Exhibit: Silent Towers

Silent Towers

Brief description of exhibition

The Workhouse Arts Center is proud to present Silent Towers, a collection of photographs that present a look back 20 years to various sites in the 3,500-acre correctional complex, such as the Youth, Central (also referred to as the Maximum Security), and Occoquan facilities. After the Lorton Correctional Complex closed in 2001, demolition and renovation soon followed. At all three sites, many of the prison’s former office and administrative buildings were demolished, only leaving the historic buildings built between 1910 and 1961 remaining. Now, 194 buildings, structures, sites, objects comprise the three sites in what is now known as the Historic District, covering 511.32 acres of land. Since the prison’s closure, the three sites have been repurposed; the Youth facility serves as a county training site, the Central facility has been transformed into modern housing at Laurel Hill, and the Occoquan facility is now the Workhouse Arts Center.