Adam and Shannon Thomas stand together in front of their home, the Thomas Shepherd Grist Mill, on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — “Pardon our mess and please watch your step as we deal with the never-ending surprises of old mill living,” said a sign by the side of the Thomas Shepherd Grist Mill on Sunday afternoon. Signs like this one have proven to be a necessary precaution whenever members of the public come to visit the mill for events, such as the “A View to a Mill” art exhibit on April 12-14 and the Shenandoah-Potomac Garden Council’s 66th Annual House and Garden Tour this past weekend.

The mill, which dates back to 1738 and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, has been fully renovated over the past four years by Adam and Shannon Thomas. Unfortunately, its 40-foot-tall Fitz Steel Overshot Water Wheel and related structural fortifications still need a lot of work, which the couple is hoping to soon see completed, with the help of grant funding and donations from the local community.

“We purchased it in October 2020. Our renovations began immediately,” Shannon said on Sunday. “No bank would touch this, until we agreed to make it into a three-bedroom house. We would have liked to have lived here for a little while and felt out the space first, before starting to do the renovation, but we’re pretty happy with how everything turned out!

“We’re trying to be really careful that the renovations that we make are making it into a modern home, but with a very small footprint, where it still honors its history and if somebody in the future wanted to turn it back into a mill, they could,” Shannon said. “We’re making sure we’re taking really good care of the stone work. And down in the basement, where the water wheel was originally located, we are doing virtually nothing there, outside of making sure the floor is easier to walk on.”

The renovated space has effectively merged the historic nature of the mill with modern tastes, clearly influenced by the skilled eye of Shannon, who is a soft pastel artist and acrylic painter.

Attendees of the 66th Annual House and Garden Tour watch the water wheel turn on the side of the Thomas Shepherd Grist Mill on Sunday. Tabitha Johnston

“We have a modern kitchen, but we made sure it still has a castle-y, rustic feel. Most of the work was done upstairs, but we wanted to make sure we maintained a vaulted ceiling with a lot of light coming through,” Shannon said. “We also enjoy having a different vibe between the historic details and modern updates. Our entertainment space has more of the historic feel that’s a little more period-accurate and then upstairs is more whimsical and light-filled.”

Prior to purchasing the mill, the couple was living in Missouri, near where Shannon originates from. Shannon, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force, and Adam, who is retired from the Air National Guard, met at the Air National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C. The couple was then married in 2013 and, although initially content in Missouri, found themselves constantly traveling to visit family in the Eastern Panhandle, where Adam grew up, during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“My kids are in the area and I wanted to move back,” said the Shepherd University alumnus, who now works in research and program management for Georgia Institute of Technology. “Shannon wasn’t too keen on moving to West Virginia at first, but I brought her here and the town sold itself. It’s a cool little gem of a place!”

However, it was the mill, in particular, that persuaded Shannon to make the move.

“Adam knew about the mill for a couple of years and mentioned it to me. He said it was a really cool space, but that it had one bedroom and not much of a kitchen,” Shannon said. “We started coming here in 2020, every month, to visit his kids in Kearneysville. While we were here, we went to check out the mill and as soon as we did, holy cow, we realized that this had us written all over it! We really fell in love with it, right away.”

A team from the Shenandoah-Potomac Garden Council man a tent at the entrance to the Thomas Shepherd Grist Mill on Sunday. Tabitha Johnston

Anyone interested in donating to the mill renovation project is encouraged to email Shannon at shanpur@gmail.com.

Town Run flows down beside the Thomas Shepherd Grist Mill on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

A couple looks around the basement of the Thomas Shepherd Grist Mill, which originally housed the mill's water wheel, on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston