{"nrhp_refnum":"05001274","name":"Graffiti House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"19484 Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Brandy Station","county":"Culpeper County","state":"VA","lat":38.50444399700007,"lon":-77.89056050899995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-11-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame house with a one-story addition, built about 1858 by James Barbour beside the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in the village of Brandy Station, Culpeper County, Virginia. It now serves as a museum and visitor center.","why_significant":"The house is the only intact antebellum building in Brandy Station with explicit Civil War associations. Its second-floor walls carry extensive graffiti left by Confederate and Union soldiers in 1862-1864. It is locally significant under Criterion A for its Civil War association and under Criterion D for its potential to yield further information about the units and men who occupied it.","narrative":"Beside the old Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Brandy Station, Virginia, stands a two-story frame house built about 1858 by James Barbour. A one-story addition with a tall false-front parapet was added later. Inside, Greek Revival details survive, including molded and fluted door and window surrounds and a single-flight stair. The house is best known for the graffiti that Confederate and Union soldiers wrote and drew on its plaster walls between 1862 and 1864. The writings include names, units, dates, battle references and drawings of soldiers, women and a bird. One section, the Maryland Scroll, lists the crew of a horse-artillery gun. The graffiti is unusually extensive, covering most of the walls in several second-floor rooms. Original graffiti in one room remains hidden under a thin layer of newer plaster. After years of abandonment, the building was rehabilitated and now operates as a visitor center and museum, open to the public.","period_of_significance":"1862-1864","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century/Greek Revival","criteria":["A","D"],"status_note":"Rehabilitated after purchase in 2002 and now used as a museum and visitor center giving public access to the graffiti.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.235747-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/7/6787/41678707/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/05001274.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001274/39fff2edb8-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05001274/39fff2edb8-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Cecouchman","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graffiti_House_at_Brandy_Station_3844.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Cecouchman</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Graffiti_House_at_Brandy_Station_3844.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678707","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5592460"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/culpeper-county/graffiti-house-05001274/"}