This year’s census marks a turning point for the Eastern Panhandle. Consider the following: the population of Charles Town grew 63.9 percent from 2000 to 2008. Shepherdstown grew 42.71 percent and Martinsburg’s change was 13.68 percent. While the rest of the state is generally losing population, our region has experienced unprecedented growth. One need only [...]

Grant to Provide Momentum for Shepherdstown’s New Library Plans
The Shepherdstown Public Library has received a $5,000 grant through the 2010 FOCUS WV Brownfields program.   The grant will fund discussions with the Shepherdstown community about reclaiming the former Shepherdstown Municipal Dump for use as a new library.  The dump, which was used from 1954 to 1969, [...]

By Thomas Harding
This month I intend to overwhelm you with data . . . so strap on your seatbelts and let’s go for it.
First, let me introduce a new statistic to my loyal readers: the ratio between homes sold (“solds”) and homes on the market (“inventory”). Let’s call this ratio the sold/inventory ratio.
This ratio is [...]

by Elizabeth Wheeler
I am a grown woman with a respectable culinary background and a sizeable dossier of international travel, yet somehow I had never set foot in France. No Cordon Bleu, no apprenticeship with a tony chef, no youthful grape-picking jobs with open-air lunches of baguette and local fromage. At last, in mid-January, I [...]

by Jeff Feldman
“How’s the house?”
I am asked this a lot. In winter, this question is often followed with another question, either asked or implied: “Staying warm?”
These might seem unusual questions to ask the average homeowner. But factor in an unusual house—strawbale-insulated with no conventional heating system, and an unusually chilly winter with January and February [...]

By David and Christian Asam
Christian: When shopping for wine, I always try to buy from a locally owned wine shop. We are lucky to have a few stores in Jefferson County with a nice selection on their shelves. Allow me to send a special congratulations to Grapes & Grains on their new location and expanded [...]

by Claire Stuart
“I grew up doing needlework—sewing, needlepoint, crewel embroidery,” says basketmaker Anne Bowers. “I was always doing crafts.”
Bowers has lived in the Panhandle all of her life, growing up in Shepherdstown, and later living in Martinsburg, then moving back to Jefferson County when she married.
Her airy studio in her old farmhouse in Middleway [...]

By Steve Chase
Someone at work told me about the music service Pandora a year ago, but I hadn’t bothered to check it out until I recently loaded the Pandora App on my iPhone and turned it on during a long drive. There are many music “services” on the Internet, some of them available on [...]