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91-563: George Washington Parke Custis lived at Arlington House with his wife Mary Fitzhugh Custis and their daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis . Custis built Arlington House as a memorial to his namesake, George Washington , husband of his grandmother, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington . Custis inherited the land from his father, John Parke Custis , who died at the end of the American Revolution at Yorktown. Martha Washington's children and two of her grandchildren were raised at Mount Vernon ,

182-502: A 17th-century lathe , a piece of faience , or a television each provides a wealth of information about the time in which they were manufactured and used. Cultural artifacts, whether ancient or current, have a significance because they offer an insight into: technological processes, economic development and social structure, among other attributes. The philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky categorized artifacts as follows: Social artifacts, unlike archaeological artifacts, do not need to have

273-431: A 5–4 majority, found that the estate had been "illegally confiscated" in 1864 and ordered it returned. But Lee was less interested in obtaining the estate then he was a cash compensation for its value. After several months of difficult negotiations, Lee and the federal government settled on a sale price of $ 150,000 ($ 4,905,000 in 2023 dollars). Congress enacted legislation funding the purchase on March 3, 1883; Lee signed over

364-473: A canopy. An informal flower garden was planted beneath the trees and maintained by the Custis daughters before 1853. Upon George Washington Parke Custis's death in 1857, he left Arlington Estate to Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee for her lifetime when it would then go to her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee . The estate needed much repair and reorganization, and Robert E. Lee, as executor of Custis's will, took

455-731: A commission as a cornet in the United States Army and was promoted to second lieutenant in March. He served as aide-de-camp to General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and was honorably discharged on June 15, 1800. During the War of 1812, Custis, despite physical infirmities, assisted in the firing of an artillery piece to help defend Washington, D.C., from the British during the Battle of Bladensburg . Custis also delivered and published an address condemning

546-549: A fellow Arlington slave, and eventually had eight children who grew up at Arlington. With the onset of the Civil War, the Lee family had to evacuate their home before the Union troops came and occupied the property. Even though Selina was a personal maid to Mrs. Lee, she and her family were left behind; however, before leaving, Mrs. Lee left the house keys to Selina and the responsibility to protect

637-458: A forested area now known as Arlington Woods, located west of the house. By early 1864, the military cemeteries of Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Virginia , were rapidly filling with war dead. Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army Montgomery C. Meigs proposed using 200 acres (81 ha) of the Arlington Estate as a cemetery. United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton approved

728-558: A girl named Lucy with the slave Caroline Branham . In 1802, the Washington Jockey Club sought a site for a new race course, as its old site—which occupied land from the rear of what is now the site of Decatur House at H Street and Jackson Place, across Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, to Twentieth Street, where the Eisenhower Executive Office Building sits today—was suffering encroachment from

819-580: A historically important stand of native trees. Nevertheless, Congress enacted legislation in September 1996 authorizing the transfer. On June 5, 2013, after reviewing 100 public comments that it had received on a draft environmental assessment (EA) for the Cemetery expansion project, the United States Army Corps of Engineers released a final EA and a signed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for

910-565: A mansion exhibiting the first example of Greek Revival architecture in America. Custis intended the mansion to serve as a living memorial to George Washington and a place for his collection of George Washington artifacts . Its design included elements similar to those of George Washington's house at Mount Vernon . Construction began in 1803, eleven years after L'Enfant's Plan for the future federal city later called "Washington City" and then Washington, D.C. , had designated an area directly across

1001-685: A memorial to George Washington. An Army veteran of the War of 1812 , George W. P. Custis and his wife Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis were buried in a fenced-in area now located in section 13. Other family members include: daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee ; Maria Carter Syphax , illegitimate daughter of enslaved (and later freed) maid, Arianna Carter Syphax, son-in-law:  Robert Edward Lee, and seven grandchildren:  George Custis Lee, Mary, William, Robert E. Jr., Anne, Eleanor, and Mildred. George W. P. Custis and his wife Mary Fitzhugh Custis who raised their daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis at Arlington, left

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1092-530: A nearby home owned by Custis relatives. When Mary Custis Lee did not pay her property taxes in person, the estate was legally confiscated. The United States would later return it, and then purchase the property from Custis Lee. Union troops occupied Arlington on May 24. On July 16, 1862, the United States Congress passed legislation authorizing the purchase of land for national cemeteries for military dead. In May 1864, large numbers of Union forces died in

