Arlington House and Estate (circa 1802)
Now: Encompassed by Arlington National Cemetery, this tourist attraction receives more than 4 million visitors each year. The restored house anchors 624 acres of hallowed ground, where more than 400,000 soldiers and their family members are buried. Home to the Robert E. Lee Memorial, the property offers today’s tourists the same panoramic views of Washington that awed residents and their guests in the early 1800s.
Then: Most Virginia plantations were remote, rural properties, but Arlington was not. Roads to Alexandria, Leesburg and the new capital city crisscrossed the 1,100-acre plantation, whose boundaries reached to the Potomac River. The house, built in honor of the first American president, welcomed everyone from nearby relations to curious travelers. A freshwater spring near the river was the ideal spot for picnics, dances and other gatherings.
The person behind all of this interaction? George Washington Parke Custis.
Adopted and raised by his paternal grandmother, Martha, and her famous second husband, Custis idolized his stepfather. When he failed in his bid to buy Mount Vernon after Washington’s death, Custis began to build Arlington House, with slave labor, on land that he had inherited from his biological father. Between his ambitious plans and periodic financial problems, though, the Greek Revival mansion would take 16 years to complete.
Once it was finished, the grand estate became home to multiple generations: Custis and his wife; their adult daughter Mary Anna and her husband, Robert E. Lee; and eventually, Mary and Robert’s seven children, six of whom were born there. Lee especially doted on his three youngest daughters, who had their own second-floor playroom next to their bedroom. (Ironically, Lee never owned Arlington—it always belonged to his wife’s family.)
In addition, an estimated 63 slaves lived at Arlington—tending its house, gardens, and corn, wheat and rye fields—although history suggests that Custis had reservations about the institution of slavery. He spoke publicly against it; supported the American Colonization Society (which sought to help blacks return to Africa); and allowed his family to teach their slaves to read and write, even after the Virginia Legislature outlawed the practice. He is also believed to be the father of Maria Carter Syphax, an Arlington slave whom he freed in 1826 and to whom he gave a 17-acre parcel of Arlington land, where she lived with her husband. In his will, he asked his descendants to free all his slaves within five years of his death.