3 Best Sights in Sheperdstown, West Virginia

Housed in the oldest section of three-story Entler Hotel (1786), the museum displays muzzle-loading rifles, locks, quilts, and various antiques. There's also an archive with more than 200 years' worth of town documents, which is used primarily for genealogical and historical research. The small bookshop stocks reprints of hard-to-find books on Shepherdstown and its history. The museum also runs a boathouse containing the results of the 1987 “Rumseian Experiment,” in which a local resident tried to re-create a working replica of a mechanical steamboat that was exhibited by inventor James Rumsey in the late 18th century.

In Shepherdstown's historic Morgan's Grove neighborhood, this park has been an important meeting space for the local community for centuries, which earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. A 20-acre parcel of what was once the local fairground was transformed into a park in 1961, and today the space features a walking path, playground, soccer fields, volleyball court, and covered pavilion, complete with its own kitchen. Community picnics are often held at the park on Labor Day and the Fourth of July.

If you want to catch a live show or watch an art-house film while in Shepherdstown, this historic theater is your best bet. Despite its name, the Opera House was used primarily as a movie theater in its early days. Built in 1909, it was the first in the state to screen movies with sound, and it continued to do so until it shut its doors in 1956. In 1992, it was remodeled and reopened to the public, and today it operates as both a movie theater and concert venue.