The Godey Lime Kilns, located beside Rock Creek Parkway in Northwest Washington, D.C. were built in 1864 by William H. Godey.&nbsp;This site was chosen owing to its proximity to the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Godey's business closed in 1908, and the kilns fell into disrepair. The Kilns are stone and mortar structures, 10x10 ft at their bases and 15 ft high. The fireplaces are lined with fire brick, and the openings through which the fires were tended are also of this material. They are believed to be wood-burning, intermittent lime kilns. This site is an example of commercial activity in Georgetown during the mid-19th century; the lime industry itself in the area dates back to at least 1830s. At its peak, the Godey Lime Kilns housed four ovens, in addition to other structures, such as wooden sheds. These wooden structures are not preserved, and two of the ovens were demolished to allow for the construction of highway ramps going from Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway to Whitehurst Freeway. A partial restoration of the site was conducted from 1965 to 1966, and the ruins added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 22, 1973.

Historic American Buildings Survey, photographer unknown, c. 1938

View of the kilns from the waterfront in the 1930s

Website

Georgetown Metropolitan article on the Godey Lime Kilns

More Info

Also known as the Washington Lime Kilns, the Godey Lime Kilns are a historic ruin located in the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom. Built in 1864, the kilns produced calcium oxide, "quicklime," until their closure in 1908. Quicklime is a key ingredient in cement, and is also used an a variety of other ways. This Georgetown area complex included four ovens as well as a variety of associated buildings.


Godey Lime Kilns

This tour highlights a variety of American industries, such as textiles, rail, printing, as well as workhouses and sites relevant to the American labor movement. For a shorter tour within Washington, DC, visit sites #4-10.

Labor and Industrial History in Washington, DC

Horace Capron (1804-1885) built the mill in the mid-1840s as superintendent of the Patuxent Manufacturing Company, chartered in 1835. This company also built the Patuxent Factory. The three-story uncoursed rubble stone structure had granite quoins at its corners. On the south side was a gable and the original entrance to the mill. It was ten bays long and three bays wide with a gable roof. The dam for the mill was upriver, to the northwest, near what is now Post Office Avenue. According to the mill's nomination form, at its opening the mill had 1500 spindles for manufacturing cotton cloth and that it was later converted into a gristmill. The historical marker now at the site conversely claims that it was a gristmill first, then later produced cotton and lace. It seems that the mill returned to making cotton and lace in the 1910s after a period as a gristmill; the goods manufactured at the mill changed every few decades. Avondale was a nearby home inhabited by the Snowden family, which owned many mills and a significant amount of land in Laurel. Horace Capron was married to Louisa Snowden. The Avondale house became Avondale Military Grammar School. Property maps of Laurel show that in 1861 and 1878 George Wheeler owned the Avondale Mill property. By 1894, Benjamin F. Crabbs (1836-1906) was the owner and proprieter of the mill, leading to the other name for the building, Crabbs Mill. From 1915 to 1917 the Southern Embroidery Company produced lace at the mill as well chevrons for non-commissioned World War I officers. In the 1930s, the mill structure grew with steel-framed additions on the south and west sides. These additions did not alter the original stone structure. During World War II, the mill became a factory producing tractors. In 1961, the city of Laurel purchased the mill and its property. Structural problems led to the city ceasing the use of the building for indoor programs. The National Register of Historic Places recognized the building in 1979 after a group of citizens called the Laurel Horizon Society nominated it. On December 19, 1991, a fire destroyed the mill structure. The city razed the structure and created Riverfront Park on the site.

This community park on the south bank of the Patuxent River was once the site of the Avondale Mill, a large textile mill constructed in 1844-1845. It produced cotton fabric, running 1500 spindles. A decade after the stone structure was built, it became a gristmill, and in subsequent decades produced both lace and tractors. The mill was significant in a region known more for its agriculture than its industry, and was the longest-surviving nineteenth-century mill in Laurel. The National Register of Historic Places recognized the building in 1979. A fire destroyed the mill in December 1991, after which the ruins were demolished to create a park.

