Robert E. Lee boyhood home marketed without mention of ties to Confederate general

The listing for the stately Potts-Fitzhugh House priced at nearly $6 million and situated in Alexandria, Va., boasts six bedrooms, more than 8,000 square feet, a “storybook foyer” and close proximity to the Potomac River and busy King Street. 

One key detail missing? That it was the boyhood home of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

According to the Library of Congress, the home listed at 607 Oronoco St. in Alexandria and its twin located right next door “are intimately associated with the youth of Robert E. Lee and his tutelage by Benjamin Hallowell for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.”

News reports about previous sales of Lee’s boyhood home indicate the same address. 

The Washington Post noted that there is a marker in front of the house that reads “LEE’S BOYHOOD HOME” but noted that this sign was not seen in photos included on the mansion’s listing. The newspaper suggested that a photo of the home could have been altered digitally.

Washingtonian magazine was the first to report about the home listing’s lack of a Lee mention. 

The Hill has reached out to McEnearney Associates real estate agent Lauren Bishop, whose name is included on the listing, for comment. 

The lack of a mention about the controversial Confederate general could indicate how different businesses and municipalities are trying to increasingly separate themselves from Confederate relics of the Civil War. 

Statues of Lee have been removed in Virginia, including in Richmond and Charlottesville, the latter of which was the site of a deadly white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in 2017. 

The removal of the statues are also a part of a larger racial reckoning in America, in part prompted by protests following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man, who died after a white former Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck.