It’s a beautiful summer evening. The temperature has dropped to a pleasant 75 degrees. I wander down the street and knock on the door of the Auxers.

Jim, Dawn, and Joselyn Auxer live in a charming stone-faced house that sits at the end of four similar stone houses on East New Street, Shepherdstown. This terrace of cottage-like homes is known as Stone Row or Shutt’s Brewery.

According to local historian Jim Price, Shutt’s Brewery was in operation as early as 1815. The stone building was operated by Philip Shutt. He sold beer, known as Shutt’s Cream Beer. The building was then sold to Shutt’s son-in-law, Thomas Fawcett, who added the second story to the building and divided the property into four homes. That’s when the terrace became known as Stone Row.

Before moving to Shepherdstown, the Auxers lived in Harrisburg, Pa. In 1989, Jim, who ran Camp Hill State Correction Facility in Pennsylvania at the time, was taken hostage by inmates for 48 hours during a prison riot. Half the facility was destroyed during the incident. Afterwards, Jim said he wanted to move back to somewhere that made him happy. They chose Shepherdstown, where Jim had lived many years earlier when he attended Shepherd College.

Why did the Auxers choose this house after they had been looking for a home in Shepherdstown for over a year? “We’ve always liked older homes,” says Dawn.

Before taking up residence themselves, the Auxers rented the home for a few years. One of the tenants approached Jim to set up a brewery in the home. The Auxers were early investors in and supporters of the brewery. This became the Blue Ridge Brewery, which developed into a great success. In 1994 Blue Ridge Brewery went public and moved to nearby Buckeystown, Md. Later still the company purchased Wild Goose, which is still served in bars and hotels in the area today.

The Auxers did much to improve the property. They replaced the floors with reclaimed lumber, re-pointed the exterior stonework, added a bathroom downstairs, and installed new wiring, plumbing, and central air and vacuum systems. The home features four delightful bedrooms and two full bathrooms.

The Auxers are antique buffs. There are vintage Shepherdstown signs throughout the house. There’s a grandfather clock with wooden works standing proud in the living room. There’s a rifle over the mantel piece that was made in the armory in Harpers Ferry in 1841. There are multi-colored Slag glass lamps throughout the house. “I like to have the only one,” says Jim.

        


Dawn is a self-described military brat. She grew up in Georgia, Texas, Nebraska, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. Her father worked in the air force in communications. She never found out exactly what he did. Jim’s family is also from Pennsylvania. His father worked for Bell Telephone, and his mother still works for a middle-school cafeteria at the age of 83.