The original prison was established in Lorton in 1910. Several names were applied to this facility, officially called District of Columbia Workhouse and Reformatory, including Lorton Prison and District of Columbia Correctional Facility. It was a minimum-security prison originally, though later a maximum-security facility and juvenile detention facility also developed on the complex. Another part of the facility was the Occoquan Workhouse, which violently detained suffragists in 1917. The Workhouse Arts Center/Workhouse Prison Museum that now exists on the site depicts this history.Disease, such as the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, and workplace accidents occasionally felled inmates during their incarceration. Prisoners who died while incarcerated were not automatically buried in the Stoney Lonesome cemetery, only those whose relatives did not claim them. Fellow inmates attended funerals, which were overseen by local clergy or the prison's chaplain. Graves were dug by hand, usually by an inmate, and the coffins were pine boxes built in the prison's carpentry shop.The cemetery is situated just north of the defunct prison complex along what is now an access road owned by the Fairfax Water Authority. It stands in a grove of cedar trees and is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Burials were laid out in north-south rows each containing 10-14 burials, and are discernible as depressions in the ground. A few rough grave markers are in place, but they do not contain identifying information on those individuals buried here.

Stoney Lonesome Cemetery sign, courtesy of Workhouse Museum (reproduced under Fair Use).

Workhouse Arts Center/Workhouse Prison Museum

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After the establishment of the Occoquan Workhouse Prison in 1910, management set aside land for the burial of inmates. This "potter's field" was built around 1920 and became the final resting place for inmates who died in prison and whose bodies were unclaimed. The deceased were buried in simple pine coffins constructed in the prison's carpentry shop. Most of the graves are unmarked or have very simple concrete markers. The last burials most likely took place in the 1960s, though the prison operated in some capacity until 2001. No records are extant of the number of burials or identities of those buried here and historians estimate that the number of people buried here is probably between 50 and 100 individuals. 

Stoney Lonesome Cemetery, Occoquan Workhouse 

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This tour includes several historic homes in Occoquan and the Mill House Museum, as well as sites related to the infamous Occoquan Workhouse where leading suffragists were brutalized following their arrest. 

In 1758, industrialist John Balladine contracted architect William Buckland to design a home for him in Occoquan, Virginia. The massive fieldstone house is 2-1/2 stories tall in the main block of the building, with a gable roof and dormer windows. Although the building is quite long, it is only one room deep. Chimneys and a 1-/2 story kitchen wing are brick construction. Balladine was a friend of George Mason of Gunston Hall in Fairfax County, also constructed by Buckland. The mansion later became the home of Thomas Ellicott who developed the nearby Merchant Mill. John Davis, an imported English tutor for the Ellicott children described 18th-century Occoquan as a house built on a rock with three others on the opposite side of the Occoquan River, and a half dozen log huts scattered about. On June 19th, 1973, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on June 25th, 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house was restored in the 1970s by owner Donald L. Sonner but then the interior was gutted by a fire in 1980 and the restoration needed to be redone. Today, Rockledge has been fully restored once again and is available to rent out for corporate events, weddings or other events. Owners of Rockledge, the Houghton family, periodically offer open houses to those interested in taking a peek inside. The building is said to be haunted by the ghost of a Civil War soldier....

Rockledge is a historic home in Prince William County, Virginia, located in the town of Occoquan. Built in 1758 for industrialist John Balladine, the home is notable particularly in that it was partially designed by architect William Buckland. On June 19th, 1973, it was designated on the Virginia Landmark Register, and on June 25th, 1973, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, Rockledge has been fully restored and is available to rent out for corporate events, weddings or other events. 

Rockledge

This Mill, also known as Merchants Mill, was extremely advanced for its time. After the building was purchased by Quaker Nathaniel Ellicott, it was upgraded with the newest technology. It is believed that this was the first automated gristmill in America. The mill continued to function until 1924 when a generator fire destroyed the main structure of the building. The small Mill House, attached to the Mill, was untouched by the fire but fell into disrepair as it was abandoned. This structure is now leased to the Occoquan Historical Society (formerly Historic Occoquan, Inc.) as a museum.  The Mill House Museum preserves the history of the Occoquan area. The Museum holds an extensive collection of photographs of the area. On exhibit are also artifacts from the area that document both advances in technology and the average daily life of individuals during the period. The entire Mill House collection has not been fully documented. The photographs and periodicals held at the museum are frequently used for research on the area.  The Mill House Museum assists in several special events each year. The Museum hosts frequent seminars and educational events on the history of the area and the advancements in milling technology from the Civil War era. Many exhibits through the museum focus on Civil War history. The Museum also frequently supports Civil War reenactments in the area. The historical society's website offers an Occoquan scavenger hunt for children as well as special online exhibits on local history.

