Shepherdstown, WV
One of the truly under appreciated towns in the Washington area, Shepherdstown, WV offers something for almost everyone and does it with a sense of quiet charm, ease on the eye, and friendliness that is really a pleasure to experience. I can not recommend Shepherdstown highly enough as a day trip. It is less than two hours from downtown DC, yet it feels as though you have escaped to somewhere much further away and gives you a real sense of escape and refreshment that helps clear your mind and put a spring into your step. It offers recreation, shopping, history, great scenery and enjoyable dining all in one small town that seems to have emerged from your fondest memories and come to life on the banks of the Potomac River.
With Shepherd College providing an academic core to town life and a ready supply of attentive wait staff for the many local restaurants and eateries, the little town has all the benefits of a college town with none of the usual hassles. Parking is rarely a problem. Getting seated at restaurants is normally a speedy process and the variety of cuisine is excellent. The main street in town is called German Street and it is the hub of town activity and provides a remarkable blend of old store fronts and facades that date back to the 1800s and further that lend the town an air of genuine historic grace that you just won't get at a Busch Gardens or Disney World facsimile. German Street is the main street that every other town wants to have but rarely gets because of the encroachments of development and in-fill and lack of protective zoning.
With a Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings, informal jam sessions on the college lawn, Thursday night folk jams at O'Hurley's General Store, and many events on the town's calendar and college calendar, there always seems to be something fun going on in town. The shops in town are really a cut above normal with two stores in particular especially close to my heart: the Dickinson and Wait Craft Store and the Four Seasons Book Store.
My wife and I love good crafts (i.e., unusual and witty objects made well, made creatively, and made with love) and D&W delivers on all 
counts. You name the craft and they have it: jewelry, furniture, prints, lamps, glass, and clothing plus many other whimsical and eye-catching pieces that will look great on your person or in your home or office. Whether you buy anything or not, you will leave D&W feeling the better for having gone in to see their latest inventory because it is just so good! I have yet to see a better rounded craft store in the DC metro area and I think you will agree.
A good book store keeps you coming back again and again because of the thoughtfulness of what they stock and what they recommend. The Four Seasons Book Store sets high standards for what they stock and you will not find mass market fluff cluttering the shelves. When I look at their selections, I am reminded a lot of the great mix of really useful and informative books that were written up in the early Whole Earth Catalogues - books that make you go 'Hmmm! That's interesting!' While you will find most of the NYT Best Sellers out on display, you will also find a treasure trove of really fine books that their staff and friends have gleaned from the thousands of books currently on the market and that you might otherwise never have encountered. The staff are knowledgeable, friendly and full of useful hints and recommendations and if you say you 
like a particular book or author, they will most likely be able to recommend something if a similar vein from their shelves. They also sell an excellent assortment of used and overstock books on art, history, architecture, and many other topics that are far better than the usual fare (e.g., The Last Days of The Reich, The Illustrated Atlas of Air Guitar, and Babies in Flower Suits) that you find in overstock at the major chains. So if you love good books, I think you will find Four Seasons will in fact provide year-round reading entertainment for you and your family.
And food: Being a college town, Shepherdstown is a place where you can get everything from a slice of pizza on a paper plate to a really fine sit-down dinner on a linen table cloth. The selection of eateries offers something for every budget and all but the pickiest palate. I personally have had very pleasant experiences at Kazu (Pacific Rim/Thai food), the Yellow Brick Bank (fine dining and innovative cuisine), The Stone Soup Bistro (very good sandwiches, soups and sides), and the Main Street Sweet Shop and Bakery (killer cakes, cookies and sweets plus expresso coffee, panini sandwiches, regular sandwiches, chips, and drinks). There are many more places I have yet to try and that is one of the many things I love about this town – there always seems to be something new to see and do every time I return.
Another recommendation regarding area ice cream: For really exceptional ice cream served up in an old fashioned ice cream parlor environment, you should go to Nutter’s Ice Cream Parlor in Sharpsburg. Great ice cream; large portions; and very reasonable prices. It is a gem and well worth the drive across the river into Maryland. NOTE: its hours of operation may vary so either call ahead or go after 1 PM and you should find them open.