Avondale Mill Site

Plans for railroad tracks from Baltimore to the southern part of Maryland had begun to circulate before the Civil War. The area that is now Bowie was agrarian, and lacked access to markets in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The state of Maryland granted a charter to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in 1853, but construction did not begin until 1868. In 1872, the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad opened Bowie Station, which precipitated the growth of the community around it. The company later became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Real estate developer Ben M. Plumb started to plan a town, Huntington City, around the station. The city was renamed Bowie in 1880 after Governor Oden Bowie, whose influence was instrumental in establishing the railroad in the town. The buildings at the site are a single-story freight depot and ticket office (1930), a two-story tower (1913), and a passenger shed (c. 1910). The buildings have been moved back from the tracks, the tower was not moved to the site until 1934. These buildings represent the station's history during its period of most frequent activity. Amtrak took over passenger service at the station in 1971. Passenger service ceased operations in 1989 when a new station was built at Bowie State University. The city and the Huntington Heritage Society then restored the buildings. The station's Bowie Tower now serves as the National Railroad Historical Society’s Martin O’Rourke Railroad Research Library.

Bowie Station was a stop on the new railroad between Baltimore and southern Maryland built after the Civil War. Now occupying the site is the Bowie Railroad Museum, which commemorates the railroading history in Bowie and the surrounding region. It consists of three buildings, all restored: the single story freight depot, the two story interlocking tower, and the open passenger shed. The tower houses the National Railroad Historical Society’s Martin O’Rourke Railroad Research Library. It contains around 1,800 books, manuals, maps, publications, vintage magazines and other railroad related materials. A 1922 Norfolk and Western Caboose is displayed next to the tower. The city of Bowie maintains the station, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bowie Railroad Museum

At the turn of the twentieth century, around 100 brickyards operated in the capital, supporting a multitude of building projects. This facility excavated clay from the Anacostia Deposit on the river of the same name for brick production. The National Capital Clay Products Company received a building permit for the construction of a factory with kilns in June 1909. The company originally built rectangular kilns sometime after 1910. The title of the factory changed hands several times; subsequent owners were the District Tile and Brick Company, Hudson Brick and Supply Company, and then the United Brick Corporation in 1930. Production expanded at the brickyard with the construction of nine beehive kilns between 1927 and 1931. The circular kilns are built of brick, lined with firebrick. Their arched roofs were covered in tar, now deteriorated and weed-filled. Coal fireboxes accompany ten of the kilns. These are now infilled, demonstrating the brickyard's change in fuel from coal to oil. Three of the twelve beehive kilns on the site were built more recently than 1931, and two of them lack fireboxes, indicating their construction was after the change in fuel. Also of note on the site are eight exhaust stacks and a factory building with a drying shed. After World War II, the brickyard business dwindled due to the increase in use of ferro-concrete in construction and a large-scale consolidation across the brick industry. Washington Brick Company and West Brothers Brick Company were the United Brick Corporation's major competitors. Beehive kilns were too small to accommodate forklifts for efficient stacking and moving of bricks, and could not be fired continuously as opposed to tunnel kilns. This site closed in the 1972. The United States of America acquired the site in 1976, in the care of the Department of Agriculture. It is maintained by the National Arboretum, and the National Register of Historic Places recognized the site in 1978. Plans to restore and renovate the site for public use have gone unrealized.

Once, this brick works created bricks for major Washington, DC buildings, including the National Cathedral. Production of bricks began here in 1909 and continued until 1976. At the time of its founding, there were over 100 brickyards in the capital. The bricks were made out of clay from the local river. In 1930, the United Brick Corporation acquired the brickyard, expanding it and building the 12 beehive-shaped kilns still standing on the site. After the site's closure due to technological obsolescence, it was closed off. The National Register of Historic Places has recognized the brickyard. The brickyard itself is closed to the public but it is visible from the street.

