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‘Welcome to Shepherdstown’: History explored behind new town sign by O’Hurley’s General Store

By Ainsley Hall - For the Chronicle | Jul 29, 2022

The new Shepherdstown welcome sign stands right beside O'Hurley's General Store. Ainsley Hall

SHEPHERDSTOWN — After beginning to build a new Shepherdstown welcome sign five years ago, O’Hurley’s General Store owner Jay Hurley has almost completed it.

This was only part of a project Hurley began several decades ago, to build signs marking every entrance into town.

“It helps to identify,” Hurley said. “The reason I started thinking about [doing this project] 30-some years ago — running this store, I would get in my truck and go out and find merchandise. I was driving all over the place, and I would always go through these little towns, and they would have a nice sign.”

But Hurley saw that Shepherdstown, in comparison, didn’t have any signs, which he believed didn’t represent the town’s personality correctly.

Many years later, in 2012, the Rotary Club of Shepherdstown proposed building welcome signs for the town, in honor of the town’s 250th anniversary. For a number of years after that decision was made, the club worked to build more than one welcome sign, but so far, the only one to be completed was the sign near the Bavarian Inn, which cost almost $20,000. After that, the project came to a halt.

Jay Hurley holds the plaque commemorating his work on the new Shepherdstown welcome sign by his store. Ainsley Hall

In spite of that loss in active support for the welcome sign initiative, Hurley said he was determined to continue the project, by building a sign by O’Hurley’s General Store. He designed the sign himself, keeping in mind the history of the town.

“I really wanted to do the one on my end of town,” Hurley said. “And I wanted each sign to represent that particular part of town. This was the industrial side of town, so I designed mine to speak industry. It has a lot of iron, it’s got an iron trust in it, it’s got a lot of ironwork, it’s got a big, heavy, brick base. In fact, I wanted it to look like old Shepherdstown.”

Hurley described the old Shepherdstown buildings as “coming out of the ground as stone, and finished in brick.” He also borrowed some architectural designs from other buildings in town, including the soldier brick pattern used on the St. Agnes Catholic Chapel.

“They are vertical bricks laid in as part of the design, as part of the wall, but they’re also a pretty interesting design,” Hurley said. “So, we did soldier brick on this one, we’ve got a water table element, we’ve got chamfered corners, all from different buildings in town.”

Hurley presented this design five years ago, and since then has been working on it in his spare time, with the help of a few volunteers. The arch itself took him one year to complete, forging it himself in his blacksmith shop.

The stepping stone from the old railroad station is positioned behind the new Shepherdstown welcome sign. Ainsley Hall

Some of the sign’s parts even came directly from old buildings that had been demolished over the years. The two pedestals holding the arch up, came from an old factory burned down in the ’80s, while a rock from the old railroad station was placed as a stepping stone up to the grass behind the sign.

“I did for the town,” Hurley said. “I’m going to present it to the town council as soon as it’s finished, as a contribution to the town.”

The only thing left to finish the sign, is the lights, and planting some flowers around its base, according to Hurley.