The town has a history dating back to its founding by immigrant Germans moving down from 
Pennsylvania and settling of the high banks of the Potomac near a regular source of water (the Town Run you will see running under German Street is fed by over 20 different springs, never floods and never runs dry.) which could power mills and a ford in the river a mile downstream which would be favorable for trade. Many 18th and 19th century buildings can still be found in town and if you stop by the Visitor's Center you can get a walking tour map of the town which will show you where its most famous buildings are located. Most are within easy walking distance of German Street and finding them can be both a source of good exercise and very interesting history. The town's waterfront has a history that stretches back into pre-Colonial history when buffalo and native hunters crossed the river at the shallow ford a mile downstream from the center of town. Probably the most noted of the town's native sons is James Rumsey who developed what many feel is the first working steam boat in America which he successfully tested at Shepherdstown in December of 1787. A clever and resourceful inventor, Rumsey was encouraged by many of the luminaries of his day (Washington, Jefferson and Franklin among them) and if he had not died suddenly in England in 1792, it is possible he might have achieved 
international recognition and more acclaim here in the US. The Rumseian Society of Shepherdstown built a half-size working replica of this boat using Rumsey's drawings and some old fashioned educated guess work, and it can be seen in a small museum building out behind the Shepherdstown Historical Society' Museum right on Main Street. I highly recommend stopping in to see this remarkable recreation if you have 
the slightest interest in technological and transportation history and to hear about Shepherdstown's amazingly diverse history from the docents at the museum.
One of the favorite attractions for children are the 'Little House' and 'Little Barn' which were built by Shepherd College faculty to allow students and teachers to observe children playing in an ideal setting and make notes on their interactions. Set beside the nicely channeled rushing waters of the Town Run spring (actually 6 springs fed into one), these buildings will charm young and old alike and are just off Main Street behind the Historical Society and Rumsey Steamboat Museum. While they are not usually open for children to enter, they are so charming from the outside, you will not hear many complaints.
An architectural feature of one house that you might miss if you weren't looking for it is the faux stone exterior of a yellow house at the west
end of German Street. Like George Washington's Mount Vernon, the owner of this house had large wooden planks beveled on the edges and then painted to resemble large stone building blocks.
Another great feature of Shepherdstown is its proximity to other great places for recreation and historical immersion. On the recreational front you are close by several excellent sites to hike: The Yankauer Preserve a few miles west of the town; the C&O Canal Tow Path and Lock 38 directly across the river from the town; the Snavely's Ford Loop Trail at Antietam National Battlefield; and the many trails at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park. While it is still the site of the bloodiest day in US Military history, Antietam/Sharpsburg also provides one of the loveliest 
creek walks in the Mid-Atlantic with the Snavely's Ford Loop trail which takes about 80 minutes to complete at a leisurely pace. The Yankauer Preserve has several miles of well blazed trails that take you through hardwood forests, down to the Potomac overlooks and back with the average walk taking about an hour as I recall. Harpers Ferry has trails leading up to Jefferson Rock and out along the Shenandoah River on Virginius Island. The more fit and adventurous hikers can cross the Potomac by foot bridge and hike a part of the Appalachian Trail including the strenuous hike up to the remarkable westward view back to the town from Maryland Heights. The Park Service also provides directions for a 12-mile hike or bike ride from Harpers Ferry up to Shepherdstown which will provide you both great exercise and scenery along the C&O Tow Path.
For those of you who love wildflowers, the trail at the Ferry Hill Plantation just across the river from the town on the left provides one of the
very best places to see spring ephemeral wildflowers in the Washington metro area – it really is a gem. The Snavely's Ford trail also has a nice variety of seasonal flowers including small Lady's Tresses orchids in the fall and the lovely, Blue Bells in April and fragrant Dame's Rocket in early June. The Yankauer Preserve has an extraordinarily lovely display of the dainty white blooms of the Twin Leaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) in the March/April time frame.
If history interests you, you will not only enjoy Shepherdstown but the nearby Antietam National Battlefield and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park as well. The ranger's talk at the Battlefield will leave the hair standing on the back of your neck – this is history story-telling at its finest. Truly a pivotal moment in the American Civil War, the stories of this battle are a testament to the courage of the men on both sides and 
to the gut-wrenching decisions that get made for better and worse in the 'fog of battle.' While Antietam bears witness to the deadly efficiency of fire arms, Harpers Ferry is more about the manufacturing of firearms and the US Arsenal that was sited there before the Civil War. The site of one of the first factories to mass produce reliable, accurate rifles, Harpers Ferry also was home to a variety of mills that drew their power from the water flowing past the town in the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. While the view from the high rock above the town that bears his name moved Thomas Jefferson to say it alone was worth a trip across the Atlantic, the two rivers below had a nasty habit of flooding the town and wrecking local industrial facilities every few years and such flooding persists to this day abetted by the extensive deforestation that has occurred upstream from the town on both rivers. With a variety of seasonal events scheduled at the park, costumed interpreters to give a first person sense of history, excellent exhibits, a very good bookstore, and miles of scenic trails to walk, Harpers Ferry is a wonderful side trip if you are in Shepherdstown and is worthy of a day trip all on its own.
So whatever your itch on a given weekend or (better yet) weekday, Shepherdstown will likely be able to scratch it. Take a drive up and unwind in one of the greatest little towns in the Mid-Atlantic states. You will be glad you did!
Copyright River Stories LLC
September 2010