Dear Friends of Arlington House,

The spring season is upon us and at Arlington House it is considered one of the most beautiful times of the year.  With the new leaves on the trees and shrubs surrounding the estate changing the landscape, one can envision both the Custis and Lee families celebrating the start of a new planting season as the weather turns warmer. 

As a key member of the Arlington House Foundation’s “constituency of care”, we wish to bring you up-to-date with the latest historical restoration efforts for this great American treasure.

 We are proud to announce the official start, during the month of March, of the complete restoration of Arlington House.  This will be a lengthy process as the mansion will undergo a top to bottom process to bring Arlington House back to its 1860 appearance.  Estimates for completion of all repairs and updates are between 12 and 18 months.  While this massive restoration is happening to this famous historic site, we have a major project, currently not funded, to discuss with you.               

For many years we have been working to broaden our interpretation to encompass more stories and details regarding the lives and experiences of enslaved and free African Americans who lived, and worked on the Arlington plantation.  The park would like to begin a major project that would include the creation of new permanent exhibits and interpretative waysides.  Once completed, these will tell the complete story of the African Americans living on the plantation as never before.  To deepen visitor understanding of the meanings and at the same time, strengthen our institutional awareness of the dynamic living components of that history, we would like to enlist and engage the descendent community.  Present in the draft of a new exhibit plan, is the mechanism to give voice to the living descendants of the enslaved.  Our desire is to partner with the living descendants of the enslaved that will allow them a greater voice in the presentation of their own histories. Once completed, the rotating exhibits will trace the human stories from enslavement to modern life and show the survival and triumph of those who had to struggle for so long.  

Needless to say, while we have much to be proud of with the beginning of the major restoration project starting on the mansion, as you can see, we still have projects to be accomplished and would welcome your support in moving this particular project forward.  Your donations become even more important to the mansion during this time when Federal cutbacks to the Park Service are delaying many critical restoration projects.  A list of all our approved projects is located at our web site at www.arlingtonhouse.org.  Your donations may be made on-line at our website or by check mailed directly to our address, “Arlington House Foundation”, PO Box 3689, McLean, VA 22103.

Once again, thank you for your generous support and for your ongoing commitment to our restoration campaign for Arlington House and the surrounding 19 acres.

Kind regards, 

Merle Schneider
Chairman
Arlington House Foundation

David Rubenstein donates lead Centennial gift of $12.35 million to the National Park Foundation to Restore Arlington House

(Left to right) NPS Director Jon Jarvis, David M. Rubenstein, NPS project manager Brandon Bies, and National Park Foundation President Neil Mulholland at the announcement of Rubenstein's $12.35 million donation to restore Arlington House. National Park Service Subscribe  | What is RSS News Release Date: July 17, 2014  Contact: National Park Service: Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, 202-619-7177  Contact: National Park Foundation: Marjorie Hall, 202-354-6480  Gift exemplifies ‘Patriotic Philanthropy,’ as the 2016 National Park Service centennial approaches Gift is Rubenstein’s third major donation to honor the legacy of George Washington WASHINGTON – Today a gift made history and saved history. National Park Service (NPS) Director Jonathan B. Jarvis and National Park Foundation (NPF) President and CEO Neil Mulholland joined businessman and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein to announce Rubenstein’s $12.35 million donation, a lead gift in the National Park Foundation’s Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks, to restore and improve access to Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial, located within the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. The gift complements President Obama’s Centennial Initiative for the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016, a multi-year effort to invest wisely in the park system’s most important assets, use parks to enhance informal learning, engage volunteers, provide training opportunities to youth and enhance the National Park Service’s ability to leverage partnerships to accomplish its mission. “Arlington House, originally constructed to memorialize George Washington, tells America’s story from its founding, to the shame of slavery and a nation divided, to a nation again made whole,” Jarvis said. “We are honored by Mr. Rubenstein’s patriotism, his generous gift, and his dedication to the future of America’s treasures. We are eager to start the transformation that his ‘patriotic philanthropy’ will make possible.”  When the projects are completed, visitors will see Arlington House as it was in 1860, with every room restored to its historical appearance. An important aspect of this project is to restore the slave quarters to better represent and tell the stories of the enslaved. Visitors will learn from park rangers and volunteers, or via new mobile and web assets, in addition to audio tours and changing exhibitions. As visitors move between the mansion and the new museum and bookstore, they will pass along accessible paths that stretch through the restored grounds, including heirloom gardens and new trails. People who cannot visit in person will enjoy a more robust experience through virtual tours, complete with detailed displays of the rooms and museum objects.  Rubenstein said, “I am honored to support the National Park Service’s renovation of historic Arlington House built in honor of George Washington and located on hallowed ground atop Arlington National Cemetery. I hope that upon its restoration, Arlington House will appropriately remind visitors of America’s rich history and our country’s good fortune to have such a unique site to honor our veterans, especially those who gave the last full measure of devotion on behalf of this nation.” The National Park Foundation, as the official charity of America’s national parks and nonprofit partner of the NPS received the gift that will make the critical projects at the memorial possible.  Mr. Rubenstein has set the tone for a new era of investment in America’s national parks. For 100 years, generous philanthropists have stepped forward to keep the national parks beautiful, vital and accessible. Rubenstein’s donation is the largest gift associated with the NPF’s Centennial Campaign. In preparation for the milestone anniversary, NPS Director Jarvis has asked the NPF to spearhead and implement the Centennial Public Engagement and National Fundraising Campaigns. Through these efforts, NPS and NPF will celebrate the NPS’s centennial and reintroduce the NPS’s work and opportunities to a new generation of Americans, inviting them to protect America’s special places, working together to connect all people to their parks, and inspiring the next generation of park stewards to visit and get involved with their national parks.  “Mr. Rubenstein’s transformative philanthropic support will not only restore and rejuvenate Arlington House, enlivening it for new audiences, but it also provides an inspiring example of how public-private partnership is vital to ensure these special places thrive,” Neil Mulholland, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation said. “America’s national parks belong to each and every one of us, and, as such, we share the responsibility to protect and preserve them now and for the next generation.”  The residence of Robert E. Lee and his family before the Civil War, the story of Arlington House connects to many important figures, issues and events in American history. Built by George Washington Parke Custis and his slaves between 1802 and 1818, the house and grounds have served many purposes over the last 200 years: a family home for the Lees and Custises, a plantation estate and home to 63 slaves, a monument honoring George Washington, a military headquarters for Union troops, a community for emancipated slaves and a national cemetery. With 650,000 visitors per year, Arlington House is the most visited historic house museum in the national park system.  ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at: www.nps.gov.  ABOUT DAVID RUBENSTEIN  David M. Rubenstein is Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager based in Washington, DC. He is also Chairman of the Boards of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Duke University, a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, Co-Chairman of the Brookings Institution, Vice-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and President of the Economic Club of Washington. In 2012, Rubenstein donated $7.5 million to repair the earthquake-damaged Washington Monument, which reopened to the public in May 2014, and in 2013 he donated $10 million to George Washington’s Mount Vernon home to support the construction and endowment of a library to house Washington’s books and papers and to serve as a center for leadership training.