Birthday Month at the Inn

Some of you may remember that the Inn celebrated its 25th birthday last year around this time. This year we have a special weekend rate for the rest of our birthday month of August - in honor of 26 years of providing hospitality, we will take $26 off our weekend rates (Fri./Sat./Sun.) through August 31. Give us a call at 304-876-3715 or book online.

Jeanne & Jim at theThomas Shepherd Inn B&B in Shepherdstown, WV

National Parks Free Entry Weekend Coming Up

Did you know that America's Best Idea - our country's vast array of national parks - offer free admittance on several days throughout the year? Some of those dates are coming up soon - August 14 and 15. What better time to take advantage of more than 100 fee-free adventures than the last dog days of summer!

While you enjoy your free entrance to Antietam National Battlefield and Harpers Ferry National Park, we hope you'll consider staying at the Thomas Shepherd Inn B&B - we are a very short drive away from both. These parks offer fascinating insight into our country's Civil War. The now-peaceful farmland of Antietam witnessed the bloodiest day of battle on U.S. soil and the historic village of Harpers Ferry looks very much like it did when John Brown gathered his conspirators to plan the assault on the arsenal there.

We have no two-night minimum stays through August 26. Call us or book your stay online now!

Jeanne & Jim at the Thomas Shepherd Inn B&B in Shepherdstown, WV

Pay-what-you-can previews at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown this week

The 20th season of the Contemporary American Theater Festival @ Shepherd University starts in earnest this week, although rehearsals have been in full swing for a month. One of the little-known perks of being in Shepherdstown this week is that, on Wednesday and Thursday (July 7 and 8), CATF holds preview performances, unticketed, for whatever donation you might like to make. You can see two or three plays this way - there are some concurrent performances - and you can take advantage of eating out at a more relaxed pace without fighting the crowds.

One extra bonus is that we have availability at the Inn on those nights (we are pretty full during CATF, except for Sunday nights) and you can book a room at our weekday rates, which are lower than the weekend rates. We hope to see at least two of the plays during the previews - maybe Lidless and White People. Maybe we'll see you there!

Jeanne & Jim at theThomas Shepherd Inn B&B in Shepherdstown, WV

Mini-Week Vacation in Chincoteague, VA

We took a little break week before last and headed over to Chincoteague, VA - home of Misty and wild ponies. I just loved those books when I was a young girl. I thought for sure I'd work at a horse stable some day. This was a do-nothing vacation, really, but not in the strictest sense of the word since we did spend money. None of the other stuff, though. We read books, explored the little downtown, and hung out on the bayfront deck of our rented condo. We checked out the local restaurants - mostly for fish and seafood, but also some awesome barbecue from Woody's Beach BBQ. The beach on Assateague was very pretty, although the hordes of mosquitoes that attacked us when we tried to take the Woodland trail to view the ponies were like a scene out of a horror movie. We retreated quickly to the car! All in all, it was some lovely down time before our busiest time of the year, and I will leave you with my favorite photo from it...


Jeanne & Jim at theThomas Shepherd Inn B&B in Shepherdstown, WV

Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festival in West Virginia

The first showing of the Mountain Heritage Arts and Crafts Festival is being held this weekend about five miles away, between here and Harpers Ferry. About 200 craftspeople (juried, so it's good stuff!) have been exhibiting in both June and September for many years - the tents always include a tasty selection of West Virginia Foods, and they've added winery tents as well. There's bluegrass music and string bands, plus the usual assortment of carnival food stands and the Anvil's stand featuring crab cakes. I'm always fascinated by the corn meal and flour that ground by a big puffing machine just inside the entrance.

Visit their website to get a coupon for $1 off the entrance fee - admission includes parking and the entertainment. Crafters are there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We'll still have some rooms open - visit our website for our last-minute special on available rooms.

Jeanne & Jim at theThomas Shepherd Inn B&B in Shepherdstown, WV