Sue Kemnitzer stands on the porch of her 1790s center-hall town home. Courtesy photo

The current owners of seven of the nine historic homes featured in this column arrived in Shepherdstown with Washington, D.C. backgrounds. This influx of talents, interests and motivations have served Shepherdstown’s evolving personality and the preservation of the town’s historic homes. Such is true of the early 1790s home at 204 East German Street and its owners: Sue Kemnitzer, who led a distinguished federal career, and her late husband, David — a noted D.C. preservation architect.

In John Allen’s “Uncommon Vernacular,” he describes what is known historically as both Wynkoop’s Tavern and the Selby-Hamtramck House as the largest and most refined of Jefferson County’s early center-hall town houses. Allen notes the paired chimneys on either gable as distinctive architectural features and the unusually generous lot size that enabled the house to be nearly 50 feet wide, creating an imposing presence.

The Kemnitzers were seeking a rural retreat when Washington, D.C. neighbors John Shank and Joe Matthews, later proprietors of a fine antiques shop and home on West German Street, invited them to their nearby Maryland farm.

“Weekend visits with John and Joe led us to the purchase of a small house in 1975 near Dam Number Four on the Maryland side of the Potomac, where we could enjoy the river, fish and hike. David learned it had been the home of a C&O canal engineer,” Sue Kemnitzer said.

In 1995, they moved into a 1910 wood frame home at 206 West High Street in Shepherdstown, which was featured in this column in October. Seeking a large brick home five years later, they purchased and began the restoration of the early 1790s home on German Street. Illustrating their meticulous approach, they hired nationally recognized historic paint consultant Matthew Mosca, who identified paint layers and colors, confirming that the house had been painted only twice before. Mosca attributed this to when the house was built, the practice was to allow plaster to dry five years before being painted. Sue Kemnitzer said that it took four months to restore the plaster in the house. Wallpapers were also used, including noted 19th century designer Candace Wheeler’s signature honeybee design in the dining room.

The Kemnitzers restored the kitchen to preserve its historic look, inserting into the hearth a British-made AGA cast iron stove, which uses a constant propane gas heat source. The kitchen was built as a separate brick structure, to the rear of a log structure in the 1760s. It was not until around 1900 that the kitchen was connected structurally to the house. Of interest are a handsome, brick six-seat outhouse (the women’s side has four seats, including two for children) and an indestructible 1918 toilet in the second floor primary bathroom.

Cornelius Wynkoop had operated a tavern in the log structure from 1781, but there is evidence it had operated since the late 1760s. Wynkoop purchased the adjoining lot in 1792, at which time he demolished the log structure and constructed the present brick structure on the combined lots. Six generations of one family – all through the women of the Selby family and with different surnames – owned the house from 1810 until 1986.

Perhaps the most prominent resident was Colonel John Francis Hamtramck, who commanded a regiment in the Mexican American War, was Indian agent to the Osage Nation and married three times — his second to Eliza Clagett Selby of Shepherdstown in 1825, but who died a few years later. He then married her younger sister, Sarah Ellen Selby, and served as mayor for four years, beginning in 1850. When Hamtramck’s father died at an early age, William Henry Harrison became his guardian, even though his mother was still alive. It is believed the future president visited Hamtramck several times at the home.

Sue Kemnitzer had a distinguished federal government career, including 40 years at the National Science Foundation. In the 1970s, she was one of only two female budget examiners at the Office of Management and Budget — the other being Ina Garten, who went on to create a culinary empire as the Barefoot Contessa. Kemnitzer focused on Interior policy matters, playing a leading role in placing 140 million acres in Alaska into park and wildlife refuges, settling native claims and allowing the state to own public lands. She currently serves as chair of the Shepherdstown Water Board.

David Kemnitzer, who passed away in 2019, served as an architect on the construction of the Washington, D.C. Metro and worked with the State Department on design projects for foreign embassies. The firm he created – Kemnitzer, Reid and Haffler – specialized in historic preservation, including projects for the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. He began collecting architectural paper models as a child, amassing an impressive collection of 4,600 models of historic structures, which he later donated to the National Building Museum.

It is fair to say that the Kemnitzers have added to Shepherdstown’s personality in a number of ways, not the least of which has been their work preserving one of Shepherdstown’s most imposing historic homes.

Historic Shepherdstown board member Greg Coble wrote this column, with research and editorial assistance of fellow board members Marellen Aherne and Terry Fulton. Historic Shepherdstown is a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving Shepherdstown’s unique architectural character and building public understanding of the town’s distinctive history through its museum and other programs. Become a member at https://historicshepherdstown.com.