A $26k grant from Women Investing in Shepherd will ensure the reopening of the Little House, after some extensive restoration work has been completed. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — After closing its doors to the public at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, the Little House began looking a little worse for wear. And so, it remained closed to the public even after the pandemic had ended and life in Shepherdstown had gone back to normal.

According to Shepherd University Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Community Relations Holly Frye, it became clear that the Little House — located on East High Street behind White Hall — needed some major restoration work, before it could be reopened.

“A building that sits empty never does well,” Frye said. “When we tried to reopen it after the pandemic we looked around realized that we really needed to do some work on it.”

The Little House was built in the summers of 1928 and 1929 as a class project, supervised by Shepherd College professor Florence Shaw. A group of 19 student teachers, 12 children, two carpenters and a stonemason worked together to build the two-story, native limestone house, along with a Little Barn and two bridge across the nearby portion of Town Run. In the end, the project successfully achieved Shaw’s goal of enticing 12-year-old and 13-year-old children to attend summer school on campus, enabling the college to provide opportunities for teaching practice to its elementary teaching students and teachers seeking recertification.

“The history of the Little House is just the coolest thing,” Frye, who is serving as the project lead, said. “The reason why they built it, as well as how they built it, is just amazing.”

The Little Barn was recently repainted, with funding from Shepherdstown residents Eric and Joy Lewis. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

When the Little House was examined after the end of the pandemic, Frye said one element of particular concern became immediately apparent — the paint, which was made in a time when lead was a common paint ingredient, was chipping. That deterioration, if lead was present in the paint, may have released dangerously high levels of the toxin into the space.

“We are never going to take a chance of having an unsafe space on our campus — most especially when it involves children,” Frye said, “So we thought we needed to be very cautious and have it tested.”

With the help of a $26,750 grant from Women Investing in Shepherd (WISH), the Little House underwent a lead abatement in March and April.

“It is what has made this project possible. It would have made things a lot more difficult, if we hadn’t gotten the grant. We would probably have still been in the planning stage at this point in time,” Frye said. “We are so blessed. WISH is such an amazing group of women.”

The remaining funds from the grant will be used to revitalize the Little House and ensure it will be able to be enjoyed by children for many years to come.

“We just completed putting on a new roof,” Frye said, mentioning she is being frugal with the funding, with the goal of completing the project under budget. “We are going to be capping the chimneys, so that birds and the weather and so forth won’t affect it. We’re also going to need to fix some areas that were damaged by rain and water leaks, so we’ll be repairing the walls. The final piece will be painting. And then we’ll put the furniture and all of the items back into the Little House.”

She said that at the beginning of the project, a group of volunteers from the student body and WISH removed and catalogued the original furniture from the Little House. Most of it was in decent shape or needed very little work, like reupholstering, done to it, to bring it back to life. Only one of the beds from an upstairs bedroom was unsalvageable. It will be replaced with a new bed, built by Shepherdstown resident Eric Lewis.

Lewis and his wife, Joy, invested in the project in one other way — by providing funds for the Little Barn to have its paint removed and replaced with new, nontoxic paint.

“The Little Barn was built when the Little House was built,” he said. “[My wife] and I couldn’t let it go unpainted, when the Little House was being renovated by Shepherd.”

Although an end date for the project is not yet in site, Frye said they are looking forward to the day when it can return to being a popular play spot for children.

“It seems like it’s been closed forever,” Frye said. “We are excited to be able to get that structure open for children and families to be able to visit again.”