United Brick Company Ruins

Samuel L. Gompers was born in England to a Jewish family on January 27, 1850. His family, suffering financial hardship, immigrated to the United States in 1863, moving to the Manhattan's Lower East Side in New York City. The son of a cigar-maker, Gompers joined the Cigarmakers Local Union No. 15 1864, at age 14. In 1875, he was elected president of the Cigarmakers' International Union Local 144. Gompers would later go on to help found the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in 1881, which became the American Federation of Labor.In 1886, following a dispute with the Knights of Labor, a federation of craft unions formed 
American Federation of Labor (AFL). Founded in Columbus, Ohio, the AFL 
was the first enduring national labor union. Samuel Gompers, its first president, called the AFL "the 
strongest, best organized labor movement of all the world."1 Under his 
leadership, the AFL advocated the philosophy of "business unionism,"2 
which focused on increasing business profits, promoting national economic growth, and 
improving the condition of workers. The AFL would go on to become the 
largest union grouping in the country for the first half of the 20th 
century.The Samuel Gompers House once served as the residence of one of America's most famous union organizers. Built in 1902, it is located in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Gompers lived in the bay-fronted, three-story brick rowhouse from 1902 until 1917, and occasionally met with labor leaders here. The structure is typical of Edwardian architecture. It was designated as a National Historical Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The Samuel Gompers House was once the residence of the first president of the American Federation of Labor. It is located in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, D.C. From 1902 until 1917, Samuel Gompers lived in this humble rowhouse, which occasionally also served as an informal meeting place for Gompers and other labor leaders. It was designated as a National Historical Landmark and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

Samuel Gompers House

Dorsch's White Cross Bakery (also known as the Wonder Bread Factory) is a complex of structures, with the oldest sections dating back to 1913 and 1922. Their history can be traced back to 1904, with Peter M. Dorsch's establishment of the White Cross Bakery. Born in Washington D.C. in 1878, Dorsch was the son of a Bavarian immigrant and restaurateur who sold imported German foods. He and his brothers worked in a number of D.C. bakeries before establishing their own neighborhood business. White Cross soon expanded to become one of D.C. area's largest bakeries, producing 100,000 loaves of bread daily (in addition to 40 varieties of cakes) by the end of the 1920s. In 1913, Dorsch built what was to be the first of several expansions to White Cross in Wiltberger Alley. His complex would eventually grow to include not only the factory, but also retail space, a baking plant, and stables and garages for delivery wagons. Dorsch's largest competitor was the Corby Baking Company, located at 2301 Georgia Avenue NW. In 1925, The Continental Baking Company acquired the Corby bakery. Dorsch sold his company to Continental in 1936, which used the plant for the production of Wonder Bread (originally a product of the Corby Baking Company) and Hostess cakes. When Wonder Bread moved its production out of D.C. in the 1980s, the facilities were shut down and abandoned. Douglas Development purchased the property in 1997. Plans in 2010 to turn the structures into condos never materialized, and the property sat vacant for two decades. In 2012, the buildings were renovated and transformed into office, retail, and event spaces. The brick façades were maintained, retaining the structure's original character. The S Street side of The Event Space was excavated and floor-to-ceiling windows added in order to improve lighting. Additional upgrades included the addition of a parking garage, an additional story at the rear of the three-story building, and a third floor roof terrace. The Wonder Bread Factory was added to the Washington, D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites in 2011, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Architecturally, the complex is known as one of the most notable examples industrial and commercial buildings in D.C. The shorter 1913 building was designed by architectural firm Simmons &amp; Cooper, the 1922 structure by Frederick W. Mullet of A.B. Mullett &amp; Co. The two S. Street buildings feature craftsman-style elements and are adorned with white glazed tile crosses. The crosses, emulating those of the American Red Cross, were intended to alleviate food safety fears following the publication of Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel, The Jungle. The crosses, as well as the "Wonder Bread" and "Hostess Cake" lettering, are visible to this day.

Dorsch's White Cross Bakery, located in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C., is a building complex that provides office, retail, and event space. Formerly a bakery complex, the buildings represent the Districts's once prominent baking industry. Featuring craftsman-style elements, the S Street structures are amongst the most notable examples of industrial and commercial architecture in the city.

