Ravensworth House and Stables

Ravensworth House and Stables

HABS Survey number: HABS VA-105

The site where Ravensworth House and stables once stood. Located at 5200 Port Royal Road in Fairfax County Virginia. In 1936 New Deal project Historical American Buildings Survey documented the site.

Jessica Burgess

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/newdeal/habs.html

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/item/va0405.sheet.00000a/

Library of Congress

1936

Library of Congress. HABS

No known restrictions on publication

Documentary

October 10, 2019

Video of Location. Stills of Historical Marker and Info plaque. Stills of A.M Fitzhugh Will and Ravensworth Deed to Mary Randolph Custis Lee. (Mrs. Robert E. Lee) HABS produced plat of site

I chose the Ravensworth Stables and House site located in Springfield, Virginia. The Ravensworth Estate was owned by the Fitzhughs. Anne Marie Fitzhugh was the Aunt of Mrs. Robert E. Lee, the latter spent much of the civil war in this “Safe Haven”. When Fitzhugh departed this life in 1877, Mary Randolph Custis Lee, Mrs. Robert E Lee, inherited Ravensworth. During the New Deal there era a lesser known project was the Historic American Buildings Survey, or HABS. It was their mission to document every historical building in the country. Because of this New Deal project we have vast documentation for buildings that are now long gone, lost to time. HABS was very active during the new deal and continued to document historic buildings in a continuation into the 1960’s and 70’s. Thanks to new technology and digital databases the Library of Congress has digitized much of the information HABS collected. What was once just collected in boxes is now available online for researchers all over the world. The pictures added here are part of their collection. I have also included present day pictures of the area where Ravensworth was located. Since nothing currently remains except the historical marker I wanted to find a way to include more information. I was able to find Fairfax County’s copy of the deed for Ravensworth showing Mary Ranpdolph Custis Lee’s inheritance as well as their copy of Fitzhugh’s will. Unfortunately so many New Deal sites are nothing more than a blip on an interactive map, so it is wonderful that Ravensworth has a historic marker and documents that relate to this interesting place will endure.