The Potts-Fitzhugh House (also called the Robert E. Lee Boyhood Home) is a historic house at 607 Oronoco Street, Alexandria, Virginia. It served in the early 1800s as the home of Anne Hill Carter Lee and her family, including the eponymous Robert. It should not be confused with the Lee-Fendall House, which is located at 614 Oronoco Street.

Location and description

The home is in

Old Town Alexandria Old Town Alexandria is one of the original settlements of the city of Alexandria, Virginia and is located just minutes from Washington, D.C. Old Town is situated in the eastern and southeastern area of Alexandria along the Potomac River. Old ...

.After Two Years on the Market, Robert E. Lee's Boyhood Home Sells for $4.7 Million
''Alexandria Living'' (July 24, 2020). The intersection of North Washington Street and Oronoco Street in Alexandria is called "Lee Corner" because several properties in the area were owned by the extended

Lee family The Lee family of the United States is a historically significant Virginia and Maryland political family, whose many prominent members are known for their accomplishments in politics and the military. The family became prominent in colonial Bri ...

.Gillian Brockell
Robert E. Lee's childhood home is up for sale. The $5.9 million listing doesn’t mention him at all.
''Washington Post'' (October 30, 2021). It is across the street from the Lee–Fendall House, which operates as a museum and garden. The home is in the

Federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

and Georgian styles; it is made of brick with white trim and sits on a half-acre lot. It has 6 bedrooms and 4.5 bathrooms; it is 8,145 square feet. A historical marker is outside the home.

History

It first owner was John Potts, Jr., who built the house in 1795.
The Virginia Landmarks Register
', Virginia Department of Historic Resources (1999), p. 27. The house was built simultaneously with its neighboring structure at 609 Oronoco Street, which became the Hallowell School ( Benjamin Hallowell tutored

Robert E. Lee Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, towards the end of which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army. He led the Army of Nort ...

as he prepared to enter West Point.) Potts was the Secretary of the Potomac Canal Company under

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

, the company's president.Michael Neibauer
Robert E. Lee's boyhood home in Alexandria sells
''Washington Business Journal'' (July 19, 2020). Washington dined at the house. The second owner was

William Henry Fitzhugh William Henry Fitzhugh (March 9, 1792 – May 21, 1830) was Virginia planter and politician who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as well as in the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830 and as an officer of the A ...

. The Marquis de Lafayette visited in 1824 during his visit to the United States. The home was rented by Fitzhugh to his relative, Henry Lee III ("Light-Horse Harry"), in 1811, at a time when Alexandria was still part of the District of Columbia. After being beaten in the

1812 Baltimore riots The Baltimore riots of 1812 were a series of violent riots that occurred in the months of June and July 1812 in Baltimore, Maryland. The riots were in response to a series of anti-war articles written in a Federalist newspaper by federalist statesm ...

, Lee left the country and moved to the Caribbean, leaving his wife Anne Hill Carter Lee to raise their children (including

). The family lived at the home until 1816, and in 1820, the now-widowed Anne moved back into the home with her children. The house was the boyhood home of Robert E. Lee, who was born at the family's

Stratford Hall plantation Stratford Hall is a historic house museum near Lerty in Westmoreland County, Virginia. It was the plantation house of four generations of the Lee family of Virginia (with descendants later to expand to Maryland and other states). Stratford Hal ...

in Montross, Virginia, and lived at the Potts-Fitzhugh House until he left for West Point in 1825. Lee later became a Confederate general. Notable later residents includes Royd Sayer, the head of the Bureau of Mines under Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ada Hitchcock MacLeish, who helped create the United Nations with her husband Archibald MacLeish, a poet and

Librarian of Congress The Librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. In addition to overseeing the library, the Libra ...

. The home is on the

U.S. National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

and the Virginia Landmarks Register. It was added to both registers in 1979. The home was operated as a museum from 1967 to 2000, when the Lee-Jackson Foundation, the nonprofit that operated the museum, sold the site to Mark Kington, a managing director at a venture capital firm, and his wife Ann. It then again became a residence. It was sold again in July 2020 for $4.7 million, and was then offered for sale again in 2021. The home is among the oldest extant homes in Alexandria; a handful of other structures are older, namely the Ramsay House (built 1695–1751) (today, the Alexandria Visitor Center), Carlyle House (1753), Murray-Dick-Fawcett House (1775), Benjamin Dulany House (1784-1785), Colonel Michael Swope House (1784-1786), Fairfax-Moore-Montague House (mid-1780s), and the Lee-Fendall House (1785).Sara Dingmann
Alexandria’s 10 Oldest Homes: Historic figures, ghost stories, preservation efforts and more.
''Alexandria Living'' (May 12, 2021).

References

External links

Potts-Fitzhugh House, 607 Oronoco Street, Alexandria, VA
at the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Robert E., Boyhood Home Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Federal architecture in Virginia Houses completed in 1795 Houses in Alexandria, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Alexandria, Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in Virginia Lee family residences Fitzhugh family residences