Morning Room

uilt for use as a parlor, the Morning Room was the room where the Custises entertained their numerous guests here before the large central section of the house was built. This room—part of the South Wing—was completed in 1804, the original parlor of Arlington. It was the only place for entertaining from the time Mary Lee Fitzhugh came to “Mount Washington,” as Arlington was then called, as Mr. Custis' bride in July 1804 until the center section of the house was completed about 1818.

	View of Morning Room from White Parlor. Click on picture to view QuickTime movie of the room. (290 KB) QuickTime plug-in is required and can be downloaded free at the QuickTime Web site.

Once the house was complete, Mr. Custis used this room as a studio, and after his wife's death in 1853, it became Mrs. Lee's “Morning Room.” As arthritis restricted her ability to go up and down stairs she answered her mail and managed the affairs of her household here, more and more. By 1861 almost all of her activities could be accomplished in this room. It was while she was sitting in the Morning Room copying a portrait of her youngest son Robert E. Lee, Jr. one afternoon in May 1861 that Orton Williams brought news of the imminent United States Army's advance on Arlington.

Today visitors see several original pieces in the Morning Room, including the sacks for General Washington's Revolutionary War tents and a large painting of Washington at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, painted by Mr. Custis to hang in the United States Capitol.

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