Occoquan Historical Society operates this local history museum at the site of an ironworks and mill that dates back to the late 18th-century and might be the first automated mill in American history. On display are a number of exhibits and displays, as well as a collection of historic photographs, documents, and artifacts related to the city of Occoquan. Many believe the real attraction is the mill house itself, the last remaining part of a large mill that dates back to the 18th century. The mill was originally part of an ironworks complex before it was converted to a mill. It may have even been the first automated gristmill in the US. 

Mill House Museum, Occoquan Historical Society

The Old Hammill Hotel may be the oldest brick building still standing in Occoquan. The structure, on the corner of Commerce and Union streets, was probably built around 1830 by Joseph and John H. Janney on one of the town lots they owned. A tavern may have occupied the building in the 1830s, run by Silas Beach, the next owner. John Athey purchased the building from Beach. Hugh Hammill and his eldest son, Edward, are two men who operated the hotel which came to bear their name. Hugh Hammill acquired the building from John Athey through inheritance in 1866. The recently-widowed Hugh Hammill (Jane died in 1865) lost his home near town, named River View, to fire in 1866 and purchased a farm outside of the town in 1868, according to articles in the Alexandria newspaper. A son of Hugh once told a daughter-in-law that the home in which he grew up had 14 fireplaces; the home contained luxury items including a grand piano. A Hammill descendant has written a book about the family's history, from Scotland to the U.S. (Matthews 2010). The Hammill family also operated one of two shipyards in Occoquan along the riverfront. Hugh Hammill built a three-masted ship named the Martha Washington; the longboat was especially designed to carry lumber. Hammill sold the ship, which could hold 60 cords of wood, in 1868 to someone who planned to use it for trading along the Potomac River ports. His wife and daughters would take one of the family's boats and sail up the Potomac River to shop in Alexandria. It sounds like Hugh did not live at the hotel, so perhaps a son or an employee physically ran the operation. Hugh was referred to as "Captain Hugh Hammell" in an 1875 news article, reporting that he had fallen through a bridge at Occoquan into a creek and nearly drowned. The Hammill's may have called the hotel "Commercial House" in the 1870s. One of several hotels in the town of Occoquan, the Hammill Hotel may have been the nicest. The stagecoach stopped in Occoquan, using a bridge first built across the Occoquan River to Fairfax County in 1797, providing a land route from north to south between Richmond, Virginia and Washington, D.C. During the Civil War, the hotel became the headquarters of Confederate Colonel Wade Hampton in 1861 to 1862. Nothing too exciting is associated with the hotel, but it was the scene of a robbery and assault in 1905. A Mr. Louis Walker, a traveling salesman out of Alexandria, was attacked by an unseen assailant and robbed of nearly $175 and a silver watch and chain. The wounded victim was found lying on the floor of his hotel room the next morning by Mr. (Edward) Hammill. The hotel owner stated that nothing like this had ever happened before at the establishment. In the early twentieth century, Arthur Gardner bought the hotel from Edward Hammill, re-naming the business the Gardner House. The hotel building was damaged but survived the fire that spread destruction across the town of Occoquan in 1916. The fire started in the Alton Hotel, the location of what may have been the earliest hotel built in the town, in 1804; the two buildings may have been confused with one another in some of the background research, but only the Hammill building survives. Gardner sold the property in 1927 and the structure became an inn. The hotel was converted to apartments in 1942 and was known as the Beechwood Apartments in the 1960s. The building currently houses a jewelry store (Lil Bit of Posh) on part of the ground floor with two levels of apartments above. The Old Hammill Hotel building is a contributing resource in the Occoquan Historic District, listed in the Virginia Landmark and National Registers in 1983.

The Old Hammill Hotel is probably the oldest brick building still standing in the historic town of Occoquan. It was probably built around 1830. The Hammill family were likely the fourth owners of the property, from 1866 to the early twentieth century. The Hammill's lived in a home on a farm outside of town and also ran a local shipyard. One of their descendants has written a book on the family's history, from Scotland to Virginia. The hotel building was the headquarters of a Confederate colonel, Wade Hampton, in the first winter of the Civil War, from 1861 to 1862. In 1905, a robbery and assault of a hotel guest while in his room made the news. The building was converted into apartments on the upper two floors in the mid-twentieth century and houses commercial space below. The building is a contributing resource in the NRHP-listed Occoquan Historic District, an easily-walkable area.

