Robert E. Lee’s Alexandria home lands on the market for $8.5M

In Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, the childhood home of Robert E. Lee has landed on the market for $8.5 million. Built in circa 1795, this six-bedroom, six-bathroom residence has hosted several well-known figures within its walls. For instance, George Washington reportedly attended dinner parties and slept at the house, according to Washington Business Journal.

The Federal- and Georgian-style was originally built by John Potts, who worked as secretary of the Potomac Canal Company under George Washington. Potts sold the home a year later to plantation owner William Fitzhugh before Lee’s father and former Virginia governor and congressman, Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, purchased it. Members of the Lee family continued to live there for the following eight decades.

According to the Washington Post, Royd R. Sayers acquired the property in 1932, later conducting an extensive restoration on it and entertaining officials from Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. 10 years later, Ada Hitchcock MacLeish bought the house. MacLeish is known for helping establish the United Nations, while her husband, Archibald, was the ninth Librarian of Congress and a Pulitzer-Prize-winning poet.

The residence was converted into a museum in 1967 after the Stonewall Jackson Foundation, later known as the Lee-Jackson Foundation, purchased the site. The foundation was unable to financially maintain the house after some time and sold it to Mark and Ann Kington in 2000. After three years of renovations, the home was revived to its original state with original masonry, woodwork, windows, interior shutters, doors, and more restored.

The 8,145-square-foot property is located at 607 Oronoco Street and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The listing agents are Robert Hryniewicki, Adam T. Rackliffe, and Christopher R. Leary of HRL Partners at Washington Fine Properties.

• Robert E. Lee’s boyhood home goes on the market [The Washington Post]

• Robert E. Lee’s Childhood Home Is Sold [The New York Times]

• Robert E. Lee’s childhood home in Alexandria listed for $8.5 million [Washington Business Journal]