1183-519: A plantation in what became Arlington, Virginia . High atop a hill overlooking the Potomac River and Washington, D.C. , Custis built the Greek Revival mansion Arlington House (1803–18), as a shrine to George Washington. There he preserved and displayed many of Washington's belongings. Custis also wrote historical plays about Virginia, delivered a number of patriotic addresses, and was the author of

1274-659: A replica was built for the short-lived Lanier University in Atlanta , designed by architect A. Ten Eyck Brown . It is still standing at 1140 University Drive NE, and houses the Ben H. Zimmerman Religious School and the Canterbury School. Arlington Hall, a two-thirds scale replica of Arlington House, was built in 1939 in Robert E. Lee Park, now Turtle Creek Park, in Dallas, Texas . The façade of

1365-660: A soldier in the U.S. Army. It was there that Lee decided to resign from the U.S. Army after having been offered command of it, to eventually lead the Army of Northern Virginia in the Confederate States Army during the U.S. Civil War The U.S. Army of the Potomac used the mansion for a headquarters and buried Civil War soldiers in the garden by the mansion. In a gesture of unity after the war, 2,111 unknown Civil War soldiers from both sides and several battles were buried together in

1456-563: A son, Benedict Swingate Calvert , who was Custis's maternal grandfather. Custis's father, John Parke Custis , was the son of Martha Washington by her marriage to Daniel Parke Custis . Custis's sister Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis married George Washington's nephew, Lawrence Lewis . As a wedding present, Washington gave Nelly a section of Mount Vernon's land, on which the Lewises established Woodlawn plantation and constructed Woodlawn Mansion. The National Park Service has listed Woodlawn on

1547-505: A steward to manage. He also owned 58 slaves in what became Arlington County, then the Alexandria section of the District of Columbia. One of these slaves was his valet Philip Lee . In 1830, Custis owned 57 slaves in the Alexandria section of the District of Columbia, and in 1840 owned 52 slaves in that area (33 male and 19 female). The Alexandria slave schedules are missing or misindexed for

1638-543: A three-year leave of absence from the Army to begin the necessary agricultural and financial improvements. In April 1861, Virginia seceded from the United States. Though offered command of the U.S. Army , Robert E. Lee resigned his commission on April 20, 1861 and joined the Confederate States Army . With Arlington House on high ground overlooking the capital, the federal government of the United States knew it needed to occupy

1729-434: A vault located near the mansion. The government had confiscated Arlington Estate claiming that its rightful owner, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, did not pay her property taxes on time in person (she had sent an agent to pay, who was refused). As per the Custis will, Arlington would later go to her son George Custis Lee. After the War, the property was returned to the Lee family, after a Supreme Court decision determined that

1820-400: Is intended to restore the mansion, buildings, and grounds to the way they looked in 1860. The project will repair the earthquake-damaged foundation, and add new interior lighting and a modern climate-control system. National Park Service officials said they are likely to close Arlington House and the slave quarters for several months in 2016, during which most of the work will be done. In 1919,

1911-1036: Is now part of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , in Arlington County, Virginia , which his father had purchased in 1778. However, six months after Custis's birth, his father died of " camp fever " at Yorktown, Virginia , shortly after the British army surrendered there. Custis's grandmother, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington , had been widowed in 1757, and married George Washington in January 1759. His father had grown up at Mount Vernon . Following John Parke Custis's death, Custis and his sister, Nelly, were taken in by George and Martha Washington and grew up at Mount Vernon. Custis's two oldest sisters, Elizabeth and Martha, remained at Abingdon with their widowed mother, who in 1783 married Dr. David Stuart , an Alexandria physician and associate of George Washington. The Washingtons brought Custis and Nelly, 8 and 10 years old, respectively, to New York City in 1789 to live in

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2002-469: The 37th United States Congress enacted legislation that imposed a property tax on all land in "insurrectionary" areas of the United States. The 1863 amendments to the statute required that these taxes be paid in person. Mary Lee, afflicted with severe rheumatoid arthritis and behind Confederate lines, could not pay the tax in person, resulting in the Arlington estate being seized for nonpayment of taxes. It