Old Hammill Hotel

Harris' Grocery Store once occupied the structure at 204 Washington Street, built around 1900. Ogle Harris and Sons was another name for the business. Ogle Harris was the son of enslaved persons and lived in historic Occoquan in a house up the street from the store building. He began making handcrafted ice cream in a freestanding former kitchen structure in the rear of the store building around 1910, with cream sourced from a local farm, and stored the ice cream in a 10-quart freezer. On the weekends, people would visit to buy ice cream or eat it there; a descendant of Mr. Harris remembers it was not uncommon for the store to go through 25 gallons of ice cream on a hot weekend. Once Mr. Harris opened the general store, he no longer had time to hand-churn ice cream, and began buying ready-made product from Sealtest. Mr. In the early days of the store, Mr. Harris also had a job working at the wharf nearby on Mill Street, so his wife and a son, Arthur, ran the store. Local farmers would bring bushel baskets full of produce to the store where they would be displayed on a bench out front. The shop was especially noted for meats; Harris would buy a side of lamb or beef and butcher it himself. Local and regional customers of both African-American and White races were frequent customers of Harris' Grocery Store. Ogle Harris ran the store for 35 years; he died in 1949. He and his wife had eight children, all born in the home on a corner near the store, next door to the house where Ogle had been born. After Ogle's death, Arthur Harris took over running the store alone. Arthur was an avid fisherman and incorporated bait for fellow fisherman into the store offerings; night crawlers were packaged into cartons left over from the ice cream days, found in the attic. Arthur's widow, Doris, was the next to operate the shop. In the early 1970's, Raymond Harris began running the store after retiring from a federal government job, catering mainly to weekend fishermen. He took the store into 1974, the last year the store on the corner of Washington Street and Poplar Alley was run by a Harris. The structure is part of the Occoquan Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1983, and one of 60 structures contributing to the district. There's a photograph of the interior of the store from 1920 on the back of the historical marker on Washington Street. Another historical photo of Ogle Harris and his son, Arthur inside of the store was displayed as part of an outdoor art project on Occoquan history by the Occoquan River Communities in 2015. Descendants of Ogle Harris still reside in Occoquan. Ogle Harris' Store can be found in the walking tour of historic Occoquan by LaVerne Carson (a link to the 2014 walking tour brochure is included below). The building has been covered in modern siding and now houses a yarn shop on the ground floor.

The Ogle Harris Store used to be located in the building at 204 Washington Street in the historic town of Occoquan. The structure was built about 1900. Ogle Harris was the son of a formerly enslaved man. He made homemade ice cream in a former kitchen in the rear yard (since destroyed) of the store and ran a general store in the main structure. The store plus a job at the wharf took up too much of his time and he began to buy ready-made ice cream. The general store was known for its meats and local produce and was operated by Harris or one of his descendants until 1974. The corner building - now housing a yarn store on the ground floor - is one of many contributing buildings in the Occoquan Historic District, listed in the National Register in 1983.

Ogle Harris' Store

The origin of the prison can be traced back to 1908, when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a panel to investigate conditions in Washington's jails and prison. The panel issued several recommendations, including the transfer of inmates who had committed non-violent crimes away from the high-security prison. Congress responded by providing funding for a medium-security reformatory and workhouse that would be built to resemble a college campus and emphasize rehabilitation through labor. The DC department of corrections selected inmates and transferred them from the high-security complex to the present site in 1910. Occoquan was built in several phases, with labor being provided by these first prisoners. In 1916, the brick structure was complete. Over time, the Department of Corrections transformed Occoquan from a minimum security facility into Lorton Prison, complete with high walls and guard towers.    During the Cold War, the federal government built an underground bunker that held weapons and equipment in reserve. Less attention was given to the actual state of the prison, which became outdated and overcrowded. Prisoners were transferred to other facilities during the 1990s, and the prison closed in 2002. Control of the land and buildings transferred to Fairfax County, where community leaders worked to transform the former prison into a cultural arts center. In 2008, the Workhouse Arts Center opened offering several galleries and studios, as well as a youth arts center and theater.

