Ravensworth was an 18th-century plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

 near Annandale

Annandale, Virginia

Annandale is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 41,008 at the 2010 census, down from 54,994 in 2000 due to the splitting off of the western part of it to form Wakefield and Woodburn CDP's.-Geography:...

 in Fairfax County

Fairfax County, Virginia

Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

. Ravensworth was the Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia

Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...

 residence of William Fitzhugh

William Fitzhugh

William Fitzhugh was an American planter and statesman who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779. -Life:...

, William Henry Fitzhugh

William Henry Fitzhugh

William Henry Fitzhugh was a prominent member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830 and an officer of the American Colonization Society....

, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis was an Episcopal lay leader in Alexandria County...

, and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee , known as Rooney Lee or W.H.F. Lee, was the second son of Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph Custis. He was a planter, a Confederate cavalry General in the American Civil War, and later a member of the U.S. Congress.-Early life:Lee was born at Arlington House in...

. It was built in 1796.

Location

Ravensworth was located near Annandale, Virginia, south of Braddock Road

Braddock Road

State Route 620 is a secondary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia, and traverses both Fairfax County and Loudoun County. The entire length of SR 620 is also known as Braddock Road...

, west of the Capital Beltway

Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway)

Interstate 495 is a Interstate Highway that surrounds the United States' capital of Washington, D.C., and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. I-495 is widely known as the Capital Beltway or simply the Beltway, especially when the context of Washington, D.C., is clear...

 (Interstate 495).

History

It was one of three mansions built on the large Ravensworth land grant: Ravensworth, Ossian Hall (plantation), and Oak Hill (Annandale, Virginia)

Oak Hill (Annandale, Virginia)

Oak Hill in Annandale, Virginia is a Georgian style home built in 1790. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.It was extensively renovated in the 1930s and is significant for its architecture after that renovation.-History:...

. William Fitzhugh had also purchased a townhouse in Alexandria at 607 Oronoco Street in 1799, which his family in 1818 loaned to their cousin, the widow of Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, and her eleven-year-old son, Robert Edward.

William Fitzhugh died and was buried there in 1809.

Ravensworth then passed to Fitzhugh's son William Henry Fitzhugh

William Henry Fitzhugh

William Henry Fitzhugh was a prominent member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830 and an officer of the American Colonization Society....

, who died in 1830. William Henry Fitzhugh's childless widow, Anna Maria Sarah Goldsborough Fitzhugh, ran the estate until her death in 1874.

William Fitzhugh and Ann Bolling Randolph's daughter Mary Lee Fitzhugh

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis was an Episcopal lay leader in Alexandria County...

 married George Washington Parke Custis

George Washington Parke Custis

George Washington Parke Custis , the step-grandson of United States President George Washington, was a nineteenth-century American writer, orator, and agricultural reformer.-Family:...

 (Martha Washington's grandson) and became the mistress of Arlington House

Arlington House

Arlington House may refer to:*Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial*Arlington House a hostel for the homeless in London, England, and one of the Rowton Houses...

. Their grandson, Confederate general William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee, inherited Ravensworth after the death of his great-aunt and lived there from 1874 until his death in 1891.

The house burned in 1925.

The estate was sold in 1957 for development.