D.C. Workhouse and Reformatory Historic District

Near Lorton in Fairfax County, Virginia, this 511-acre district preserves a prison complex the District of Columbia began building in 1910. It consists of three brick campuses, the Workhouse, the Reformatory and the Penitentiary, set among fields, pasture, orchards and a brick kiln. Each campus is arranged around a quadrangle with arcades, dormitories or cell blocks, and a dining hall, mostly in Colonial Revival style. The Workhouse and Reformatory were run as open institutions without bars or walls, reflecting Progressive era ideas that work, vocational training and humane surroundings could rehabilitate prisoners. A walled Penitentiary was added in 1930 to hold more serious offenders. Architects Snowden Ashford and Albert Harris designed the buildings, and inmates made most of the bricks and did much of the construction. The prison ran until 2001. The district includes 194 contributing resources from 1910 to 1961, though nearby subdivisions, roads and other development have weakened its setting.