Few places in America equal Stratford Hall in architectural interest or historical associations. The great colonial mansion, with its complex of outbuildings and dependencies, was built in the 1730s by Thomas Lee. Although Stratford Hall is best known as the birthplace of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, it was also the boyhood home of Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, the only brothers to sign the Declaration of Independence. With its H-shaped plan, clustered chimney stacks, and elegantly paneled great hall, the mansion is unique among colonial plantation houses. Enhancing the architecture is its rural Westmoreland County setting with vistas to the Potomac River. Stratford Hall left the Lees in 1822 and was acquired for preservation in 1929 by the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, Inc. The restored Stratford Hall plantation is now a historic site interpreting colonial plantation life and the Lee family.