Lee’s Boyhood Home (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Lee’s Boyhood Home
Robert E. Lee left this home that he loves so well to enter West Point. After Appomattox he returned and climbed the wall to see “if the snowballs were in bloom.” George Washington dined here when it was the home of William Fitzhugh, Lee’s kinsman and his wife’s grandfather. Lafayette visited here in 1824.

Erected 1968 by Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission. (Marker Number E-91.)
Marker has been permanently removed.


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Regarding Lee’s Boyhood Home:
The house is a private residence and no longer open to tourists.

Home for sale twice within 2 years:
A real estate listing for Lee's boyhood home shows it is currently for sale for the second time within two years. Asking price is just shy of $6 million. The listing does not mention Robert E. Lee at all and the photos accompanying the listing have digitally removed this marker from the photos.

The Robert E. Lee Boyhood Home Virtual Museum:
“The house was built in 1795 by John Potts, Jr., who came down from Pennsylvania to work with George Washington on the Potomac Canal. It was purchased in 1799 by William Fitzhugh a wealthy Fredericksburg, VA tobacco planter and close friend of Washington’s. After Fitzhugh’s death in 1809 it was put up for rental. The Lee’s rented it for most of the period 1812-1825; first from the Fitzhugh estate, then from William Brent, the third owner.”

A Robert E. Lee historical marker vanishes in the dead of night: A whodunnit.
2021 article by Gillian Brockell and Andrew deGranpre in The Washington Post. Excerpt:

On Friday [November 5, 2021], the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which manages 2,500 markers around the state and owns the one in front of 607 Oronoco, said its “retirement” had been planned for months and was unrelated to its presence in front of the on-the-market home.

The marker, which had been there since 1968, was retired because the text had proved to be historically inaccurate, according to Jennifer Loux, the DHR’s marker program historian and manager. ...

A new sign has been made and delivered to the city of Alexandria, according to Loux. A spokeswoman for the city said the new sign would be installed after a check for buried utility lines.


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A 1864-65 painting of Robert E. Lee by Edward Caledon Bruce hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

“Robert E. lee was born into a family prominent in Virginia society and early American politics. A young man with an intense desire to prove himself, he attained the highest rank available to cadets and graduated from West Point in 1829. Initially, lee opposed both secession and war. But when Virginia voted to secede from the Union, he resigned from the U.s. Army and went to his native state's defense. Placed in command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June 1862, lee gave the Confederacy moments of hope with several early victories. His army was always severely outnumbered, so it was a triumph that he managed to keep it on the field for the duration of the war. By 1864, however, time and resources were working against him, and in May, Ulysses S. Grant became his last and fateful adversary.” — National Portrait Gallery