Lorton Workhouse Outing

Image by Lyn Sherlock. 

In honor of the 100th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Falls Church Chapter NSDAR visited the District of Columbia's Workhouse in Lorton, Virginia. The workhouse opened in the summer of 1910 as an "industrial farm" for inmates.

In 1912, a women's workhouse opened near the original workhouse. Sentences were of short duration for persons who committed non-violent crimes. While there, the women did basic chores. Primarily laundry, making clothes for the inmates of the two institutions, working on the lawn, and in the garden.

Women began demonstrating in front of the White House in 1917 for the right to vote. In response to these protests, they were sentenced to fines or jail sentences. They chose imprisonment. A portion of the women arrested were sentenced to the Women’s Workhouse at Lorton. There they were held under deplorable conditions and after a hunger strike were force-fed. Most famously, Alice Paul.

The museum is currently housed in two small rooms.  The first shows the original Workhouse. Next is The Lucy Burns Museum which memorializes the Women's Suffrage movement. The Workhouse Arts Center is preparing to expand the Museum area into Building 2 later this year.