The Cress Creek Community and Shepherdstown

Shepherdstown is favorably located at a low water crossing of the Potomac River near the foot of the Shenandoah Valley. As early 1720, pioneers making their way west from their farmsteads in Pennsylvania, many of whom were German tradesman from embattled areas of their European homeland, made the crossing a place to set up shop and manufacture goods and material for those who came behind.

Thomas Shepherd recognized the value of the crossing and patented a town there in 1732, named Mechlenberg for the abundance of German families living here. He established a ferry to improve the location for crossing and built a fort for protection from marauding Indians during the French and Indian War.

George Washington was hired as a surveyor by Lord Fairfax in the 1740’s to establish his ownership of the “Northern Neck.� He knew the land and was there at the beginning of that awful war. He was also there at the end in 1763, and he and his family patented vast tracts in what is now Jefferson County. Many of those lands and their plantation homes are still in evidence today, particularly around Charles Town, the village set up by Charles Washington in 1786.

This area was a center of activity during the Revolutionary War and again during the War between the States seventy years later. The Shepherd Family has always had a strong interest in preserving the character of this community, as can be seen by their preservation of Belle Vue site on the bluff overlooking the river on the Shepherd Grade. In 1982 Maggie Drennen bought her first piece of property from Mr. Henry Shepherd. The community was begun.

North Hills is the fourth section of the Cress Creek Development just outside Shepherdstown, West Virginia. We started with a nine holes golf course in 1987. Since then Cress Creek has grown into a community of active and friendly people who enjoy the amenity of a country club in their midst. North Hills is the final piece of what will be a neighborhood of 140 houses on the former Shepherd property, Willowdale and Breezy Bluff Farms. Cress Creek introduced the active, outdoor lifestyle with the Meadow Ridge Section in 1989, and its popularity continues to grow.