Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia Department of Historic Resources
For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF
VLR Listing Date 09/14/2005
NRHP Listing Date 11/17/2005
NRHP Reference Number 05001274
The Graffiti House, built ca. 1858 on land bordering the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in the village of Brandy Station, has plaster walls in three second-story rooms filled with the names and comments of Union and Confederate soldiers who alternately occupied the house during the Civil War. The frame house in Culpeper County is the only antebellum building with explicit Civil War associations in Brandy Station, the scene of the war’s largest mounted cavalry fight. Other Virginia dwellings listed on the state and national registers also contain Civil War-era graffiti (including Ben Lomond, Prince William Co.; Blenheim, city of Fairfax; and Riddick’s Folly, city of Suffolk), but the renderings in the Graffiti House are unusually extensive, covering most of the walls of the second-floor rooms.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Updated: June 6, 2022
