Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden

Built in 1785 in the historic district of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, the Lee-Fendall House was home to 37 members of the Lee family and later served as the Grosvenor Branch Hospital, treating wounded Union soldiers during the Civil War. Generations of enslaved and free African Americans also lived and worked on the property, and labor leader John L. Lewis, founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, later resided in the home during the height of his career. The Virginia Trust for Historic Preservation opened the house as a museum in 1974, and it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. Behind the house sits a half-acre walled garden that traces back to a Victorian-era redesign by the Cazenove family in the 1850s, with a rose garden, an herb garden, and magnolia, black walnut, and ginkgo trees planted around 1852. Entered through a gate on Washington Street, the garden is free and open to the public whenever the museum is open and has been certified as a National Wildlife Federation Wildlife Habitat since 2019. Today the Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden offers guided tours, exhibitions, and educational programming exploring nearly two centuries of American history, from the Lee family's residency through the property's role as a Civil War hospital and its twentieth-century labor history.