2093-486: The Battle of Yorktown , the final battle of the American Revolution , Arlington Estate was inherited by his son, then-six-month-old George Washington Parke Custis. John Parke Custis, his sister Martha ( Patsy ) Parke Custis, his son George (named after George Washington, the step-father of John). and his daughter Eleanor ( Nelly ) Parke Custis (later Lewis) grew up at Mount Vernon, the home of Martha and George Washington. George Washington Parke Custis built Arlington House as

2184-465: The Battle of the Wilderness , requiring a large new cemetery to be built near the District of Columbia. A study quickly determined that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property for this purpose. While Private William Henry Christmas became the first Union soldier buried at Arlington on May 13, 1864, formal authorization for burials did not occur until June 15, 1864. In January 1799, Custis accepted

2275-586: The British surrender. The younger Custis decided to build his home on the property in 1802 following the death of Martha Washington and three years after the death of George Washington. After acquiring the property, Custis renamed it "Arlington" after the Custis family's homestead on the Eastern Shore of Virginia . Custis began constructing Arlington House on his land, hiring George Hadfield as architect, who constructed

2366-686: The National Register of Historic Places . Another sister of Custis, Martha Parke Custis Peter, married Thomas Peter. Using Martha's inheritances from George and Martha Washington, the Peters purchased property in Georgetown within the District of Columbia. The couple then constructed the Tudor Place mansion on the property. Tudor Place and its grounds, which the National Park Service has listed on

2457-682: The Potomac River to be the site of the "President's House", later called the "Executive Mansion" and now the White House , and the "Congress House", now the United States Capitol . Custis located the building on a prominent hill overlooking Georgetown-Alexandria Turnpike at the approximate location of the present Eisenhower Drive in Arlington National Cemetery , the Potomac River and growing national capital of Washington, D.C., on

2548-933: The Potomac River , and the growing Washington City on the opposite side of the river. Interrupted by the War of 1812 (and material shortages after the British burned the American capital city), Custis finally completed the mansion's exterior using slave labor and materials on site in 1818. Custis intended the mansion to serve as a memorial to George Washington, and included design elements similar to that of George Washington's Mount Vernon. Custis famously displayed relics from Mount Vernon at events he held at Arlington House. On July 7, 1804, Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh . Of their four children, only one daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis , survived to maturity. Friends throughout their childhood, she married her distant cousin, Robert E. Lee at Arlington House on June 30, 1831. Lee's father, Henry Lee III (Light-Horse Harry Lee) had delivered

2639-441: The eulogy at George Washington's December 18, 1799, funeral. There are over 300,000 headstones and hundreds of memorials at Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington House itself is a memorial to George Washington . The son of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington , John Parke Custis purchased the 1,100-acre (450 ha) tract of wooded land on the Potomac River north of Alexandria , Virginia in 1778. When John Parke Custis died after

2730-777: The first and second presidential mansions . Following the transfer of the national capital to Philadelphia , the original " First Family " occupied the President's House from 1790 to 1797. Custis (nicknamed "Washy" or "Wash") attended—but did not graduate from— Philadelphia Academy (the preparatory school of what is now the University of Pennsylvania ); the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University ); and St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland . George Washington repeatedly expressed frustration with young Custis and his inability to improve

2821-408: The 8 massive columns of the portico, each 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. Notable guests at the house included Marquis de Lafayette , who visited in 1824 . At Arlington, Custis experimented with new methods of animal husbandry and other agriculture . The property also included Arlington Spring, a picnic ground on the banks of the Potomac that Custis originally built for private use but later opened to

Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial - Misplaced Pages Continue

2912-530: The Army a part of Arlington Woods, which was located in Section 29 of the NPS at Arlington National Cemetery between Arlington House and Fort Myer . The property transfer, which involved 12 acres (4.9 ha) of NPS land, was intended to enable the Cemetery to increase its space for burials. Environmentalists expressed concerns that the agreement would result in the partial destruction of the 24 acres (9.7 ha) remnant of

3003-633: The Boys of the West! (ca. 1830), North Point, or, Baltimore Defended (1833), and Montgomerie, or, The Orphan of a Wreck (1836). Custis wrote a series of biographical essays about his adoptive father that were compiled and posthumously published in 1859 and 1860, after his own death in 1857, as Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington . Custis was descended from a number of aristocratic colonial era families, as well as, through his mother Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart , British nobility and, very distantly, from

