Founder

Marelise Voss founded Popes Creek to steward homes, properties, and the histories carried through them.

The practice evolved from her work managing homes, belongings, and complex decisions during periods of transition and responsibility. As a fiduciary trustee, she managed property and personal assets in contexts requiring discretion, coordination, oversight, and long-term accountability.

Popes Creek was further shaped by lived experience navigating loss, estate obligations, and the overwhelming practical demands that can follow major life transitions without meaningful support. Over time, this revealed how thoughtful stewardship can create the space for people to move beyond immediate burdens and make careful decisions about what is carried forward into the future.

Marelise began her career with Bovis Construction supporting the historic preservation and modernization of the Royal Academy of Arts building in London. There, she learned how continuity depends upon careful coordination between the many people, disciplines, and priorities shaping a property over time. This experience now informs her approach to stewardship across homes in transition, renovation, and ongoing care.

She was educated in the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University.

Philosophy of Place

Stewardship is older than service. It is the responsibility of caring for what endures on behalf of those who hold it now and those who will hold it next.

A home is never only a structure, but a record of experience, memory, and decisions carried forward. Stewardship is continuity across time.

Popes Creek is rooted in a long-standing lineage shaped by generational ties to the cultural and architectural landscape of the Chesapeake.

Its name reflects a personal and enduring connection to place, where land, dwelling, and history are interwoven over time rather than defined by single moments of ownership.

Operating Method

We work across four modes—renovation stewardship, property stewardship, home care during absence, and home transition support—adapting presence and engagement to the needs of each situation.

Renovation stewardship involves sustained on-site presence during active construction, providing real-time oversight and coordination as work unfolds.

Property stewardship includes structured visits and ongoing availability for issues as they arise, ensuring continuity of care and response when needed.

Home care during absence includes periodic or extended on-site presence depending on duration and requirements, maintaining condition, access, and oversight.

Home transition support is highly customized and typically involves downsizing, organizing, and documenting belongings and their histories in preparation for moving, renovation, rental, or sale.

Across all modes, we collaborate directly with owners as decisions arise, coordinating, verifying, and resolving work in context to maintain alignment between intent and conditions.

We remain in continuous communication through photo, video, and written exchange, maintaining shared visibility and continuity of understanding regardless of level of presence.