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Corporation of Shepherdstown to participate in three-town signage project

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Aug 18, 2023

A mockup shows where one of the "gateway" signs might be placed in Shepherdstown. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Last Tuesday evening in Town Hall, the Corporation of Shepherdstown introduced preliminary plans for its participation in a new signage project, in collaboration with the towns of Harpers Ferry and Bolivar.

The Wayfinding Marketing Campaign, created by the Mills Group and Narrative by New South Media, Inc., will help promote the three towns and make them more easy for tourists to navigate.

“A team from Shepherdstown has been working on this — Linda Spatig, Andy Beall and Carmen Slater and myself,” said Shepherdstown resident Jim Ford. “This is based on something that they did in Lewisburg already, and we’re using the same people to build the technical work. The difference is, we’re doing it in conjunction with Harpers Ferry and Bolivar, so three towns have to agree on this. Working with Harpers Ferry and Bolivar, they want the signs across all three towns to be consistent, so that tourists can recognize them and know them when they see them.”

The cost for each town’s participation in the project will be determined this week and may be related to the number of signs needed, according to Ford.

“There’s three sizes of the signs we can use,” Ford said. “There’s small signs that would be used to mark specific attractions and medium-sized signs that would give general directions to different things. The biggest signs would go up at a welcome point in the town — we won’t have very many, if any, of those, because we already have two welcome signs for Shepherdstown. We could do one on Route 45 or Route 480.”

The potential locations for the three different kinds of proposed signage were discussed at the monthly meeting for the Shepherdstown Town Council. Courtesy photo

Ford presented examples of three different kinds of fonts that might be used on the signs, noting that whichever font is chosen will have to be unanimously approved of by representatives for all three towns.

“We’re trying to make the signs all the same shape and use the same font, so they look similar. At the same time, they want all three towns to be a little separate, with different color borders and materials for the signs of each town,” Ford said.

The signs of each size will be in the same shape and with the same font, but will feature different materials, colors and text. Since Harpers Ferry has a number of historic buildings made of brick and brown stone, its sign material will incorporate those materials and feature shades of yellow, brown, white and green. Bolivar’s rugged history and modern houses inspired the use of materials such as wood and grey stone, as well as shades of green, white and brown. With a large number of Shepherdstown’s buildings featuring red brick and white exteriors, the signs will incorporate those materials and shades of red, brown and white.

The gateway signs being designed for the entrances of each town will feature similar slogans, Ford said. Harpers Ferry’s slogan will be “Forever Captivating.” Bolivar’s slogan will be “Forever Welcoming.” And, as of Aug. 8, Shepherdstown’s slogan was planned to be “Forever Contemporary.” The Shepherdstown Town Council, however, unanimously expressed their concern over that the slogan “didn’t accurately represent the town.”

“To me, it sounds one-sided. We’re not contemporary! With Shepherdstown, I don’t think of that — we’re just a bunch of all kinds of people,” said council member Jenny Haynes. “When I see the word ‘contemporary,’ I don’t think about Shepherdstown at all. I tell people it’s just a really unique, cool town.”

A mockup shows one of the "gateway" signs situated at the entrance to Shepherdstown along Kearneysville Pike. Courtesy photo

After some discussion, that descriptor, ‘unique,” was unanimously approved as the town council’s recommendation for replacing “Contemporary” in the slogan. Other words proposed, but ultimately decided against, included eclectic, progressive and inclusive.

And, if the new slogan proves to age poorly, Ford said the town will have no cause to worry.

“One thing they mentioned to us, is that the wording is subject to change. The wording slides out and can be replaced,” Ford said. “It’s a plastic-like material.”

Overall, the project’s progress was well received at the presentation.

“I think it looks good — very cool!” said council member Chris Stroech.

Town Clerk Amy Boyd, who has been working on the development of a new website for the Corporation of Shepherdstown, noted the website will likely incorporate the Wayfaring Marketing Campaign’s color scheme and some of its ideas.