Dorsch's White Cross Bakery (Wonder Bread Factory)

Located in the Logan Circle-Shaw neighborhood, the The George M. Barker Company Warehouse was constructed in 1906 as a distribution warehouse. The company's founder, a New Hampshire-born carpenter, opened his first millwork establishment in the downtown D.C. area after the end of the Civil War. Following his death, ownership of the business transferred to his wife and children. His daughter, Flora Welch, commissioned the construction of a new building. It was designed by a construction superintendent for the D.C. Inspector of Buildings, A.M. Poynton. Washington, D.C. was never a particularly industrial city. Goods largely had to be imported. Industrial buildings, such as the George M. Barker Company Warehouse, were scattered throughout the city's streets and alleys in an era before zoning. Originally, the building stood in close proximity to stores, rowhouses, and a theater. The warehouse was primarily used to distribute much needed lumber, coal, and wood. It is a two-story brick structure featuring heavy timber framing and a brick and terracotta facade, with the central entry and loft door once serving as a loading area for delivery trucks and wagons. Today, the building is occupied by Bread for the City, a local organization dedicated to providing underprivileged D.C. residents with a variety of social services in a respectful environment. Above the door is written their slogan: "Dignity, Respect, Service."1 The warehouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 26, 2008.

The George M. Barker Company Warehouse is a historic structure, located in the Logan Circle-Shaw neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Designed by A.M. Poynton and built in 1906, it once served a a lumber, coal, and wood distribution warehouse. It is notable as one of the few examples of such buildings in a city that was never heavily industrial. Today, the structure is used by Bread for the City, a local organization which provides vulnerable D.C. residents with various social services.

George M. Barker Company Warehouse

By the mid-1800s, the craftsmen had formed a strong labor movement in the United States. In 1886, a federation of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association, to form the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Founded in Columbus, Ohio, the AFL was the first enduring national labor union. Its first president, Samuel Gompers (formerly the head of the Cigar Makers' International Union) called the AFL "the 
strongest, best organized labor movement of all the world."1 Under his leadership, the AFL advocated the philosophy of "business unionism,"2 which focused on business profits, national economic growth, and improving the condition of workers—including women—without taking much of a political stance. The AFL would go on to become the largest union grouping in the country for the first half of the 20th century, eventually merging with its longtime rival, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), to become the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO is currently the largest federation of unions in the United States. The American Federation of Labor/Pipefitters Union Building is a Chicago school brick and limestone building. It was constructed in 1916 on the site of a former slave-owner's mansion. President Woodrow Wilson delivered the chief address when the new international headquarters for the AFL was dedicated on the 4th of July. The seven-story building housed the labor organization for 40 years. In 1974, the AFL building was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2010, construction began on the Washington Marriott Marquis. The stone facade the AFL Building of was incorporated into the glass and steel Neomodern convention center headquarters hotel, which opened in 2014 in response to the construction of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The four-star hotel has 14 stories above ground, four stories below, and 1,175 rooms.

The American Federation of Labor Building is a seven-story building in Downtown Washington, D.C. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1974, this building once housed the American Federation of Labor, which Samuel Gompers described as "the strongest, best organized labor movement of all the world." The facade the AFL/Pipefitters Union Building of was incorporated into the Washington Marriott Marquis hotel, which opened in 2014. The hotel primarily serves the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

American Federation of Labor Building

The Bulletin Building is located in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., close to the Verizon Center. Built in 1928, the four-story limestone structure was designed by the architectural firm Rodier &amp; Kundzin. The building served as a print shop and housed a printing press for the United Publishing Company. The Art Deco bas reliefs adorning the facade are the most distinguishing characteristics of the Bulletin Building. They depict scenes of the printing trade, reflecting the importance of the print and publishing trade that was once vital to the D.C. economy. The building continued to function as a print shop for 60 years. On November 12, 2008, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places owing to its role as a landmark of the printing business and as a fine example of industrial Art Deco architecture in the city. Today, the former print shop is the location of the Bar Deco eatery, which serves cuisine Americana.