3094-464: The Federal Government had unlawfully refused payment, invalidating the subsequent confiscation. Custis Lee sold the property back to the U.S. with the graves undisturbed. Arlington House is part of the "Arlington National Cemetery Historical Region" on the National Register of Historic Places . The U.S. flag flies at half-staff there whenever funerals are in progress. The mansion was built on

3185-453: The Interior to erect on the premises a memorial plaque and to correct governmental records to bring them into compliance with the designation, "thus ensuring that the correct interpretation of its history would be applied". Gradually the house was furnished and interpreted to the period of Robert E. Lee as specified in the original legislation. The National Park Service received jurisdiction over

3276-574: The National Register of Historic Places, contain features that resemble those of Arlington House and Woodlawn. Custis died on October 10, 1857, and was buried at his Arlington estate alongside his wife, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis , who had died four years earlier. Custis's will provided that: Custis' death impacted the careers of Robert E. Lee and his two elder sons on the cusp of the American Civil War . Then-Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, named as

3367-686: The Old Administration Building in Arlington National Cemetery resembles that of Arlington House. The building is 500 feet (150 m) west of Arlington House. The Arlington House appears in the 2008 videogame Fallout 3 , though bearing little resemblance to its real-life counterpart. George Washington Parke Custis Maria Carter Syphax, illegitimate daughter of enslaved (and later freed) maid, Arianna Carter Syphax Son-in-law: Robert Edward Lee George Washington Parke Custis (April 30, 1781 – October 10, 1857)

3458-473: The Society, but his wife and daughter continued to support it for many years. Colonization was generally unpopular with African American slaves. Of the Arlington slaves, only William Burke and his family chose to move to Liberia. In 1854, William and Rosabella Burke and their children left Arlington House for Monrovia, Liberia . Rosabella continued to write to Mrs. Lee and named a new daughter "Martha" in tribute to

3549-686: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Lee in United States v. Lee , 106 U. S. 196. Lee then sold the property back to the United States government for $ 150,000. Arlington House, built by Custis to honor George Washington, is now the Robert E. Lee Memorial. It is restored and open to the public under the auspices of the National Park Service , while the Department of Defense controls Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery on

3640-509: The United States government in a Virginia circuit court to regain the property. Custis Lee was a major general in the Civil War and was captured by Union forces at the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865 (see David Dunnels White ). A jury found in favor of Custis Lee, leading to extensive appeals by both parties. In 1882, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Lee in United States v. Lee , 106 U. S. 196. The court, by

3731-522: The Washington relics had also disappeared, she promptly provided a list of the missing objects to General McDowell and convinced him that the significance of the collection required his involvement. He first secured the attic and basement areas to prevent further theft, then had the remaining Lee heirlooms shipped to the Patent Office in Washington, D.C. , for safekeeping. While Selina is credited with saving

Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial - Misplaced Pages Continue

3822-540: The Washingtons at Mount Vernon. Custis became a prominent resident of an area that was then known as Alexandria County , at the time part of the District of Columbia prior to the District of Columbia retrocession . Arlington House was built at a high point on a 1,100-acre (445 ha) estate that Custis's father, John Parke Custis , had purchased in 1778 and named "Mount Washington". "Jacky" Custis died at Yorktown in 1781 after

3913-454: The building and some 28 acres (11 ha) of adjacent gardens (distinguished from the cemetery) beginning June 10, 1933. In 1972, the 92nd United States Congress enacted Public Law 92-333, an Act that amended Public Law 84–107 to designate the manor as "Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial". In 2020, members of Congress began to introduce bills to change the name again, to "The Arlington House National Historic Site". By 2022 they won

4004-533: The ceremony celebrating the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument by Freemasons . Along with President James K. Polk , the ceremony attracted 20,000 other spectators. On July 4, 1850, Custis dedicated a stone that the people of the District of Columbia had donated to the Monument at a ceremony that President Zachary Taylor attended, five days before Taylor died from food poisoning. In 1853,

4095-635: The death of Revolutionary War general James Lingan , whom a Baltimore mob killed for defending an anti-war publisher's right to oppose the war. With Mrs. Madison, it is reported that Custis initiated the saving of George Washington's portrait from the Executive Mansion (The White House) from the British troops. Custis owned land and enslaved people in several Virginia counties. In the 1820 U.S. Federal Census, he owned 116 slaves in New Kent County, Virginia in land he inherited from his father and hired

