Mills Group LLC founder Michael Mills answers a question posed at the public forum in the War Memorial Building on Sept. 9. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — A crowd of nearly 50 community members gathered in the War Memorial Building ballroom on Sept. 9, to participate in a public forum for the Shepherdstown Heritage Education Initiative.

The initiative, according to Mayor James Gatz, will hopefully fill in some information gaps for real estate professionals and current and future historic building owners in the Corporation of Shepherdstown.

“I’m happy to see so many people here,” Gatz said. “This is an important investment we are making.”

The number of attendees was much more than what had been anticipated, according to the lead for the initiative, Mills Group LLC founder Michael Mills. Mills gave a brief overview of the purpose of the initiative and then led a conversation with those in attendance, through a survey regarding the needs and concerns facing residential and commercial historic property owners. Previously, the survey had been available to respond to online, but it had received only a minimal amount of participation — the attendance at the forum more than doubled that number.

“Just as with any publicly funded project, this is about public engagement and public input,” Mills said. “We wanted to educate folks about what we have been tasked to do. That task is to provide a resource, for the citizens of Shepherdstown, to really educate them on the preservation aspects of what are here in their community, whether it be a commercial building or a residential building. We want to make sure they know where to start — what are the resources, where to go look for answers and how to maintain the great aesthetic of this beautiful town and place.”

Mills Group LLC founder Michael Mills welcomes the crowd to the public forum in the War Memorial Building on Sept. 9. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

Mills Group was selected to build a guidebook and comprehensive training program for use by the Shepherdstown Historic Landmarks Commission, with the information collected from the in-person and online survey as an indicator of which areas to focus on with their development. The architecture, planning and preservation firm comes well equipped to this role, due to it already having a hand on the pulse of the local community, through its Shepherdstown office location. And, according to Mills, this work will be building on work that the firm has previously done for the town.

“We did the design guidelines for the Corporation of Shepherdstown a few years ago — it’s piggybacking on those and providing a resource,” Mills said.

He said his goal was to have the guidebook completed, both in print and online, around the beginning of 2026.

“I have 30 years of historic restoration experience. We focus a lot on that — that is not all we do, but it is certainly a great focus and passion for us. We have somebody dedicated to it on staff,” Mills, who is also an active member of the Lewisburg Historic Landmarks Commission, said. “Preservation is a complex subject, for which you need to be aware of all the issues.”

Additional community feedback is still being accepted for the Shepherdstown Heritage Education Survey, at https://tgr.li/FOZA.