The Lorton Reformatory, previously known as the Occoquan Workhouse, was established in 1910 as part of the Progressive Movement's effort to reform the penal system. The prison is best known for its deplorable treatment of women who were sent to Occoquan in 1917 following their arrest for participating in protests for women's suffrage at the nation's capital. Lucy Burns, Alice Paul and other prisoners launched a hunger strike in order to protest their arrest and publicize incidents of violence and sexual abuse. Prison guards force-fed the protesting prisoners. On the night of November 14th, 1917, the guards severely beat some of the women. News of the abuse galvanized support for women's suffrage and led to investigations into the treatment of prisoners at the workhouse and other prisons.  

Occoquan Workhouse/Lorton Reformatory (1910-2002)

The District of Columbia’s Workhouse opened in Lorton, Virginia in the summer of 1910 and was initially created as an experiment to determine if hard labor and an open-air environment would be beneficial to help reform “short-term prisoners who were habitual drunkards, vagrants, and family abusers.”1 The U.S. government purchased 3,200 acres of land for the Workhouse at the cost of $28,650 on April 1st, 1910 with the intent of establishing an industrial farm and worksite for prisoners.2 Initially, there were no built structures for the prisoners and they had to use tents and temporary structures.3 Eventually, a brickyard was built and the fields were converted and used for cultivation. The inmates used the bricks they made in the brickyard onsite to build the brick dormitory buildings that remain standing today. In 1912, there was also a Women’s Workhouse that was opened nearby that housed women sentenced for smaller charges like soliciting, prostitution, and disorderly conduct. The National Register of Historic Places approved this site for statewide status on February 2, 2012, which was amended from a previous request in 2005.4 A notable contribution to the history of this site was its involvement in the women’s suffrage movement. In 1917, women began demonstrating in front of the White House for the right to vote and decided they would rather be imprisoned than be quiet.5 Some of the women that were arrested were sentenced to the Women’s Workhouse at Lorton. What is most notable about their imprisonment was that the women were held under “deplorable conditions.”6 These women, also known as the Silent Sentinels, “endured unspeakable torture and abuse at the hands of more than 40 prison officials and guards.”7 These women were served rancid food, were chained and beaten, “some by having their heads smashed into iron bed frames, and one woman, a 74-year old suffragette, was stabbed with part of her broken picketing banner.”8 The suffragists claimed status as political prisoners but were denied access to counsel and when one group of suffragists began a hunger strike to protest the prison‘s lack of recognition of their political prisoner status, they were forcibly fed through feeding tubes.9 These events and the history surrounding these women are featured in current the museum at the Workhouse Arts Center. In 1936, the Workhouse was converted into a maximum-security facility and was later overseen by the District of Columbia’s Department of Corrections that was created to supervise the Lorton Complex in 1946.10 During this time, the complex saw multiple changes to support the new security requirements and help support the maximum-security facility. Between 1950 and 1952 a reformatory fence and lights were installed and there was also an increase in violence from prisoners. These facilities were in poor condition and overcrowded.11 In 1958, the first officer was killed on site in the line of duty and the first major riot at the prison occurred in 1963. With these changes and challenges to the facility, the men and women’s workhouses closed in 1966 along with the farming and agriculture branches that followed in 1995. Also in 1995, the Federal Trustees took over responsibility for the complex and turned it into a super-maximum security prison. The federal government took over because the D.C. government was unable to “resolve the facility’s problems.”12 Around the late 1990s, the prison was thought of as “an oppressive, poorly managed prison where escapes and riots often have made news and guards sometimes have been charged with crimes themselves.”13 Interestingly, Congress turned over the prison complex to Fairfax County, where Lorton is located, and the Fairfax Water Authority took control of the site in 1998.  Because of the mismanaged and overcrowded conditions, the prison was closed with the last prisoner leaving in December 2001. In 2002, 2,324 acres were sold to Fairfax County for 4.2 million dollars.14 The Lorton Arts foundation was approved to open the Workhouse Art Center in 2004. The Workhouse Arts Center officially opened in 2008, with a museum following later that year. There are numerous artists that have shops throughout the current complex, and there are many options, from food to theater classes that are offered at the arts center.15 There are several opportunities for visitors interact with artists and to participate in the many performing arts opportunities and classes available.16

Built by the bricks made by its inmates, the District of Columbia’s Workhouse opened in the summer of 1910. The site was initially created as an experiment to determine if hard labor and an open-air environment would help reform short-term prisoners charged with drunkenness, disorderly conduct, and other crimes. A notable contribution to the importance of this place was its involvement in the women’s suffrage movement and the women known as the Silent Sentinels who were treated deplorably during their stay at the prison. The Workhouse has served several purposes and has changed hands several times throughout its history. The site has been used as a workhouse, a maximum-security prison, and is currently used to house the Workhouse Arts Center and Museum to name a few. Today, the Prison Museum provides visitors with an overview of the history of the prison with a greater focus on the suffragists and the torture, hunger strikes, and force-feeding that they had to endure.

