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Arlington House is the historic family residence of Robert E. Lee, commanding general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War in Arlington County, Virginia. The estate of the historic home along with a memorial to Lee are now the center of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, where they overlook the Potomac River and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Built by Lee's father-in-law G.W.P. Custis in 1803–1818, Arlington House is a Greek Revival style mansion designed by the English architect George Hadfield. Its garden and adjoined structures are also preserved. During the U.S. Civil War, the mansion was used as a U.S. Army headquarters and its grounds were later selected as the site of Arlington National Cemetery, in part to ensure that Lee would never again be able to reside there. Arlington House is part of the Arlington National Cemetery Historical Region on the National Register of Historic Places. Although the United States Department of the Army maintains Arlington National Cemetery, the National Park Service administers Arlington House. There, the U.S. flag flies at half-staff during funerals. Construction and early history The mansion was built on the orders of George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson of George Washington and grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington. Custis became a prominent resident of an area that was then known as Alexandria County, at the time a part of the District of Columbia. Arlington House was built at a high point on a 1,100-acre (445 ha) estate that Custis's father, John Parke Custis, had purchased in 1778 and named "Mount Washington". "Jacky" Custis died at Yorktown in 1781 after the British surrender. The younger Custis decided to build his home on the property in 1802 following the death of Martha Washington and three years after the death of George Washington. After acquiring the property, Custis renamed it "Arlington" after the Custis family's homestead on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.Custis began constructing Arlington House on his land, hiring George Hadfield as architect, who constructed a mansion exhibiting the first example of Greek Revival architecture in America. Custis intended the mansion to serve as a living memorial to George Washington and a place for his collection of George Washington artifacts. Its design included elements similar to those of George Washington's house at Mount Vernon.Construction began in 1803, eleven years after L'Enfant's Plan for the future federal city later called "Washington City" and then Washington, D.C., had designated an area directly across the Potomac River to be the site of the "President's House", later called the "Executive Mansion" and now the White House, and the "Congress House", now the United States Capitol. Custis located the building on a prominent hill overlooking Georgetown-Alexandria Turnpike at the approximate location of the present Eisenhower Drive in Arlington National Cemetery, the Potomac River and growing national capital of Washington, D.C., on the opposite side of the river. The mansion was built using materials on site, though the building was interrupted by the War of 1812, and material shortages after the British burned the American capital city. The Custis mansion's exterior was completed in 1818.The north and south wings were completed in 1804. The large center section and the portico, presenting an imposing front 140 ft (43 m) long, were finished 13 years later. The house has two kitchens, a summer and a winter. The most prominent features of the house are the 8 massive columns of the portico, each 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. Notable guests at the house included Marquis de Lafayette, who visited in 1824. At Arlington, Custis experimented with new methods of animal husbandry and other agriculture. The property also included Arlington Spring, a picnic ground on the banks of the Potomac that Custis originally built for private use but later opened to the public, eventually operating it as a commercial enterprise. Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh. Their only child to survive to adulthood was Mary Anna Randolph Custis. Robert E. Lee, whose mother was a cousin of Mrs. Custis, frequently visited Arlington and knew Mary Anna as they grew up. Two years after graduating from West Point, Lieutenant Lee married Mary Anna Custis at Arlington on June 30, 1831. For 30 years, Arlington House was home to the Lees. They spent much of their married life traveling between United States Army duty stations and Arlington, where six of their seven children were born. They shared this home with Mary's parents. After their deaths, Mary's parents were buried not far from the house on land that is now part of Arlington National Cemetery. The Custis family extensively developed the Arlington estate. Much of the steep slope to the east of the house became a cultivated English landscape park, while a large flower garden with an arbor was constructed and planted south of the house. To the west of Arlington House, tall grass and low native plants led down a slope into a natural area of close-growing trees the Custises called "the Grove." About 60 feet (18 m) west of the flower garden, "the Grove" contained tall elm and oak trees which formed a canopy. An informal flower garden was planted beneath the trees and maintained by the Custis daughters before 1853.Upon George Washington Parke Custis's death in 1857, he left Arlington Estate to Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee for her lifetime when it would then go to her eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee. The estate needed much repair and reorganization, and Robert E. Lee, as executor of Custis's will, took a three-year leave of absence from the Army to begin the necessary agricultural and financial improvements. Civil War In April 1861, Virginia seceded from the United States. Though offered command of the U.S. Army, Robert E. Lee resigned his commission on April 20, 1861 and joined the Confederate States Army. With Arlington House on high ground overlooking the capital, the federal government of the United States knew it needed to occupy the mansion or be left in an untenable military position. Although unwilling to leave Arlington House, Mary Custis Lee believed her estate would soon be occupied by Union Army soldiers and left to stay with relatives on May 14, after being warned by her young cousin William Orton Williams, who was then serving as aide to General Winfield Scott. On May 24, 1861, Union Army troops seized and occupied Arlington without opposition.In June 1862, the 37th United States Congress enacted legislation that imposed a property tax on all land in "insurrectionary" areas of the United States. The 1863 amendments to the statute required that these taxes be paid in person. Mary Lee, afflicted with severe rheumatoid arthritis and behind Confederate lines, could not pay the tax in person, resulting in the Arlington estate being seized for nonpayment of taxes. It was auctioned o.... Discover the Enoch Lawrence Lee Black Hawk Charles M popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Enoch Lawrence Lee Black Hawk Charles M books.