The Bulletin Building is a historic structure in Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown, located across the street from the Verizon Center. Built in 1928, the building is distinguished by the four Art Deco bas reliefs decorating its front face. The reliefs depict scenes from the printing trade, reflecting its original owners—the United Publishing Company. Following a 60-year run as a print shop, the building now houses the Bar Deco restaurant. The Bulletin Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The Bulletin Building

The museum’s founder, George Hewitt Myers was&nbsp;a rug and
textile collector and connoisseur. Since the founding in 1925 and up to 2014,
the museum was housed in two historic buildings&nbsp;in the Kalorama neighborhood of Northwest Washington: the Myers family home, and an
adjacent building.&nbsp;Today&nbsp;the museum is part of the&nbsp;George Washington University complex which opened&nbsp;at GW's Foggy Bottom campus in&nbsp;2015.Since 1912, GW’s Foggy Bottom Campus has been a part of the historic Foggy Bottom neighborhood, only blocks from the White House, State Department, World Bank and world-class museums. The new galleries will&nbsp;showcase The Textile Museum's&nbsp;highly regarded&nbsp;textile collections&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Albert H. Small&nbsp;Washingtonian&nbsp;Collection which&nbsp;documents the formation, development, and history of Washington, D.C. from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century.&nbsp;&nbsp;The first objects that Myers purchased were late-nineteenth
century Turkish and Caucasian village rugs, vibrant pieces with geometric
designs and strong colors. Since its founding, and up until today, the
museum's&nbsp;collection had grown to more than 19,000 objects.&nbsp;&nbsp;Dating
from 3,000 BCE to present, the museum’s collection includes some of the world’s
finest examples of rugs and textiles from the Near East, Central Asia, East and
Southeast Asia, Africa, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas. &nbsp; The museum' sold the two historic buildings that once held the museum collection. The Myers home in the Kalorama neighborhood was designed by John Russell Pope in 1913, and&nbsp;features classical Georgian design with&nbsp;a grand foyer with Black and white marble floors and ground-floor rooms paneled in Italian Walnut, American Oak and cedar from Myers’s own timber mills. The museum’s galleries were housed in an adjacent building, which was designed by Washington architect Waddy Wood and purchased by Myers in 1915 for this purpose. The museum sold this property and the adjacent building for $19 million in 2015.&nbsp;

The Textile Museum in Washington was established by George Hewitt Myers in 1925. Myers founded the museum by donating his personal collection of 275 rugs and 60 other related artifacts. Myers was an active supporter of the museum until his death in 1957. Thanks to his efforts, the museum collection had grown to include examples and exhibits that offered visitors a view of the importance of textile arts and production throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America. In Myers' time, the museum was open by appointment only and received several hundred visitors annually. Today, The Textile Museum is one of the world's leading museums of its kind, with 25,000 to 35,000 visitors touring the museum each year.

The Textile Museum

Hooff's Run Bridge was originally built by the Orange &amp; Alexandria Railroad, a
company that boosted the city’s relevance as a port town during the mid-19th
century. &nbsp;The bridge is a round-arch
bridge carrying a single track over Hooff’s Run, a waterway that flows South across
downtown Alexandria. Even though Hooff’s Run is nowadays a minuscule stream of
water flowing down a concrete channel, in the early 19th-century it
was navigable for about four miles, between Hunting Creek and King Street. Although
it seems inconceivable today, Hooff’s Run overflowed numerous times, wreaking
havoc in downtown Alexandria. The latest flood took place in 1915. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The Hooff’s Run
Bridge was part of a westbound line that stretched from Alexandria to
Lynchburg, VA. This line was active during the Civil War, so when the U.S.
Military Railroads took over the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, it was used to
provide a supply route for the war zones located in the South and the West. 

In 2003, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad
Hooff's Run Bridge was listed on the U.S.&nbsp;National Register of Historic
Places.

Sadly, little remains
in the city of its railroad history. Hooff's Run Bridge is, along with
the Wilkes Street tunnel, the only surviving remnant of Alexandria’s railroad
past. &nbsp;

This important vestige of Alexandria’s early railroad history, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad Hooff's Run Bridge can be found across Hoff’s Run at Wolfe Street. Built in 1856 as part of the first railroad to serve Northern Virginia, Hooff's Run Bridge is the oldest extant bridge in Alexandria.  

Orange and Alexandria Railroad Hooff's Run Bridge

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.

Workhouse Arts Center/Workhouse Prison Museum

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.  

Labor and Industrial History in Washington, DC

Godey Lime Kilns

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information