McLean House Reconstruction Assured

A Brady Photograph of the McLean House Made in 1865.

Reconstruction of the famous McLean House is to become a reality after a delay of nearly 50 years in its projected rebuilding. The historic structure, where General Lee surrendered to General Grant on Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, and virtually ended the War Between the States, was dismantled in 1893 for shipment to Washington. It was to be reassembled there for service as a museum, but the sponsor's funds were exhausted and the plan was never carried to completion.

The house now is to be reconstructed at Appomattox Court House National Historical Monument, Virginia, on the exact site where it stood that day nearly 76 years ago when peace came at last to the war-torn nation. The National Park Service's reconstruction will be based primarily upon the drawings acquired recently from the firm of C. W. Hancock and Sons, of Lynchburg, Virginia, and Huntington, West Virginia, which had employed P. C. Hubard to make measured drawings of the house at the time of the proposed removal. To assure an exact reproduction of the dwelling of 1865 without any of the modifications which may have taken place between that date and 1893, the Service will have recourse to many old photographs, prints and drawings of the period of the war and immediately after.

The McLean House reconstruction has been given priority in a general restoration program designed to recreate much of the wartime atmosphere of Appomattox Court House. A 970-acre area embracing the sites of principal interest was established April 10, 1940, as a national historical monument.