Caring for the shrine

Growing up in the United Methodist Church, Helen Kemp remembers traveling to New Windsor several times to visit the Strawbridge Shrine, home of Robert Strawbridge, who is credited with bringing Methodism to America in the 1760s.
The historic site was much different at that time, Kemp said.
"When I used to come here as a teenager, none of these buildings were filled with furnishings," said Kemp, 59, originally from Charlottesville, Va. "And in fact, there was only one building here on the property at that time - the Strawbridge House."
The property now also features the house of John Evans, the first American convert to Methodism, which was moved to the shrine from a few miles away, and a log meetinghouse, which is a replica of one that once had been in the area and was erected in the 1980s on the shrine property.
And then there is also the caretaker's home, where Kemp and her husband Tim live in the upstairs level and operate the visitors' center downstairs.
Helen Kemp was installed as the new curator in residence at the Strawbridge Shrine by the Strawbridge Shrine Association in August.
"My husband and I are so grateful to the Strawbridge Shrine Association because they have been a wonderful help," Kemp said. "When we moved in here, they made this place a home, they really did."
Kemp is a member of Pleasant Grove UMC in Boring and has been the part-time church secretary there for six years. She also has been church office manager for Sandy Mount UMC in Finksburg since 2011. She said she learned about the curator position coming open at the Strawbridge Shrine from her pastor friends and she was immediately interested.
Previously, Kemp had spent 15 years in a career in information management, but history was one of her passions.
She had also grown up on a 500-acre private estate in Charlottesville, where her mother was a maid and her father was the chef. Kemp said she had given tours of the estate to visitors, which also made her familiar with some of the duties of a curator.
She and her husband were living in a small apartment in Manchester after losing their house in Boring in 2010 after Tim was laid off from his plumbing job due to the recession. The curator position came with the caretaker's home, which the two were excited about, and are glad to now call the historic property their home.
As curator, her duties include booking tours, conducting tours for shrine visitors and coordinating with the shrine's volunteer tour guides to show the property in her absence. Tim is also a tour guide and is often at the property giving impromptu tours to unexpected visitors.
"It's amazing how many people find us," she said with a laugh.
She also oversees the property and helps with artifact acquisitions.
One recently added artifact is a stone from the Strawbridges' home in Ireland before they came to America, which was acquired after John Strawbridge, a descendent of Robert Strawbridge, found a Kindle e-book written by a man in Ireland with more information about the Strawbridges' Irish background. John Strawbridge is a member of the shrine board, and he contacted the author to discuss their common interest.
"The next thing we knew, the author sent us a stone from their last home there," Kemp said.
Another recently acquired artifact is a panoramic photo of one of the many pilgrimages that took place where the log meetinghouse had originally been near the shrine site. The New Windsor Heritage Committee was releasing the picture from its collection and was willing to sell it. The Strawbridge Shrine Association had a copy of the photo, Kemp said, and New Windsor had the original, with labels of strategic people standing in that group.
The stone is now on display in the visitors' center and the photo is in the Strawbridge House.
The shrine tends to get the most visitors during the warmer months, when confirmation classes often come for field trips and people on their way to conferences make a quick detour to see the shrine. They even get their share of overseas visitors, she said.
"They come to find out how the Methodist church began in America," she said. "It's like seeing a little bit of Colonial Williamsburg out here in the country."
Kemp is hoping to have a good turnout of visitors Dec. 8 for the shrine's annual Advent candlelight service, which will take place in the log meetinghouse.
"They tell me it's a wonderful time to worship and have fun," she said.
The Rev. James Talley, president of the Strawbridge Shrine Association, said Kemp didn't have a background in history or curatorship but she seemed like a good fit for the position. "I think what we saw was the passion; we saw the passion and we saw flexibility and a willingness to work with those of us who not only have a passion but have a background, and willingness to listen and learn," Talley said.
Kemp said she is glad to work for a cooperative board which is so open with her, her husband and the public.
"When you step into such a unique thing, you hope that you're going to get a lot of help from the people who know a lot about that thing," Kemp said of working with the association members. "They have a wonderful devotion and passion for this place, not just the history of it, but that all people should come."