Hauntings Of The Robert E. Lee Boyhood Home
The Commonwealth of Virginia attracts visitors from all over for its natural beauty and rich history dating back two centuries. However, a darker side lurks beneath this state’s veneer of Southern Charm. Its history is steeped in such tragedy that the veil between the living and the dead has been worn thin while the voices of the dead whisper from behind every wall. Could it have anything to do with Confederate General Robert E. Lee, who once inhabited the home?
On 601-607 Oronoco St. is an elegant Federal and Georgian-style townhouse that, to passersby, adds to the historical scenery of Old Town Alexandria. But it was this very same home where the Koch family found themselves plagued with ghostly happenings for the next five years. As the house has changed ownership in the decades since, many have wondered if these mysterious occurrences await anyone who dares step foot through its doors.
Is The Robert E. Lee Mansion Haunted?
It wasn’t long before previous owner Henry Koch and his family noticed something was off about their quaint new home. On one occasion, the Koch’s new neighbors came to visit. Sitting down in their living room, one of their guests found themselves getting drenched from a snowfall a foot above her head. Read on to learn more about the history of 601- 607 Oronoco St. and why it’s believed that some of its former residents still call it their home. Better yet, come see for yourself and book a tour with Alexandria Ghosts Tour!…if you’re brave enough.
Tragedy Follows
The mansion has entertained a number of notable guests over the last two centuries, including George Washington, who dined there one month before his death, and Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. It was built in 1793 for John Potts, secretary of the Potomac Canal Company, and was then deeded to wealthy Virginia planter William Fitzhugh in 1799. But, it wasn’t until 1811, that the house’s most infamous guest moved in.
It seemed like a fresh start for Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, who moved in with his wife and children. Among them was four-year-old Robert E. Lee, who would go on to become the most infamous, some say brutal, general of the Civil War. The home soon became a sanctuary of sadness drenched in despair and hardship when financial and political turmoil soon found their way to their doorsteps a couple of years later. Henry, still trying to escape his creditors, was brutally beaten by a political mob and consequently sailed to the West Indies to recuperate from his injuries.
It was the last time Robert E. Lee would see his father, however, as Henry succumbed to his failing health on Cumberland Island, GA, upon his return home. This left his mourning wife, Anne, and her children to fend for themselves. Robert E. Lee left for West Point ten years later, but it wasn’t the last time he would visit his childhood home.
One story holds that Robert returned to 601-607 Oronoco St. one last time, or so it seems, after surrendering at Appomattox, where he climbed the brick wall around the yard to check “if the snowballs were in bloom.”
The townhouse continued to change ownership under additional, prominent figures and underwent extensive renovations. It was purchased by Royd R. Sayers of the Bureau of Mines in 1932 and owned by world-renowned poet and Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish ten years later.
Robert E. Lee and the Black Dog
Ghostly experiences began almost immediately when Henry Koch and his family moved into the home in 1962. Two to three times a day, inexplicable events would take place in certain parts of the home. The believed cause of these incidences was a four-year-old boy.
The distinct pitter-pattering steps of a little child running upstairs, up and down the stairways, and in the front hall resounded throughout the mansion. In an especially playful mood, the unseen resident would walk alongside family members, circling around them at knee height in those same locations. Their innocent giggles were heard throughout the whole residence.
The boy also liked to play pranks on the family, such as ringing the doorbell and moving objects around; a lost cigarette lighter was thrown at Mrs. Koch’s feet out of nowhere. On two occasions, visitors inside the home experienced snowflakes dropped on them from this playful little spirit. These occurrences lasted for six months in the daylight hours, but much to the Kochs’ unease, continued sporadically for the duration of their stay.
The Kochs also spotted something odd in their safely guarded backyard one day. A black dog who, much to their surprise, didn’t alert the Kochs’s two beagles. Neighbors in later years would claim they saw the ghostly figure of the four-year-old boy playing in the backyard with the dog.
Several theories have developed over the identity of this unsettling, yet playful figure. One of them being it’s actually Robert E. Lee himself returning as a child, perhaps trying to reclaim a lost childhood he never experienced.
The home would also be filled at random times with the sound of encapsulating music emanating from a stringed instrument upstairs. How awkward it must’ve been for the Kochs to explain to guests when there was no one in the home who played a stringed instrument or owned one.
A Mystery Left Unanswered
The non-profit Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc. (later named Lee-Jackson Foundation) purchased the property in 1967, opening it to the public as a museum, where visitors in later years would share their own unique experiences: a feeling of uneasiness in certain rooms of the house, electronic devices inexplicably malfunctioning, even apparitions or shadowy figures, such as the ghosts of two little girls.
General Robert E. Lee’s boyhood home was taken under private ownership again in 2000 and hasn’t been open to the public since. However, while the owners and decor of the elegant townhouse may have changed over the decades, many still wonder if 601-607 Oronoco St. still hosts some of its earliest tenants, with so many questions remaining unanswered. Who are the spectral residents that terrified the Koch family for five years? Does the Confederate General Robert E. Lee still wander the rooms of his boyhood home, still trying to reclaim a piece of his childhood he lost?
Haunted Alexandria
Read up on our blog for more spine-tingling stories on Alexandria’s most haunted locations. Better yet, get an in-person look at some of them and book a ghost tour at Alexandria Ghosts Tour! You may even meet the infamous ghost of Robert. E Lee! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for more spooky content!
References
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/lee-timeline/
https://hauntedhouses.com/virginia/robert-e-lee-mansion/
https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/VLR_to_transfer/PDFNoms/100-0082_RobtELee_Boyhood_Home_ 1986_Final_Nomination.pdf
