THE OFFICE AND STUDY. The management of a large estate like Arlington required an office where business could be transacted and records kept, and this long, narrow room was used as such by both Mr. Custis and Colonel Lee. Here the former worked on his literary efforts and carried on an extensive correspondence concerning agricultural matters and the life of General Washington. In his old age Mr. Custis also used it as his “painting room,” for in 1852 he wrote to a fellow artist: “I have an excellent studio fitted up in the South wing of the House, with a first rate light, ... a stove & everything comfortable.”
MEASURED DRAWINGS OF THE MANSION
The office and study.
The desk in the corner was used by Lee during the years 1848 to 1852, while supervising the construction of Fort Carroll, near Baltimore, Md. Also of interest is his traveling chess set and the plain pine stand which Mrs. Lee gave to her personal maid, Selina Gray, whose descendants returned it to the house.
THE DINING ROOM. “The House will be a very showy handsome building when completed,” wrote a lady visiting Arlington in 1804. “The room we were in was 24 feet square & 18 feet high,” she continued. No doubt she was describing the present dining room, for here the Custises entertained their numerous guests before the large central section of the house was built. Later, Mr. Custis used it as a studio, and after his wife’s death, in 1853, it became Mrs. Lee’s “morning room,” where she answered her mail and managed the affairs of her household. Here Mrs. Lee was engaged in copying a portrait of her infant grandson when, in May 1861, she was informed that the Federal Army was soon to occupy Arlington and that she must leave at once.
The dining room has been restored to its earliest use. Most of the woodwork and windows are original, while the molding, plaster, and the beautiful door to the study are entirely so. An interesting architectural feature is the great semicircular arch at the north end of the room, reminiscent of the villas Architect George Hadfield saw in Italy during the years he studied there.
THE DRAWING ROOM. The drawing room remained unfinished for many years, not even being plastered, probably because Mr. Custis lacked the necessary funds. During these years it was known as the “big room” and in it were stored old furniture and the finished canvasses of Mr. Custis. On rainy days the Lee children often used it as a playroom. When Colonel Lee went to Texas, in 1855, he left instructions for its “renovation”—plastering the walls, installing a crystal chandelier, and painting the walls and woodwork. He also ordered marble mantels for the fireplaces. Mrs. Lee supervised the progress of the work in her husband’s absence, and the result must have been most pleasing, for a young lady who saw it in 1856 describes it as “a beautiful & noble drawing room, very handsomely furnished and hung too with paintings.”