4186-469: The establishment of a military cemetery on June 15, 1864 and created Arlington National Cemetery. Meigs decided that a large number of burials should occur close to Arlington House to render it unlivable. Officers were to be buried next to the main flower garden south of the house, and the first burial occurred here on May 17. Meigs ordered that additional burials commence immediately on the grounds of Arlington House in mid-June. When Union officers bivouacked in

4277-663: The estate to her. Custis stipulated that whomever owned his beloved Arlington must be named Custis. Therefore, Arlington would go to his daughter and then to his grandson, Custis Lee. Mary Anna Custis married her distant cousin, United States Army Lieutenant Robert E. Lee in June 1831. With the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War on April 12, 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned from the United States Army and took command of Virginia's confederate forces on April 23, 1861. Mary Custis Lee left Arlington on May 15, 1861 to join her daughters at Ravensworth,

4368-418: The family. In 1826, Custis admitted the paternity of Maria Carter , who had been born in 1803 to Arianna "Airy" Carter (1776–1880), an African-American slave maid at the Arlington estate who had earlier resided at Mount Vernon as a slave of Martha Washington. Maria lived and worked at Arlington as a slave until 1826, when she married Charles Syphax, a slave who oversaw the dining room of Arlington House. (It

4459-733: The federal government for its market value. Arlington House is now a museum, interpreted by the National Park Service as the Robert E. Lee Memorial. Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery are also located on what had been Custis' plantation. Custis was born on April 30, 1781, at his mother's family home, Mount Airy, which survives in Rosaryville State Park in Prince George's County, Maryland . He initially lived with his parents John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert Custis, and his sisters Elizabeth Parke Custis , Martha Parke Custis and Nelly Custis , at Abingdon Plantation , which

4550-610: The findings of the excavations, as well as proposals for the restoration of the quarters. From 2007 through 2013, Arlington House underwent its first renovation since 1925. During that period, the National Park Services placed the House's furnishings on display at the Friendship Hill National Historic Site near Point Marion, Pennsylvania . The Park Service held a rededication ceremony after it had completed

4641-620: The former site of the Grove, southeast of the mansion beneath the Civil War Unknowns Monument . Robert E. Lee did not visit Arlington after the war. He died as president of Washington College in 1870. Mary Lee died in 1873, having visited the house only one more time, a few months before her death. Too upset at its condition, she refused to enter and left after just a few moments. In April 1874, Robert E. Lee and Mary Custis Lee's eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee , filed suit against

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4732-500: The growth of the Federal City. Under the leadership of John Tayloe III and Charles Carnan Ridgely , and with the support of Custis, Gen. John Peter Van Ness , Dr. William Thornton , John Threlkeld of Georgetown and George Calvert of Riversdale , Bladensburg, Maryland, the races were moved to Holmstead Farm's one-mile oval track on Meridian Hill, south of Columbia Road, between Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets. In 1815, Custis

4823-450: The heirlooms and treasures of Arlington House, her children later on are credited with helping to restore the home as well as provide accurate details about the layout of the home, personal stories of the Lee family, and help preservationists in the early twentieth century. During major restorative efforts to Arlington House from 1929 to 1930, the Gray family made another important contribution to

4914-556: The history of Arlington County and the nation. Four of Selina and Thornton's daughters provided crucial details about the house and its furnishings, and their input proved vital to the authenticity of the project. In 2014, the National Park Service acquired a rare photograph of Selina. In 1995, officials of the United States Department of the Interior and the United States Department of the Army signed an agreement to transfer from Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, to

5005-601: The house and grounds, largely ignored the legislation. Contradicting the authorizing legislation, the department, largely at the insistence of Charles Moore, the director of the United States Commission of Fine Arts , furnished and interpreted the Mansion to “the first half of the republic.” This decision was based, in part, on the popularity of the Colonial Revival movement which was still popular in 1925. The Mansion

5096-773: The last census of his lifetime, in 1850. By 1850, Custis owned 98 enslaved people in New Kent County, and an additional 34 in King William County, Virginia. During the 1820s, Custis was an active member of the American Colonization Society —an organization led by his cousin Bushrod Washington and that supported the colonization of free blacks in Africa, particularly in Liberia . Custis eventually lost interest in

5187-411: The layout of Washington City (now D.C.). He is buried in front of the mansion in section 2, grave S-3 overlooking the city he planned. The north and south wings were completed in 1804. The large center section and the portico , presenting an imposing front 140 ft (43 m) long, were finished 13 years later. The house has two kitchens, a summer and a winter. The most prominent features of the house are

5278-409: The mansion complained and had the burials temporarily stopped, Meigs countermanded their orders and had another 44 dead officers buried along the southern and eastern sides of the main flower garden within a month. In September 1866, the remains of 2,111 Union and Confederate soldiers killed in the First Battle of Bull Run , Second Battle of Bull Run , and along the Rappahannock River were buried on

5369-453: The mansion or be left in an untenable military position. Although unwilling to leave Arlington House, Mary Custis Lee believed her estate would soon be occupied by Union Army soldiers and left to stay with relatives on May 14, after being warned by her young cousin William Orton Williams , who was then serving as aide to General Winfield Scott . On May 24, 1861, Union Army troops seized and occupied Arlington without opposition. In June 1862,

5460-483: The nearby Washington family estate in Virginia. George Washington Parke Custis served in the U.S. Army in the War of 1812 and helped prevent the famous painting of George Washington from falling into the hands of the British. His daughter, painter Mary Anna Randolph Custis married her childhood friend and distant cousin, then-U.S. Army Lieutenant Robert E. Lee , and all but one of their children were born there. They all lived at Arlington House together as Lee traveled as

5551-420: The opposite side of the river. The mansion was built using materials on site, though the building was interrupted by the War of 1812 , and material shortages after the British burned the American capital city. The Custis mansion's exterior was completed in 1818. Pierre Charles L'Enfant was an engineer, architect and city planner who served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. L'Enfant designed

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5642-446: The orders of George Washington Parke Custis . He was the grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and Daniel Parke Custis , and the son of Eleanor Calvert Custis and John Parke Custis who was the stepson of George Washington . George W. P. Custis and his sister (Nelly) Eleanor Parke Custis were stepchildren and wards of Dr. David Stuart (their mother Eleanor's second husband). Martha's children and grandchildren were raised by

5733-540: The posthumously published Recollections and Private Memoirs of George Washington (1860). His daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis , married Robert E. Lee . They inherited Arlington House and the plantation surrounding it, but the property was soon confiscated by the federal government during the Civil War . After the war, the US Supreme Court determined the property to have been illegally confiscated and ordered it returned to Lee's heirs. After regaining Arlington, George Washington Custis Lee immediately sold it back to

5824-523: The project. The final EA stated that, of the 905 trees to be removed, 771 trees were healthy native trees that had diameters between 6 and 41 inches. The project would remove approximately 211 trees from a less than 2.63 acres (1.06 ha) area containing a portion of a 145-year-old forest that stood within the property boundaries of a historic district that a National Register of Historic Places nomination form for Arlington House had described in 1966. About 491 trees would be removed from an area of trees that

5915-446: The public, eventually operating it as a commercial enterprise. Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh . Their only child to survive to adulthood was Mary Anna Randolph Custis . Robert E. Lee , whose mother was a cousin of Mrs. Custis, frequently visited Arlington and knew Mary Anna as they grew up. Two years after graduating from West Point , Lieutenant Lee married Mary Anna Custis at Arlington on June 30, 1831. For 30 years, Arlington House

6006-399: The remainder of the Arlington Plantation. Cultural artifact A cultural artifact , or cultural artefact (see American and British English spelling differences ), is a term used in the social sciences , particularly anthropology , ethnology and sociology for anything created by humans which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. Artifact is

6097-441: The remaining Custis slaves, as this was the last day within the five year limit he was allowed to retain them. In 1864, Montgomery C. Meigs , Quartermaster General of the United States Army , appropriated some parts of Arlington Plantation for use as a military burial ground. After the Civil War ended, George Washington Custis Lee sued and recovered title to the Arlington Plantation from the United States government in 1882, when

