Blending Culpeper’s history with the Blue Ridge

The town of Culpeper’s 250th birthday now has official brand.

The circular emblem blends a hint of the town’s natural beauty with downtown landmarks and history.

The Anniversary Oversight Committee quickly and unanimously approved the draft logo designed by Reva artist Walter Burton at its meeting Thursday.

“Excellent job,” said committee chairman T.I. Martin at Thursday’s meeting.

The circular logo by Burton features two landmarks located in the town, including:

- The boyhood home of famed Confederate general and native son A.P. Hill (1825-1865). The Italian villa building still stands in the heart of downtown at Main and Davis streets.

Revolutionary War hero Gen. Edward Stevens, another native son, owned the building in its smaller, original form.

- The Culpeper County Courthouse on West Davis Street, built circa 1870 by Sam Proctor at a cost of $18,700.

The blue-and-gold 250th anniversary logo also portrays a Culpeper Minuteman, one of a battalion of local men who marched off to fight in the Revolution in 1775. The Minutemen saw significant action at Great Bridge in Tidewater under the leadership of Col. Stevens.

The committee only requested one slight change to the logo: shifting the A.P. Hill home a bit to the left for an unobstructed view of the building’s distinctive rooftop cupola.

A basic outline of the Blue Ridge Mountains rises behind the courthouse clock tower on the design by Burton, a native of Culpeper County.

The town’s 250th anniversary weekend will be held Sept. 18-20.

At Thursday’s meeting, the committee decided to combine that Sunday’s (Sept. 20) ecumenical church service with the historical pageant. As part of the pageant, local actors plan to restage “A High and Pleasant Situation,” a short play by Woodford Hackley performed for the town’s bicentennial in 1959.

The committee is also working to finalize which “legacy project” it wants to take on as part of the 250th anniversary.

Suggestions thus far include a black history project or purchasing a historic house for an expanded community museum. The legacy project is intended to be something that would contribute to Culpeper for years to come.

The town’s origins
Formed by an act of the General Assembly in 1759, the town of Culpeper (originally called Fairfax) did not become a distinct governmental body with laws separate from the county until 1799, according to the town’s comprehensive plan.

By 1800, town trustees had started meeting to regulate building practices — prohibiting wooden or stick chimneys — and the keeping of livestock.

“All homeowners with such chimneys were given until Nov. 30, 1800 to replace them with brick or stone chimneys,” the town’s comp plan says. “At the same meeting, the trustees voted to prohibit hogs to run at-large on town streets, and permitted hogs to be shot if they were running loose.”

At the time — starting in 1795 with the opening of a U.S. post office — the town of Culpeper was known as Culpeper Courthouse.