History

The Workhouse Arts Center is a project of the Lorton Arts Foundation. The expansive complex, once a correctional facility and now a center for arts, culture, and history, has a rich past and an exciting new presence.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, President Theodore Roosevelt commissioned the purchase of a large tract of land in Virginia for the creation of a workhouse for Washington, DC’s non-violent criminals. Roosevelt’s progressive era vision was to provide prisoners with fresh air, natural light and structured, purposeful work as the basis for their rehabilitation. Agricultural operations began at the Workhouse in 1912 and the prisoners created a brick plant where they produced bricks to construct the permanent buildings that now make up the Workhouse Arts Center. At the same time, the Women’s Division of the Workhouse was established west of the Men’s Workhouse. The Women’s Division is known for having held approximately 168 women, most from the National Women's Party, for picketing in front of the White House for women’s voting rights. Lucy Burns, who, along with Alice Paul, founded the National Women’s Party, was one of the women incarcerated in the Women’s Division of the Workhouse.

Over the years the workhouse-style correction facility became a medium security prison, and watch towers, cells and wired fences were installed. By the 1980’s, overcrowding had become an issue and the buildings were in a state of severe disrepair. In 1997, DC prison officials were ordered to begin transferring prisoners from the Lorton facility in preparation for its closing after more than 80 years of operation. 

In July 2002, Fairfax County received the title to the land that included the former Workhouse. The transfer of the land to the county was made possible through the Lorton Technical Corrections Act. This act required that the county develop an adaptive re-use plan for the land and the former prison facilities. The Lorton Arts Foundation put forward a plan to transform the former prison facility into a cultural arts center and, in July 2004, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the rezoning of a 55-acre portion of the former correction’s facility to become the Workhouse Arts Center.

September 2008 marks the official grand opening of Phase I of the Workhouse Arts Center.  Visitors to the center can tour the grounds, learn about the history of the complex, visit the artists’ studios, participate in art classes and workshops, attend musical and theatre performances and visit the two-story gallery building to take in the latest exhibitions of local, regional and international artists.

When all phases of the renovation are complete, the Workhouse Arts Center will consist of 234,000 square feet of adaptively reused buildings and 60,000 square feet in new construction and the site will include 40 acres of open space. The Lorton Arts Foundation has established in the Workhouse the region’s most distinctive cultural arts center.