Arlington House Redesignation

Arlington House, a Greek Revival style mansion on a hill, with a section of grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery in the foreground. Trees on the property are showing fall colors of green, red, and orange. The American flag in front of house is at half-staff.

Photo by Protoant / Wikimedia Commons

Arlington House, also currently known as the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery. Section 32 of the cemetery is in the foreground.

Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, is a National Park Service site inside the boundaries of Arlington National Cemetery.

  • The descendants of both enslaved and free occupants at Arlington House have come together after more than 160 years to repair, heal and learn from one another. We request that Congress pass legislation to redesignate “Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial” as “Arlington House National Historic Site.”
  • The house was built between 1802 and 1818 by George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington, using enslaved labor, and was inherited by his daughter, Mary, who married Robert E. Lee in 1831.
  • Robert E. Lee never owned the property (Mary did) and resided there for about 8 years of the 30 years between the time he married and the time he resigned from the U.S. military to join the Confederacy.
  • The current name is not inclusive of the people nor the history of the plantation; Lee is definitely part of the history, but he is not the history of the Arlington House plantation.
  • There is support nationwide in the redesignation of the site; over 4,250 people have signed the change.org petition and a variety of notable individuals and organizations have written letters of support.

A Call to Action: How Can I Help?

Sign the petition to Redesignate Arlington House as a National Historic Site..

Add your name to the growing list of supporters. You’ll need to provide your name, city, state and zip code. Zip code is important for knowing which Congressional District you are located and who is your elected representative. You may be asked to make a donation to get more views of the petition. Don’t feel compelled to contribute unless you want to. A donation is not needed to sign the petition. However donations help change.org get the petition in front of addition people

Write to your members of Congress to express your support and to seek theirs. Use the ARCGIS Interactive Petition Mapper tool to see on a map where petition signers are geographically.

Tell others about the initiative and share this website with them.

Offer to be part of a small team conducting visits with select members of Congress. Contact us to learn more.