Ephraim Hopes to Keep Graffiti in Check at Anderson Dock

The tradition of painting names on the walls of the warehouse on Anderson Dock has been a beloved tradition for decades, but that has now spread to graffiti on the dock, ballards, light posts and signs. File photo by Rachel Lukas.

The Village of Ephraim has begun cleaning graffiti off unwanted areas of Anderson Dock, and the members of the village board hope it leads to new respect for a decades-old tradition and a piece of village history. 

The tradition of painting on the warehouse at Anderson Dock, now home to the Hardy Gallery, started when sailors delivering merchandise and goods to Ephraim began painting the name of their vessel and the date of their visit on the side of the warehouse. That has morphed over the years to people signing their names, making marriage proposals and writing wedding dates on the walls. 

It has become one of the most-photographed buildings on the peninsula, but its popularity has also led to graffiti spreading to unwanted places.  

“Thousands of people have painted somewhere else,” said village administrator Brent Bristol. “People see painting on the building, and then feel they can paint somewhere else. So it’s not the charming little tradition it was, but has morphed from ship names to ‘Johnny, will you marry me?’ to graffiti where it shouldn’t be.”

Workers from SERVPRO were on-site this week pressure-washing graffiti off of stones, riprap, signage and the dock at a cost of $10,000. Bristol said graffiti has spread to cover almost 6,000 square feet of other surfaces. 

A few years ago, one wall of the Hardy Gallery was painted to create a fresh canvas in hopes that it would stop the spread of graffiti, but that wall was covered within days.

“The graffiti has been a growing problem, and we’re hoping to use this cleanup as an opportunity to educate the public about how to respectfully take a turn in this tradition,” Bristol said. “The village encourages people to sign the warehouse walls in a tasteful manner. We don’t want to have to highlight all the things you can’t do. Just be a decent human and respect the tradition that it is. I don’t know how practical it is to expect people to do a nice, tidy job, but that’s the goal.”

The board is hoping to get ahead of the problem before it invests several hundred thousand dollars to improve and reinforce the dock and warehouse. That improvement project could entail raising the building and pouring new concrete over the existing dock, or busting up the dock and starting anew.