It’s the leading edge of summer on the Tred Avon River, a time when the water’s surface is still unchurned by boat traffic and its muddy bottom quiet, the resident blue crabs having long evacuated their wintertime burrows. Varying hues of blues and greens cast broad stripes over the inlet, marking the altering depths. This is the time when Brook Myers loves to be in her riverfront Oxford home: The flower garden is coming into full bloom, people are returning for the season, and it’s almost time for the annual Memorial Day art show at the community center, where, she says, the local ladies serve “the best strawberry shortcake on the face of this earth.”

Brook and her husband, Larry, bought their first home in Oxford in 1983 as an escape from their house in Washington, D.C., where she owns City Houses, a real estate brokerage company, and he is an aviation attorney. Eager to upgrade to a waterfront property, in 1997 they bought their current home, which overlooks the opposing shoreline of Benoni Point, a stone’s throw across the river. “I’ve always loved Oxford and always wanted to spend time here,” says Brook, cradling her constant companion, Charlotte,  a Norwich terrier. “This is my decompression point. It was a great place when our children were little, and the juxtaposition of the city and the Shore is terrific. It’s nice to know that after twenty-four years of having a weekend home here, you still love it.”

When the couple bought the circa-1958 house, it was not a turn-key property. The couple hired Trappe-based architect Jay Corvan and Oxford builder David Rust to revamp the modest two-story home, in desperate need of a do-over. In addition to removing most of the first floor’s interior walls to create a single great room, which merges the kitchen, dining room, and living room, the couple commissioned a third level for the master suite, cedar shingling, and a hand-rolled tin roof. “Basically, we started over,” says Brook. “I wanted something that had a sense of time and place—a house where the line between the indoors and outdoors was a little bit blurred.”

The formal entrance, also part of the remodeling effort, is adorned with Larry’s collection of shorebird etchings, created by the likes of famed wildfowl artists Frank Benson and Roland Clark. Along the top of the wall, Brook stenciled one of her favorite scriptures: “Do not neglect to show hospitality, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” “It sets the tone,” says Brook. “We think of this house as a gift; when you have wonderful fortune, you need to share it.”

The adjoining living room is a fresh, eclectic space that combines traditional accessories (the toile sofa, antique side tables, and cherry sideboard) with beach-themed elements, which include sea grass chairs and Brook’s extensive collection of shells, all found on various family vacations. (She even has shells that belonged to her mother and grandfather.)

The space leads to a spacious open-air porch, added to extend the length of the house. The porch, casually dressed with weatherproof wicker furniture, looks over the back garden, blooming with dianthus, daisies, Asiatic lilies, and a multitude of daffodils in the spring.  The plantings are artfully enclosed by a two-foot-high stone wall, which borders the native grasses leading to the beach. “I’m trying to be a better gardener,” says Brook, “by keeping a log of plants and what does well and what doesn’t do well.”

From Labor Day through November’s Waterfowl Festival in nearby Easton, the couple entertains friends and family, often keeping all four of the bedrooms without vacancy.  “We wanted to encourage our kids to stay here with their families and to welcome long-term guests,” says Larry. “I think people come in and say ‘What a space. What a view.’”

At the top of the stairs is Larry’s office, where he occasionally writes for museum and decoy publications, and also displays his collection of nearly two hundred nineteenth- and early twentieth-century decoys from all over the East Coast. (In his spare time, he also is a volunteer curator at the Oxford Museum.) “Early on, Brook and I made a deal,” says Larry. “I got a place to put my decoys, and she got the rest of the house.”

The entire third floor is dedicated to the master suite, which has its own petite balcony overlooking the river. The room is designed to feel like a tent, with beams stretching across the lofty, pitched ceiling. The crispness of the bed’s white linens pops against patterned colorful quilts and a smattering of antiques, including a late-1800s baby’s crib, which Brook has loaned out over the years to several friends when they became new mothers. 

While some find life on the Shore lacking creature comforts, like Starbucks or Whole Foods, Brook remains content with the tranquil town. “If I could have anything added to our lives in Oxford,” she says without hesitation, “it would be more time here.”