Robert E. Lee's Childhood Home Up For Sale In Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Robert E. Lee's childhood home in Old Town Alexandria has gone up for sale for the first time in half a century.

The 1796 home has much history behind it even beyond its ties to the Lee family. John Potts, secretary of the Potomac Canal Company for George Washington, built the home and sold it to plantation owner William Fitzhugh a year later, according to The Washington Post. Washington himself stayed at the home and dined there a number of times.

After Robert E. Lee's father Henry rented the home in 1812, the family lived there for over 80 years. Robert E. Lee stayed there from when he was five years old to when he went to West Point in 1825. He again visited five years after the Civil War ended, The Post reports.

Other owners have been Pulitzer-winning poet Archibald MacLeish and Franklin Roosevelt administration official Royd Sayers. For some time, the Stonewall Jackson Foundation operated the home as a public museum. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

The newest owners, who bought the home in disrepair during 2000, made significant repairs and restored it to its former glory. Today, the home maintains period character, and the owners hope the next owners will keep the home's history alive.

According to realtor.com, the six-bedroom house is selling for $8.5 million. It is a Virginia landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. See a full photo gallery of this historic gem in the listing below.

• Address: 607 Oronoco St, Alexandria, Virginia
• Price: $8,500,000
• Square Feet: 8145
• Bedrooms: 6
• Bathrooms: 4 Full and 2 Half Baths
• Built: 1795
• Features: Available for the first time in 50 years, the Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee in Old Town. A registered VA Landmark, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Half-acre of tranquil gardens, separate 2-car gar, and over 8,000 SF of grand living space. The subject of a detailed & complete, professional restoration, it is a newly-functional structure in an antique and beautiful envelope.

This listing originally appeared on realtor.com. For more information and photos, click here.