Why does Arlington National Cemetery have a giant house?
The most famous cemetery in America, Arlington National Cemetery, is known for its rows and rows of white tombstones, but prominently overlooking the cemetery is a fancy columned house, Arlington House.
The history of Arlington House is a strange one. The original estate consisted of 1,100 acres overlooking Washington, D.C., purchased by John Parke Custis, the stepson of George Washington. He gave the hill the house now stands on the name of Mount Washington. His son, George Washington Parke Custis, inherited the property in 1802 and decided to build Arlington House, a Greek Revival style mansion. He needed a place to store all his George Washington memorabilia. I wish I was kidding.
Arlington House from afar.
George Washington Parke Custis had a daughter who married that famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Today, the house is officially named Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial. Lee is the only Confederate that has a national memorial. Since the Lee Memorial was designated during the 1920s, the height of the KKK era, I’m not going to agree that this name should remain and there has been push back to rename the site. Arlington House didn’t even belong to Lee. It was his wife, Mary’s! She even detested when Robert tried to control her finances.
Library of Congress Union soldiers chilling at Lee’s former home. Mount Washington had a great view of the area, perfect for defenses.
Since they were considered traitors, the Lees quickly lost their home at the start of the Civil War. The estate was later turned into Arlington National Cemetery. Lee’s oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, sued the US Government for his property back and won. He must not have wanted a cemetery and quickly sold it back to the government.
Back to George Washington Parke Custis. He decided to build a house, on the estate his father bought back in 1778, in 1802 after his grandmother’s death in 1802. The home was conveniently located near the bustling town of Alexandria (future post) and in the nation’s new capitol. (Washington, D.C. was still a complete square extending across the Potomac into Virginia at the time.) The house is currently decorated similarly to what it would have been like at the time of Mary Lee’s flight with her family.
I was able to tour the first floor of the home, which was surprising considering that I haven’t been able to tour a historic home since Covid started. While this was my third visit to Arlington National Cemetery, it was my first to the home.
It is really hard to get a good photograph of the front of the house near the house.
The tomb of Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant. Not only was he a French engineer who served in the Revolutionary War, he also planned the first layout of Washington, D.C.’s future streets. While some of his plans later were changed, L’Enfant created the original design that can still be seen in the city his tomb now overlooks.
Now into the home and Robert E. Lee’s study. It is in this room that he rejected the Abraham Lincoln’s offer to command Union troops and resigned from the U.S. Army.
President Gerald Ford pardoned Lee on this desk in 1975. Lee’s request for a pardon was rejected, so Lee never got back his citizenship.
George Washington Parke Custis used this room as an artist’s studio, painting works that honored George Washington. Some can still be found in the house. Mary Lee was painting in this room when she found out that Union troops were planning to seize the property the next day.
The parlor.
More parlor. I’m digging that carpet.
This parlor was the center of religious life for the family Every morning and evening, family members, guests, and of course slaves, gathered here for prayers. Robert and Mary Lee married in this room as well. According to tradition, two enslaved couples have been married here as well. A portrait of Mary Lee hangs over the fireplace.
A neat architectural feature separates the parlor from the dining room.
Not sure who these kids are. I just thought this painting was creepy.
A fancy dining room.
Famous visitors dined in this room including, the writer Washington Irving, Andrew Jackson, and Franklin Pierce (the 14th president).
Back outside, the family had a nice flower garden as well.
They wouldn’t have had this tomb though, the Tomb of the Unknown Civil War Soldiers. The inscription reads, “Beneath this stone repose the bones of two thousand one hundred and eleven unknown soldiers gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run, and the route to the Rappahannock. Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful citizens honor them as of their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace. September AD 1866.”
And lastly, the first tomb in what would later become Arlington National Cemetery, the tomb of Mary Randolph, buried in 1828. She was the cousin of George Washington Parke Custis and godmother of Mary Lee. She was famous for the Virginia House-Wife, a popular book about housekeeping and recipes, published in 1824.
Arlington House is a neat historical oddity visible from Washington, D.C. It may have a troubled past, but it was still a good place to visit.
For more on Arlington National Cemetery, check out my last post.
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