Lee Fendall House Museum and Garden

The Lee Fendall House Museum and Garden is a historic Alexandria residence that once belonged to generations of notable Americans, including lawyer Edmund Jennings Lee, Alexandria mayor E.E. Downham, and influential labor leader John L. Lewis. In total, 37 members of the Lee family lived here between 1785 and 1903, and some say the house may even be haunted.

The land was originally purchased by Henry “Light Horse” Lee, American Revolutionary War general and father of Robert E. Lee, who later sold it to his father-in-law Philip Fendall. Fendall designed the home in the “telescope” style popular in 18th-century Maryland, where he was born. A close friend of George Washington, Fendall hosted the first president at the house seven times, Washington even wrote about their conversations in letters and journals. Presidents John Quincy Adams and Woodrow Wilson also visited the home later in its history. (Fun fact: Robert E. Lee didn’t live here, but he did grow up directly across the street.)

During the Civil War, the Lee Fendall House, along with more than 30 other Alexandria homes, was converted into a Union hospital. Known as the Grovesnor Branch Hospital, it operated under Dr. Edwin Bentley from 1863 to 1865 and became the site of the first successful blood transfusion of the Civil War.

After a number of postwar owners, the house was purchased in 1937 by John L. Lewis, the powerful and often controversial president of the United Mine Workers of America. Lewis challenged both Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman in the fight for workers’ rights, living in the home until his death in 1969. His son later sold the property to the Virginia Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Lee Fendall House Museum and Garden opened to the public in 1974.