6188-542: The renovation and returned the furnishings to the House. Arlington House suffered significant damage in the 2011 Virginia earthquake , requiring the closure of the back halls and upper floor pending an architectural assessment. On July 17, 2014, philanthropist David Rubenstein donated $ 12.5 million (~$ 15.8 million in 2023) to the National Park Foundation (the arm of the National Park Service which raises funds through private contributions) to rehabilitate Arlington House, its outbuildings, and grounds. The 30-month project

6279-426: The restoration of the Lee Mansion in the Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. The War Department then began to restore Arlington House, and the Department of the Army continues to manage over half of the original plantation's 1,100 acres (450 ha), as Arlington National Cemetery. However, for several years after Congress enacted the authorizing legislation, the War Department, which was responsible for managing

6370-531: The royal houses of Hanover and Stuart . His mother was descended from Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore , and Henry Lee of Ditchley , one of whose descendants was Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield , who married Charlotte Fitzroy , an illegitimate daughter of Charles II by one of his mistresses, Barbara Palmer . It is believed Custis was descended from George I's natural daughter Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham , whose extra-marital liaison with Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore , produced

6461-461: The site of an early skirmish in the American Civil War. In 1846, the federal government retroceded to the state of Virginia the portion of the District of Columbia that was south and west of the Potomac River, which at the time contained the city and county of Alexandria . Custis initially opposed the retrocession, but later spoke in support of it. The General Assembly approved the retrocession on March 13, 1847. On July 4, 1848, Custis attended

6552-492: The spelling in North American English ; artefact is usually preferred elsewhere. Cultural artifact is a more generic term and should be considered with two words of similar, but narrower, nuance: it can include objects recovered from archaeological sites , i.e. archaeological artifacts , but can also include objects of modern or early-modern society, or social artifacts . For example, in an anthropological context:

6643-500: The steep slope to the east of the house became a cultivated English landscape park , while a large flower garden with an arbor was constructed and planted south of the house. To the west of Arlington House, tall grass and low native plants led down a slope into a natural area of close-growing trees the Custises called "the Grove." About 60 feet (18 m) west of the flower garden, "the Grove" contained tall elm and oak trees which formed

6734-450: The support of a variety of descendants of former residents, including the Lees. One of the lesser-known histories about Arlington House concerns the Gray family, who helped to preserve the legacy of George Washington Parke Custis as well as the Lee family. Selina Norris Gray , the daughter of Leonard and Sally Norris, was a second-generation Arlington slave. In 1831, Selina married Thornton Gray,

6825-520: The termination of Martha's life estate. However, Martha's executor, Bushrod Washington , refused to sell to Custis the Mount Vernon estate on which Custis had been living and which Bushrod Washington (George Washington's nephew) had inherited. Custis thereupon moved into a four-room, 80-year-old house on land inherited from his father, who had called it "Mount Washington". Almost immediately, Custis began constructing Arlington House on his land, which at

6916-616: The time was within Alexandria County (now Arlington County) in the District of Columbia . Hiring George Hadfield as architect, he constructed a mansion that was the first example of Greek Revival architecture in America. He located the building on a prominent hill overlooking the Georgetown-Alexandria Turnpike (at the approximate location of the present Eisenhower Drive in Arlington National Cemetery),

7007-577: The title on March 31; and the title transfer was recorded on May 14, 1883. In 1920, the Virginia General Assembly changed the name of Alexandria County to Arlington County to end ongoing confusion between Alexandria County and the independent city of Alexandria. The name Arlington was chosen to reflect the presence of the Arlington House. On March 4, 1925, the 68th United States Congress enacted Public Resolution 74, which authorized

7098-470: The treasures of the home. Several of these treasures included cherished family heirlooms that had once belonged to Mrs. Lee's great-grandmother, Martha Custis Washington, and President George Washington. Within months of Union Army General Irvin McDowell occupying the home in 1861, Selina realized that several precious heirlooms were missing due to soldiers looting the property. When she discovered that some of

7189-482: The turn of the century. Custis served briefly at the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, but never experienced combat. When Custis came of age in 1802, he inherited large amounts of money, land, and property from the estates of his father, John Parke Custis, and grandfather Daniel Parke Custis . When Martha Washington died (also in 1802), Custis received both a bequest from her (as he had upon George Washington's death in 1799) as well as his father's former plantations because of

