File:North Slave Quarters - north side - Arlington House - Arlington National Cemtery - 2012.jpg

English: Standing at the northwest corner of the North Slave Quaters, looking southeast at Arlington House (the Robert E. Lee Memorial) at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., in the United States.

Arlington House was the first temple-form home built in the United States. Arlington House was built by George Washington Parke Custis, adopted son of George Washington, in 1803. George Hadfield, who also partially designed the United States Capitol, designed the mansion. The north wing was constructed first, and shortly thereafter the south wing began to be built. Hadfield's design for the center portion of the house meant that the facade of the north wing was rebuilt to match that of the rest of the house. The north and south wings were completed between 1802 and 1804, but the large center section and portico were not finished until 1817. There are eight Doric pillars each in the front, each pillar five feet in diameter. Each pillar is covered in plaster, and the plaster painted to look like marble.

As the house was built beginning in 1802, so were two slave quarters. The two-story brick structures were set perpendicular to the main house and formally aligned with it. They are Neoclassical in design, with pebble-dash stucco exteriors. The facades facing inward toward the yard (other side of this building) were plain, but the facades facing outward toward the gardens (this side of the building) were formally decorated in a Neoclassical style and highly ornamented.

The two-story Northern Slave Quarters was built on the edge of a ravine to the west of the house, and "banked" so that much more of the northern foundation was originally visible. The north face of this building originally featured nine windows, a curving arch recessed into the wall about a foot, and four Doric pilasters under the arch. Three doors on the south side of it provided access to the two interior rooms of this building. Each door had a panel above it on which were painted hunting scenes. The eastern half of the first floor was a summer kitchen -- a kitchen with little insulation and good ventilation which would be used in hot summer months (rather than the indoor or "winter" kitchen) so that the main house would stay cool. The western half of the building was used as living quarters for the African slave who served as coachman and storage space for gardening tools, and had a steep narrow ladder-stairs which led to the second floor. The windowless upper story contained three rooms which were used as slave housing. Fireplaces in the east and west ends of the structure provided heat.

George Washington Parke Custis died in 1857, leaving the Arlington estate and house to his eldest daughter, Mary Custis Lee -- wife of General Robert E. Lee.

A public restroom was constructed adjacent to the north side of the North Slave Quarters about 1890, and a second one added in 1921. The 1890/1921 comfort station was renovated several times. It was demolished in 2010, and a new comfort station built north of the kitchen garden (behind a screen of hedges and plantings). The North Slave Quarters were extensively restored in 2010-2011 to be more historically accurate.