Visit to Einstein Home
Attendees for the world premiere of My Lord, What a Night, by Deborah Brevoort, at the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) this month will be able to boast that they are as close as they can come to seeing the dwellings and dressings of a true genius—Albert Einstein. In preparation for this production, set designer David Barber and costume designer Therese Bruck joined director Ed Herendeen on a journey to discover the authentic characteristics of the world-famous scholar in his Princeton, New Jersey, home. Read the Full Story >>
4 State Real Estate Puts New Roots Down with Shepherdstown Branch
Since 2007, Adam Shively has worked diligently to make 4 State Real Estate the second-largest independently owned real estate company the Eastern Panhandle. As the founder of the growing company (headquartered at 201 N George St., Suite 101, Charles Town), Shively and his team are well on their way to meeting their professional goals: “to create a regional powerhouse and a name you will have faith in referring your friends and closest family members.” Read the Full Story >>
Rough-Wings Are Somber Swallows
I saw my first rough-winged swallow when I was a teenager fishing along a creek in western Pennsylvania. I thought it wasn’t much to look at. It had a graceful swallow shape, but otherwise it was plain and dull. Skimming low over water catching insects along with other swallows, a rough-wing lacks their polished plumage and contrasting, iridescent colors. The back, head, and wings are wood-brown and the throat is drab, shading to gray on the chest and sides. The belly is a dirty, brownish white. Only the undertail feathers are dazzling white. The black, shiny bill looks very short, even for a swallow. Read the Full Story >>
Swan Pond Attracts Wintering Waterfowl
A sign beside Route 45 says: “1.5 miles north is Swan Pond Manor, a 2,000-acre retreat set aside in 1745 for use of Thomas Lord Fairfax, once the proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia who established an estate at Greenway Court, Frederick County in 1738. So named because wild swans inhabited [the] site.” Read the Full Story >>
Drug Take Back Day Gets an Upgrade in Shepherdstown
Across the U.S. every year, National Prescription Drug Take Back Day lands in cities and towns with the goal of providing a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications. Read the Full Story >>
Shepherd University Announces First Poet-in-Residence
Dr. Hope Maxwell Snyder, poet laureate of Shepherdstown, has returned to Shepherd University as the school’s first poet-in-residence. Read the Full Story >>
Audubon Remains America’s Premier Bird Artist
John James Audubon was a French immigrant who adopted nineteenth-century America as his home. Early on, he resolved to roam the country hunting and drawing birds. “Audubon” has become synonymous with birds and conservation, but few today appreciate his indefatigable genius. Read the Full Story >>
Snowfall Reveals a Fox’s Hunting Methods
Several inches of snow blanketed the ground when I went to the barn to feed the animals. Snow stuck to every branch, stem, and twig, but my eye caught a glimpse of movement in the buffer of trees along the stream. Ducking behind the barn to avoid detection, I glimpsed a red fox about to spring into the air and pounce on a mouse. Read the Full Story >>
Shepherdstown Debates the Emergence of Transient Lodging
Arguably the oldest town in West Virginia, Shepherdstown remains surprisingly on trend within an assortment of social, political, and even municipal categories. Which is why it should come as no surprise to learn that the town began exploring the emergence of transient lodging back in 2017. Read the Full Story >>
The Yellow House: Quietly One of Shepherdstown’s Oldest Homes
Shepherdstown is often designated the oldest town in West Virginia—some thirty-odd years older than the nation itself. High Street is considered to be the oldest street in town—used by pioneers crossing the Potomac River at Pack Horse Ford when they came up over the bluffs to the town—and on it sits a building named the Catherine Weltzheimer House, a.k.a., The Yellow House, circa 1817. Read the Full Story >>
Otters Are Back in our Rivers
Once common throughout the United States, river otters were heavily trapped during the nineteenth century when tall hats were in style for classy European and American gentlemen. Beaver and otter felt was the standard material for such hats. Otter became the ultimate standard for durability against which all other furs were compared. Read the Full Story >>
Grassland Nesting Birds are Disappearing
Eastern meadowlarks used to be common birds in local hayfields. Now they’re on a growing list of field-nesting birds—bobwhite quail, vesper sparrow, American kestrel, and red-winged blackbird—whose numbers have seriously dropped. Now you can drive though the countryside and never see any of them. Read the Full Story >>
Song of the Wood Thrush
Wood thrush song sounds like cathedral organ music to me. Muted by distance, it’s even sweeter. It invokes childhood evenings in June seated on a porch step, enchanted by an unknown birdsong coming from the neighbor’s woods. Read the Full Story >>
Ash Trees Continue to Receive Life-Saving Treatment
The last standing grove of mature green ash trees in the Eastern Panhandle is the subject of an ongoing preservation project organized by the Shepherdstown Community Club (SCC). Read the Full Story >>