The original prison was established in Lorton in 1910. Several names were applied to this facility, officially called District of Columbia Workhouse and Reformatory, including Lorton Prison and District of Columbia Correctional Facility. It was a minimum-security prison originally, though later a maximum-security facility and juvenile detention facility also developed on the complex. Another part of the facility was the Occoquan Workhouse, which violently detained suffragists in 1917. The Workhouse Arts Center/Workhouse Prison Museum that now exists on the site depicts this history. Disease, such as the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, and workplace accidents occasionally felled inmates during their incarceration. Prisoners who died while incarcerated were not automatically buried in the Stoney Lonesome cemetery, only those whose relatives did not claim them. Fellow inmates attended funerals, which were overseen by local clergy or the prison's chaplain. Graves were dug by hand, usually by an inmate, and the coffins were pine boxes built in the prison's carpentry shop. The cemetery is situated just north of the defunct prison complex along what is now an access road owned by the Fairfax Water Authority. It stands in a grove of cedar trees and is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. Burials were laid out in north-south rows each containing 10-14 burials, and are discernible as depressions in the ground. A few rough grave markers are in place, but they do not contain identifying information on those individuals buried here.

After World War II tensions were high between two Super Powers: America and Russia. This time is referred to as the Cold War, because there was no actual “war” with guns; it was a time when each country built up their military and nuclear weapons. Each country was afraid of the other attacking and would do whatever they needed to do to prevent, stop, and react if they needed to. It was a time where everyone was on their toes, to say the least; in order to protect our country and Washington D.C. many measures need to be put into place. The NIKE Missile Sites were the first nationwide air defense system designed to protect against a Soviet nuclear attack.<h4>LORTON NIKE MISSILE SITE E-97</h4>The site at Lorton was selected because it was a short distance from Washington, and the Federal Government already owned the land. Situated on thirty acres, the Lorton site was a "double site" in that it had six rather than three magazines and twice the normal staff, according to Chris Bright, a scholar and author who has extensively researched and written about the Cold War era and NIKE Missile sites. The Secretary of the Army dubbed the Lorton site the "National NIKE Site" and it became a showplace for visiting foreign dignitaries as well as national and local politicians. For a period of time, local citizens were encouraged to visit, and Scout troops were frequently invited to tour the facility. The launch area could be seen from Furnace Road while the radar site was located just off Silverbrook Road. By 1958, a new NIKE-Hercules missile had been developed and many were equipped to carry nuclear warheads. The Lorton site, which had formerly housed NIKE-Ajax missiles, was converted to provide for the new missiles. Only about one-third of the sites nationwide were chosen for conversion. To effect the conversion, gas detection systems were installed to detect leaks in the tritium gas detonation system and elevator motors and mechanisms that lifted the missiles to the surface had to be upgraded to accommodate the heavier missile. Not all NIKE-Hercules missiles carried nuclear warheads, but analysts later suggested that those at the Lorton site were indeed nuclear missiles.<h4>The historical marker reads:</h4>Located North of here was one of three Nike anti-aircraft missile complexes in Fairfax County operated by the U.S. Army and the Army National Guard between 1954 and 1974. The sites were established during the Cold War to defend Washington from Soviet air attack. This complex, along with those at Great Falls and Fairfax, was among thirteen Nike sites that surrounded Washington and Baltimore. The ring of Nike sites was reminiscent of the perimeter of forts that protected the capital during the Civil War. This was the only Nike complex in Fairfax County containing missiles armed with nuclear warheads. It served as a model site for visits by foreign dignitaries.

The Lorton Nike Missile Site E-97 was created due to the tensions between the Soviets and the United States following World War II, a time known as the Cold War. The Nike Missile site was created outside of Washington DC to protect the nations capital of an attack from the Soviet Union if there was to be one. 

Tour of Historic Occoquan

Stoney Lonesome Cemetery, Occoquan Workhouse

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information