7280-607: The will's executor, took a two-year leave from his army post in Texas to settle the estate. During this period Lee was ordered to lead troops to quash John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry . By 1859, Lee's eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, got transferred to an army position in Washington, D.C., so that he could care for Arlington plantation, where his mother and sisters were living. Lee's second son, Rooney Lee, resigned his army commission, got married, and took over farming White House and Romancoke plantations near Richmond. Robert E. Lee

7371-695: The writer Benson John Lossing visited Custis at Arlington House. Custis achieved some distinction as an orator and playwright. In addition to the Lingan eulogy, he delivered The Celebration of the Russian Victories, in Georgetown, District of Columbia; on June 5, 1813 (1813). Two of Custis's plays, The Indian Prophecy; or Visions of Glory (1827) and Pocahontas; or, The Settlers of Virginia (1830), were published during his lifetime. Other plays included The Rail Road (1828), The Eighth of January, or, Hurra for

7462-480: The youth's attitude. Upon young Custis's return to Mount Vernon after only one term at St. John's, George Washington sent him to his mother and stepfather (Dr. David Stuart) at Hope Park , writing, "He appears to me to be moped and Stupid, says nothing, and is always in some hole or corner excluded from the Company." His grandfather gave him a sword when "Wash" Custis received a Virginia military commission shortly before

7553-477: Was a religious ceremony only; enslaved people could not legally marry.) Soon after Maria's marriage, Custis freed her and gave her a 17-acre (7-hectare) plot in the southwest corner of the Arlington estate. Maria subsequently raised ten children on her property, thus establishing the Syphax family . Tall trees and stretches of grassland reportedly surrounded Maria's white cottage. Custis is also believed to have fathered

7644-532: Was able to leave for Texas to resume his army career in February 1860. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Union Army forces seized the 1,100-acre (4.5 km ) Arlington Plantation for strategic reasons (protection of the river and national capital). The United States government then confiscated the Custis estate for non-payment of taxes. In 1863, a "Freedman's Village" was established there for freed slaves. On December 29, 1862, Robert Lee freed all of

7735-505: Was an American antiquarian , author, playwright, and plantation owner. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. His father, John Parke Custis served in the American Revolution with then-General George Washington. John Parke Custis died after the Battle of Yorktown that ended the American Revolution. George W. P. Custis was the grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (wife of George Washington). His father John Parke Custis

7826-551: Was approximately 105 years old. At a public hearing on July 11, 2013, the National Capital Planning Commission approved the site and building plans for the project. From 2003 to 2007, the National Park Service conducted an archeological excavation of two outbuildings that once held Arlington House's slave quarters. In 2009, the Park Service published reports that described the history of the slave quarters and

7917-433: Was auctioned off on January 11, 1864, and the U.S. government acquired the property for $ 26,800 ($ 533,437 today). During the Civil War, Union Army troops cut down many of the trees on the Arlington estate, especially those to the north and east of Arlington House in and near Fort Whipple, which was north of the house and Arlington Springs near the Potomac River. However, a number of large trees remained, particularly those in

8008-520: Was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society . One biographer claimed Lafayette and his son Georges Washington de La Fayette visited Custis at Mount Vernon in 1825, although Custis was then living at Arlington House. In 1836, Custis established a mill on Four Mile Run and Columbia Pike, in what a decade later became Arlington County, Virginia, as described below. It ground grain for nearby farmers, and eventually became

8099-414: Was home to the Lees. They spent much of their married life traveling between United States Army duty stations and Arlington, where six of their seven children were born. They shared this home with Mary's parents. After their deaths, Mary's parents were buried not far from the house on land that is now part of Arlington National Cemetery. The Custis family extensively developed the Arlington estate. Much of

8190-487: Was restored to the period of George Washington Parke Custis, and no furniture manufactured after 1830 was accepted. This approach negated Lee's role and presence at Arlington. In 1955, the 84th United States Congress enacted Public Law 84–107, a joint resolution that designated the manor as the "Custis-Lee Mansion" as a permanent memorial to Robert E. Lee. The resolution directed the United States Secretary of

8281-442: Was the stepson of George Washington . His mother was Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart. He and his sister Nelly were officially the wards of his mother's second husband (their stepfather, Dr. David Stuart). His father, his father's sister Patsy, his own sister Eleanor (Nelly) and he grew up at George Washington's Mount Vernon . Upon reaching age 21, Custis inherited a large fortune from his late father, John Parke Custis , including

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