Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial: Cultural Landscape Report, History, Volume I

Hanna, Jennifer

This first volume (Part I) of the Cultural Landscape Report for Arlington House: The Robert E. Lee Memorial documents the development of the landscape of the Arlington estate from the pre-history period to 2001 through narrative, historic period plans, photographs, and drawings. The report is divided into seven chapters identifying periods of physical development within the chronology of the site. The probable social, political, and economic determinants of those physical modifications and transformations are also explored. Arlington House stands on a hillside overlooking the Potomac River and the city of Washington, D.C. The classical Greek Revival residence and its surrounding gardens, ringed with the graves of Union officers, reveals only part of the story of this landscape. The Arlington House estate was begun around 1802 by the adopted grandson of George Washington, George Washington Parke Custis. With the onset of the Civil War, Arlington's position also met the strategic needs of Union forces, and it became headquarters of the Army of the Potomac in 1861. Within a few years, newly free African Americans were renting lands of the former estate, which had been divided into parcels. Arlington was chosen when it was time to bury the soldiers who had fallen in the Civil War. Arlington House became a memorial to Robert E. Lee in 1925. Before that, it was the center of maintenance for the cemetery. Since 1933, it has been managed and interpreted by the National Park Service This document is based chiefly on the study of primary resources. Graphic materials included maps, drawings, and historic photographs. Textual resources included official and familial correspondence, agricultural and census records, Office of the Quartermaster General Cemetery Reports, National Park Service memoranda and reports, oral history accounts, and historical narratives. Secondary sources, including books and recent National Park Service reports, were used to provide additional content. The historic period plans were computer generated. Historic maps were scanned into a graphics program, digitized, and rectified to existing conditions maps. Then, the historic period plans were created through comparison of the historic information to existing conditions. The primary historic, graphical documentation of the site dates from the Federal occupation of the property, beginning in 1861. Although drawings of the estate prior to the Civil War exist, no maps have been discovered that illustrate the estate under the ownership of the Custis and Lee families. In addition, only limited archeological excavation has occurred. Thus, the discussion of the property prior to the Civil War is based chiefly on written documentation and the photographs and maps created after the war had begun.

Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial: Cultural Landscape Report, History, Volume I

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