Virginia State Seal Virginia Department of Historic Resources

096-0024 Stratford Hall

Stratford Hall
Photo credit: Calder Loth, 2017

*Click on image to enlarge.

For additional information, read the Nomination Form PDF

VLR Listing Date 09/09/1969

NRHP Listing Date 10/15/1966

NHL Listing Date 10/07/1960

DHR's Virginia Board of Historic Resources easement

NRHP Reference Number 66000851

Few places in America equal Stratford Hall in architectural interest or historical associations. The great colonial mansion, with its complex of outbuildings and dependencies, was built in the 1730s by Thomas Lee. Although Stratford Hall is best known as the birthplace of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, it was also the boyhood home of Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, the only brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence. With its H-shaped plan, clustered chimney stacks, and elegantly paneled great hall, the mansion is unique among colonial plantation houses. Enhancing the architecture is its rural Westmoreland County setting with vistas to the Potomac River. Stratford Hall left the Lees in 1822 and was acquired for preservation in 1929 by the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, Inc. The restored Stratford Hall plantation is now a historic site interpreting colonial plantation life and the Lee family.


Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.

Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark


Updated: September 13, 2022