Foyer

The Entrance Door

Entering, we turn to look back at the door through which Robert E. Lee entered at the age of five and departed at eighteen for West Point. Notice the large English lock installed by the builder, John Potts.

To the left of the door is the lock's key and the coat of arms of Robert's mother, Ann Hill Carter. To the right is the coat of arms of the Lee family , surmounted by a squirrel and bearing the motto, "not unmindful of the future." Facing one another on the walls right and left are the 1838 portraits of Robert E. Lee and his wife, Mary Ann Randolph Custis. The Dining Room is to the left and the Drawing Room, right, as is the Grand Staircase.

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.