Spring at Lee Hall and Endview

Let's visit the two plantations near Newport News, Lee Hall and Endview. Checking to see if they offer a combined admission but listed on both websites as $7 for Seniors and $10 for Adults. We can plan for lunch following and carpooling for any interested.

Lee Hall Mansion is an Italianate residence built in 1859 by prominent planter, Richard Decatur Lee, for his family. Only three years after the house’s completion, the Lees fled their home as the Peninsula became one of the first battlegrounds of the Civil War.
Built on high ground, Lee Hall Mansion had a natural and commanding view of the countryside. Consequently, between April and May of 1862, it served as a Confederate headquarters for Major General John Bankhead Magruder and General Joseph E. Johnston. From this location, Magruder and Johnston directed the defense of the Peninsula against Major General George B. McClellan’s advancing Union Army. A small skirmish was fought on the property on May 4, 1862. After the Civil War, the Lees returned to the house and resided there until 1871. The property passed through several owners and was lived in through most of the 20th century.
Admission to Lee Hall Mansion includes access to the Peninsula Campaign Gallery as well as a guided tour of the historic house. Wayside panels located on a looped trail around the house provide further information on the history of the house, grounds, and occupants.

Lee Hall Depot was erected circa 1881 on the Chesapeake & Ohio rail line. After construction, the village of Lee Hall rapidly developed around the depot. The wooden building consists of a two-story central section flanked by single-story wings. The Stationmaster and his family had living quarters on the second floor of the central section. Serving communities in then-Warwick County as well as lower James City County, it is the only remaining station of five on the Lower Virginia Peninsula.
Passenger service at the station ended in the late 1970s, and in 2008 CSX (formerly C&O Railroad) donated the depot to the City of Newport News. The City relocated the building across the tracks to prevent its demolition. It was restored in collaboration with the Lee Hall Train Station Foundation. The depot offers exhibits highlighting the impact of the railroad on Warwick County and the City of Newport News as well as information on railroad history and Lee Hall village.

Constructed in 1769 for the Harwood family, Historic Endview is one of the last remaining colonial buildings in Newport News. The Georgian-style house was located in close proximity to the route taken by the Continental Army and Virginia militia on their advance to the 1781 battle that ended the Revolutionary War. Dr. Humphrey Harwood Curtis, a physician and a great-grandson of William Harwood, acquired the property in 1858. In 1861, he organized a volunteer Confederate militia company known as the Warwick Beauregards to provide local defense in the early months of the Civil War. During the Peninsula Campaign, Confederate generals Lafayette McLaws and Robert Toombs headquartered on the property, at which time the Curtis family relocated to a different part of Virginia. At the conclusion of the Civil War, the Curtis family returned and Dr. Curtis resumed his medical practice. The property remained in the Harwood/Curtis family until 1985.

An exhibit along with a guided house tour provide information on the home’s history, 400 years of family ties to the land, and Dr. Curtis’s 19th-century medical practice. A nature trail, medicinal herb garden, outbuildings, and wayside markers are located on the grounds.