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Just outside of today's Culpepper, Virginia (USA) a long-ago train stop called Brandy Station straddled the tracks of the now defunct Orange & Alexandria line (now part of the Norfolk Southern) and was strategically located near the antebellum Culpepper Court House.   Another nameless building to appear at about that time was also built near the railroad tracks, and because of it's location and the peculiarities of it's architecture, it is speculated that it was originally a commercial-cum-residential building.   However at the time of it's construction (circa 1858) no one could have predicted it's immense historical value.

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In addition to Brandy Station being the site of the largest cavalry engagement ever fought on American soil, history buffs will recall that it changed hands more than once during the War Between The States.   Historians now believe that shortly after the outbreak of the war, the above-mentioned unnamed building near the railroad tracks was used variously as a hospital and military headquarters, administering at various times to both Confederate and Union soldiers.   Based on the graffiti content it is apparent that it was during this period both Union and Confederate soldiers, using available materials, including pencils, chimney-soot and charcoal from the fire place, began to cover the walls with graffiti.

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After the war, the succession of owners of that relatively small building proceeded to whitewash over the graffiti, usually without bothering to wash off the graffiti, or the layer of dirt that had settled on it over the ensuing years.   In retrospect, that was a blessing - at least for historians.   It seems that the layer of dirt that settled on the charcoaled and pencilled graff tended to preserve rather than harm them - at least to the extent that the said layer of dirt made it easier for restoration teams to remove old whitewash without damaging the original graffiti.

- Copyright 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.          Possibly the best known (and so far the most valuable) Civil War artifact at Graffiti House is the Maryland Scroll (so named for the graffiti content), which was for a long time in the hands of a private collector.   The Brandy Station Foundation acquired the graffiti artifact and returned it to Graffiti House.   The scroll is currently encased behind glass, and sits in the "South Room".

Currently under the aegis of the Brandy Station Foundation, this otherwise unprepossessing building, through it's copious and often historically relevant graffiti, has found itself "on the circuit" of those touring America's historic sites.   No longer nameless, that Civil War era building is listed in the 'List of Registered Historic Places in Virginia', as well as the 'National Register of Historic Places', under the most appropriate of names; Graffiti House (Google it...! ).   

- Excerpted Associated Press. Copyright 'fair use' allowances and restrictions apply.          Christopher Mills, an Archeological Conservator for the Brandy Station Foundation stabilizes a wall in the Graffiti House by injecting synthetic resin into the cracks - a necessary preliminary step before attempting to remove paint, whitewash and/or dirt from the Civil War era graffiti beneath.

But for all the Civil War history that Graffiti House has revealed to date, it's contributions are far from over.   Restoration experts, to this day, remain continuously at work, using cotton swabs and water and "whatever works", to slowly, painstakingly expose even more historical memorabilia; the tags, the caricatures, messages and conversations, private jokes, rants, scrolls, doodlings and just plain old autographs.   But that is only the half of what these dedicated historians have needed to do to preserve these treasures - once they get down to below the old wallpaper, the old paint and whitewash and the dirt, they often find it necessary to first preserve the walls themselves - usually by injecting synthetic resin into cracks and crevices and pinning them until such time as the resin has hardened.   Then they can get down to the real work.

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While no one would contend that these conservation works were undertaken just to preserve 'graffiti', and while all acknowledge that 'history' is the motivating force, it remains undeniable that without the graffiti, a significant, and highly interesting part of the history of the Civil War would have been lost to us.