Fort Myer occupies some 250 acres of land that was part of a 1,100-acre estate inherited by George Washington Parke Custis. It functioned as a "gentleman's estate"1 from 1802 until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Information on the history of the estate helps establish the nature of the area that became Fort Myer immediately prior to the establishment of a federal military presence.
Establishment of Arlington Estate
The land that is now occupied by Arlington Cemetery and Fort Myer is part of the 1,100-acre tract purchased by John Parke Custis in 1770. Mr. J. P. Custis, son of Martha Washington from a previous marriage and adopted son of George Washington, died of illness while serving as General Washington's aide during the battle of Yorktown in 1781. The estate, originally named "Mt. Washington," reverted to his son, George Washington Parke Custis, then only six months of age. George and Martha Washington adopted their grandson, G. W. P. Custis, who lived with them at Mount Vernon until their deaths in 1799 and 1802 respectively. By that time, G. W. P. Custis was in his early twenties and he moved from Mt. Vernon to the estate, which had been renamed "Arlington" after a family home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. By 1803, Mr. Custis began building a home that is today known as the Lee Mansion (Flexnor 1969, McMillen 1960).
The estate ended up in federal hands as a result of the circumstances surrounding outbreak of the Civil War and the succession of Virginia from the Union in 1861. Mr. G. W. P. Custis married and had four children. Only one survived childhood, daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis. In 1831 she married Lieutenant Robert E. Lee. During the next 30 years, the Lees lived at Arlington, when military duty permitted. Being an officer of the U.S. Army, Robert E. Lee was faced with a difficult decision when his native Virginia succeeded from the Union. He chose to side with the Confederacy and left the Arlington Estate for the last time in 1861. The U.S. Army placed troops on Arlington Heights and used the house as a headquarters. In 1864, the Federal Government purchased the property at a public sale claiming default of payment of property tax. In 1883, an heir to the estate sued the Government successfully and received a settlement in exchange for legal title to the property.
Mr. G. W. P. Custis extended a great deal of effort in establishing a managed forest in the front half of the estate with its view of the Potomac River and the growing city of Washington. Mr. Custis' father chose the location of the estate primarily because of its proximity to Georgetown, across the river to the north, and Alexandria to the south. The main road connecting these two important towns ran along the river and directly in front of the Arlington estate. The back part of the estate, the part that eventually became Fort Myer, seems to have been left as a series of large groves and springs with a network of roads leading to the small towns and agricultural homesteads of Northern Virginia (see Figure 5).
Even after the establishment of the Arlington estate, the vegetation of the area that became Fort Myer appears to have remained generally the same, an eastern deciduous forest. The topography of the estate provided a high point perfectly suited to give the mansion a view of the river and the city of Washington. Other high points on the back half of the estate led to its occupation by military forces during the Civil War (see Figure 6).
Figure 5. The Arlington Estate in 1860. Note that the forested area is now Fort Myer, outlined with dashed line (Gurney 1965).
Figure 6. Topography of Arlington Estate. Note the location of 1) Fort Cass; 2) Fort Whipple; and 3) the Lee Mansion (based on Barnard 1871).
1 A "gentleman's estate" is distinguished from a working estate in that it functions as a home and social setting rather than as a plantation or farm.