What could be done with a closed, multi-building prison in the southern part of suburban Fairfax County, 25 miles from Washington, DC? The county had an ambitious plan, purchasing the former Lorton Reformatory site in Lorton, Virginia, in 2002, and the Workhouse Arts Foundation opened the 55-acre nonprofit Workhouse Arts Center in 2008. Redbrick buildings that held prisoners were transformed into welcoming spaces for encouraging community connections and artistic creativity. Today more than 110,000 people of all ages come annually to take classes and workshops, see artists’ studios and exhibitions, attend theater performances, and enjoy an array of special events. A museum explores the former prison’s history, and a new cafe and brewpub enlivens the campus. Having survived the pandemic and with a new leadership team, the Workhouse looks forward to serving the local community even more effectively on a site whose deep history includes a link to the women’s suffrage movement.
From Past to Future at the Workhouse
Established in 1910 as the Occoquan Workhouse for the District of Columbia, the prison initially occupied 1,155 acres and embodied the era’s optimistic Progressive ideals as a self-sustaining agricultural work camp that would rehabilitate prisoners. During the 1920s, prisoners made the bricks used to build the distinctive Colonial Revival–style buildings now in use as the arts center. By the mid-1990s, though, the Lorton Reformatory had become infamous for its overcrowded and poor conditions. Federal legislation mandated its closing, and the last prisoner left in 2001. The site became part of a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
In July 2024, Keith Gordon became the President and CEO of the Workhouse Arts Foundation, quickly turning his enthusiasm for the organization into a strategic plan focused on growth and financial sustainability. Seeing the potential of the Workhouse as a community resource and having a strong partner in the County of Fairfax, he aims to raise its profile. Today more than 80 artists rent space at the Workhouse, and more than 600 classes are planned for 2025. Its ongoing events include monthly Second Saturday Art Walks, where visitors can enjoy an evening visit, meet artists, and buy art. Gordon sees larger seasonal events, such as the existing Halloween Haunt, as one option for engaging the broader community and encouraging people to visit the Workhouse more often and support it. Speaking to Side of Culture, he noted that the longtime FireWorks event before July 4th attracts 10,000 people for music, food, and activities, as well as the fireworks. Like sports, Gordon noted, “Art, music, and entertainment can bring people together.” He is also eager to serve different parts of the community, mentioning the Workhouse’s pilot program, which provides free art classes to people affected by the criminal justice system. All in all, it’s an exciting time for the arts center.
Experiencing the Workhouse
With more than a dozen structures (not all are currently in use), the Workhouse is imposing, with buildings linked by a colonnade and set around an open space that looks somewhat like a college campus. People who want to understand the site’s history should begin at the small but thought-provoking Lorton Prison / Lucy Burns Museum, which opened in 2018 in building W-2. Photos and exhibits convey the evolution of the facility, and visitors can take a guided tour of the one remaining cellblock. The prison housed people convicted in DC courts, including Lucy Burns (co-founder of the National Women’s Party) and other suffragists, who in 1917 became the first people ever to picket the White House. Burns and other activists endured brutal treatment in the then-Occoquan Workhouse. Panels and photos reveal the intensity of the struggle for women’s right to vote. The Workhouse’s March calendar lists some special events for Women’s History month.
Another good starting point for a visit is Building W-16, with a tempting gift shop, visitor information, and the McGuireWoods, Vulcan, and Muse gallery spaces for changing exhibitions. Currently on view are “Prison Reimagined,” showing works by incarcerated people, and “(un)Endangered Species: Re-imagined Places,” displaying colorful pieces by Andi Cullins that use African and Aboriginal fabric designs and other textiles to redefine creatures and places.
Visitors can walk through five brightly lit buildings that hold the studios of artists who have applied for space at the Workhouse. It’s fun (and takes time) to walk through the long buildings, looking at art and talking to some artists at work about a current project or their process. Some buildings are dedicated to glass artists or ceramicists; others have artists working in different mediums or crafts, such as painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, fiber art, jewelry, and more. In some cases, artworks line the hallways. Shops in buildings display and sell artists’ work; there’s something appealing at all price points. The Arches gallery space, a juried artist program, is for artists who exhibit here but don’t have studio space at the Workhouse. These artists cooperate to maintain the space and staff the gallery for browsers and buyers.
There’s much else going on regularly at the Workhouse. Its 100-seat theater presents four plays each season, regularly selling out and winning recognition in the regional Helen Hayes Award nominations presented by Theatre Washington. Art of Movement classes offer opportunities in dance and fitness from Pilates to yoga, from ballroom dance to musical theater jazz dance. Kidnastics Gymnastics classes are for the youngest kids through age twelve. Music and voice lessons for different ages, and improv theater lessons, are available through partnerships with long-established Jordan Kitt’s Music and the Music Together program.
Some programs serve specific parts of the community. For example, spring and summer art camps taught by professional artists inspire young people from 5 to 18. The Workhouse Military Arts Initiative (WMAI), launched in 2015, offers veterans free arts classes that provide a space for creativity and connection.
Side Dish 1: Bunnyman Brewing Cafe at the Workhouse
Opened in June 2024 as the second location of the Virginia microbrewery, the Bunnyman Brewing Cafe in Building 13 offers coffee and breakfast as well as a full food menu and its distinctive craft brews—from hard seltzers to ciders to craft beers—into the evening. Visiting the Workhouse can build up an appetite, which the menu satisfies with flatbreads and wings, paninis, salads, and sides including plenty of tater tots. There’s outside seating too, and the cafe has a happy hour and special events.
Side Dish 2: Nearby in Fairfax County
A visit to the Workhouse pairs easily with several other area cultural sites covered by Side of Culture. Just 8 miles southeast is George Mason’s Gunston Hall, the home of the 18th-century lawmaker and political thinker whose ideas influenced documents such as the Bill of Rights. The house and newly restored colonial garden are fascinating. Woodlawn and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Pope-Leighey House, just 8 miles east of the Workhouse, present two different experiences: the former is one of Wright’s Usonian houses, designed for affordable living, while the latter is a formal 1805 plantation house that tells the story of all those who lived on its grounds.
Linda Cabasin is a travel editor and writer who covered the globe at Fodor’s before taking up the freelance life. She’s a contributing editor at Fathom. Follow Linda on Instagram at @lcabasin.
Featured photo: People can enjoy strolling the Workhouse campus. Building W-13 holds Bunnyman Brewing Cafe. Photo by April Greer for Visit Fairfax
