Charles Town plans to acquire 10 acres surrounding city founder Charles Washington’s home, Happy Retreat.
The Journal reports that City Council approved a contract this week with the Friends of Happy Retreat. Under the contract, the city will pay $350,000 for the land and the nonprofit will pay $425,000 for the house and the remaining 2.2 acres.
Friends of Happy Retreat president Walter Washington says the transaction will give the public ongoing access to the estate.
Under private ownership by a family, the estate has been open to the public only at specified times.
The deal is expected to close in June 2015. Washington says the Friends of Happy Retreat will raise its share of the cost by then.
Washington, the brother of President George Washington, built Happy Retreat in 1780.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery located in Jefferson County has attracted around 50,000 tourists since it opened in 2011. While Jefferson County has been called the leader in tourism and economic impact in the state, some say the rural economy is struggling, and this distillery could be helping to revive it.
Allison Manderino is one of the fun-tenders, or bartenders, at the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery. She drives two-in-a-half hours every weekend from Pennsylvania to the eastern panhandle just to work weekends serving drinks.
“You ask anyone here who works here, we all have the same answer, we all love each other,” said Manderino, “and Tom and Linda, our owners, we want them to succeed so much that we will do whatever we need. And if that means that, you know, I drive and live in a different state every weekend, that’s okay. I’ll do it, because I want to see this through, and I know we’re going places, and I just want to help them get there in whatever way I can.”
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Bloomery Sweetshine’s Greenhouse
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery began after co-founders, Linda Losey and Tom Keifer went on a trip to Italy in 2010. While there, they tasted Limoncello, a very popular lemon liqueur and wanted to replicate it once back in the US. After scouting out various locations, they found a rural spot in Charles Town, where they began to build their business in an old bloomery, or ironworks mill, from the 1700s that was in disrepair.
“So we thought, why not settle in West Virginia,” remembered Losey, “and I came out here, and I texted Tom, I’m like, I’m going to meet the craigslist killer, and he said where are you and what are you doing, and I said, don’t worry if I like it, you’re in trouble, if I don’t like it, it’s no worries. And I liked it, and so here we are, on 12 acres in Charles Town, West Virginia, growing lemons and Hawaiian ginger and raspberries and black walnuts and pumpkins.”
Losey says she’s amazed at the success of the distillery in such a short time, but attributes that success to the fun-tenders who always try to connect to each patron individually and make each customer feel welcome.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Allison Manderino as the Dancing Lemon, the distillery’s mascot.
“Everybody brings their own sort of quirkiness to the team,” Losey noted, “and if you come and get a tasting on a Friday and have one fun-tender, and you come back in on a Saturday, you’re going to get a completely different experience.”
Tom Keifer, the other co-founder, says he thinks it’s the naturalness of the product that’s attractive and keeps bringing in customers.
“Because we have only whole ingredients, there’s nothing artificial, no coloring, no dyes, no flavors, anything like that,” Keifer said, “And there’s this robustness that comes with that. I mean when you taste the ginger you’ll see, I mean, it tastes like liquid ginger root, and when you taste our pumpkin spice, it tastes like grandma’s pumpkin pie. It’s just awesome.”
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery grows most of its ingredients on-site, but since its products are in such high demand, it gets some ingredients locally in Charles Town and Martinsburg, but some come from farmers as far away as California.
It’s open only four days a week, but the owners say they average 300 customers every weekend. Their products have won American and International awards, and have seen at least one tourist from every state in the US, as well as a handful of other countries.
Annette Gavin is the CEO of the Jefferson County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. She says the distillery is definitely making an impact on Jefferson County’s economy.
“They didn’t just decide to do this, develop it, and, you know, wait for people to come. They market it; they market the heck out of it. You know, they get out there, and it’s literally stomping the pavement to let people know,” said Gavin.
Gavin also says the Distillery is in a perfect location being so close to Washington, DC and Baltimore.
With an array of flavors to choose from and an ever growing number in tourists, the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery continues to do well in Jefferson County.
John Brown, and a band of anti-slavery men, captured the U.S. armory at Harpers Ferry on the night of October 16, 1859. Earlier in the year, Brown had settled into a western Maryland farmhouse, where he trained his 18-man army in military tactics. His goal was to seize weapons from the national armory at Harpers Ferry and arm slaves, who would then overthrow their masters.
American Public University System plans to open a business incubator in Charles Town.
The incubator will focus on information technology, sustainability and green businesses.
The Journal reports that American Public vice president of community relations John Hough provided details of the project on Monday to the Region 9 Planning and Development Council.
Hough says the incubator’s clients will be eight to 10 startups led by veterans. But he says
veterans might not fill the incubator’s capacity so it will be open to other startups.
The incubator will provide mentoring and coaching, networking and education.
The council passed a resolution of support for the incubator.
West Virginia’s largest casino has announced plans to add a 1,200-seat concert venue as it seeks to fend off increased competition from casinos in Maryland.
Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races said Monday that it will begin construction this month on the venue, which will be located on the casino floor and feature a box office and VIP area. Hollywood hopes to open the venue by the end of September. A name for the venue has not yet been selected.
Hollywood draws heavily from the D.C. market, but has faced tough competition the last few years from Maryland casinos, especially the Maryland Live! casino at Arundel Mills, which has a 500-seat concert venue on its casino floor.
As competition increases from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, West Virginia casinos are losing customers.
And the lost revenue is poking a hole in the state’s tax base and budget.
Nowhere is that better exemplified than at Charles Town. When they first opened, business boomed beyond expectations, and tax revenue flowed into the state’s coffers.
West Virginia’s two panhandles were situated to draw out-of-state dollars – the Northern Panhandle drew gamblers from Pennsylvania and Ohio, while the Eastern Panhandle, where Charles Town is located, drew bettors from Maryland, Virginia and the D.C. region.
Pennsylvania’s foray into casino gambling weakened the northern casinos in Wheeling and Mountaineer Park, but Charles Town continued for a number of years to keep its monopoly on the D.C. market.
That changed when Maryland legalized casino gambling.
