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Lee House

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1867–1868, C. W. Oltmanns
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)
  • (Photograph by Mark Mones)

When Robert E. Lee came to Washington College to serve as its president in 1865, he first lived in an 1841 faculty house, but it proved too small for his family. In 1867, the Board of Trustees approved a plan for a new building and hired Oltmanns, an “architectural modeler” at VMI, as the architect. Local lending library records show that Oltmanns checked out John Ritch's American Architect (1857), a popular house pattern book, to help him with the plans. Ritch's designs were noted for their “cheapness,” a characteristic that must have appealed to the school. The basic center-passage, double-pile, hipped-roof form was elaborated with heavy coupled brackets under the overhanging eaves, and modillions along its three-sided porch. For all the aim at economy, the Lee House was considered to be a very “fine house” in its day. The building has continued to serve as the university president's house.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

Grace Episcopal Church
Washington and Lee University
University Chapel
Reid-White House (Evergreen)
U.S. Post Office

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Lee House", [Lexington, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-RB16.1.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 127-127.

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