Information

For 30 years, this was the residence of General Robert E. Lee. Lee married the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who inherited the estate upon the death of her father. It was at Arlington House that Lee, having received the news of Virginia's secession from the Union, decided to resign his commission in the U.S. Army. During the Civil War, the estate was taken over by Union forces, and troops were buried there. A year before the defeat of the Confederate forces at Gettysburg, the estate was bought by the Federal Government.

A fine example of Greek Revival architecture combined with many features of the grand plantation house of the early 1800s, Arlington House is preserved as a memorial to Lee, a man who gained respect of Americans in the North and South.

The house is open daily, except Christmas and New Year's days, October through March from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, April through September from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm, April through September. Guided tours of the house are free and open to the public. They are given continuously throughout the day by park rangers in pre-Civil War costume. For more information, call (703) 557-0613.