MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –– Morgantown general contractor Adelheid Schaupp has earned the 2024 Young Professional award from the National Association of Home Builders. Schaupp was one of 16 being considered for the honor that recognizes hard work, achievements, dedication, and outstanding potential.
After graduating with a degree in history, her father urged her to try a project house, something that could supplement the expected income of a young professional holding that type of degree. Not long after, she purchased her first property in Greenmont, and the journey started.
“I ended up getting my first house in Greenmont for $30,000, and it was a payment of $341 per month, so kind of like a car payment,” Schaupp said. “I decided to start there, and it exploded from that point.”
While working on one historic property on White Avenue, another distressed property nearby was about to be hers as well. The house was the location of a methamphetamine lab and a police action. The property was cordoned off with caution tape because of the hazardous substances inside when she became concerned it would be swept up as another low-cost rental.
“So, I put in a low-ball offer, and it was accepted,” Schaupp said. “I got in there and discovered the history of the house and discovered all kinds of artifacts in the attic.”
She then learned the house belonged to the son of John Edwards. An African-American businessman who operated the first water delivery service in the city before it was taken over by a vote of the city council. The family evolved to the trash business that decades later the city also assumed. Over the years, the house was used as an office for the businesses, a school for Black children, and a community meeting space. The house was also included in the “Negro Motorist Green Book,” guiding people of color to safe spaces prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It was in the Green Book, if anyone is familiar with the Green Book,” Schaupp said. “It’s where you could look up places to stay if you were African-American and traveling in the United States.”
In the attic she found desks from the old school along with books, papers, postcards, and letters. One of the letters she said was written by math and NASA legend Katherine Johnson.
“One of the letters was actually from Katherine Johnson from the movie Hidden Figures,” Scaupp said. “She went to school in Morgantown for a short time, and she wrote a letter to the principal of the school on White Avenue, so one of those letters was from her.”