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Good Graffiti
Written By: Jane Gibson Nardy - Cashiers Historical Society | Issue: 2017/06 - June
The Google Dictionary describes the word “graffiti” as “writing on walls; drawings or words that are scratched, painted, or sprayed on walls or other surfaces.”
In our day and age we consider graffiti as something to be erased, painted over, and eradicated. One exception is graffiti found in historic house museums, which is rare and highly valued when it does occur. The Zachary-Tolbert House Museum in Cashiers is one of those places where you can find graffiti written on the walls in almost every room.
In the late 1990s, the Cashiers Historical Society was faced with stabilizing its newly acquired historic house, which sat on stone foundations that, after over 100 years, had sunk into the earth, causing the floors to sag down. The solution to this problem was to first remove temporarily the interior boards in the house and then with a huge crane, raise the skeleton of the house a few feet off the ground – high enough to get under the house and replace the stone foundation.
When the workmen moved the interior boards outside into the sunshine, they saw writing on many of the boards, something not noticed in the dim interior of the house. They alerted some of the society members to the graffiti.
After the house was reassembled, an intern from the history department at Western Carolina University made an index to the graffiti, listing each item, and identifying in which room and on which wall it could be found. The intern wrote, “Writings have been transcribed to hard copy as seen on the walls. The exception being those things written vertically or upside down. Writings found in this manner or high up on the walls are in that position due to restoration work. These boards were moved from the south west room and were installed in the new position to replace rotten boards. The south west room has been restored using all new materials and has no graffiti.”
A flashlight is needed to read the writings and each of the four families who owned and lived in the house left some graffiti behind as did some of the guests.
Here are some examples of the over 50 items of graffiti: “The Pendleton Mountain Party;” “Went fishing June 8th 71 C B Fugate;” “Thomas D. Parker,” “Charlie Zachary took his first step the 10th day of April 1870;” “A. Burt;” “Willie Norton;” “Letters, April 14, sent 3, Received 5;” “C. W. Miller;” and “F.S.P. Jr. sept 21st 1870”
