Edge

Kind of reminds me of a prison facility here that is succumbing to new development.

That is one intimidating looking wall & guard tower. "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

That looks quite foreboding.

Something told me to stop by here today - a new gallery! That is to strange to have new houses with this fortress in the back yard practically - kind of neat in a way.

YAY NEW GALLARY!!!! What a nice surprise, just when I was feeling all sad again. :)

I love the blue sky...how striking!

Fantastic! A new gallery, perfect for this cold and snowy day. I agree, it is strange seeing the new homes in the background. I presume the prison will be torn down?

I was gonna say this before, but I didn't. Who the HELL would buy a house/property near a functional PRISON? I don't care if its minimum security or not.. Listen, if it was just the abandoned structure I could see that.. but it isnt. They must have plans to demo both? or the property/housing market is incredibly cheap?

Yay! Another Gallery! Motts sure has been whipping them out Quick here lately :) Cool Tower.

certainly looks like a fortress

sad that the new cheaply built houses are taking over from an old strong structure

Joe's got a great point. That is such a fortress (and a cool one at that) being overtaken by those cheesy houses. BTW, I've been trying to check this out since yesterday morning! Finally got a chance!

Those new housing developments qickly ruin the area where they were built. yet people pay a lot of money to live in these cheaply built houses

Erica, this is not a functional prison facility... unless I read Motts' introduction wrong....

I would not buy one of those McMansions unless they agreed to leave the abandoned prison in my backyard. Instead of a kid's playground, we'd have an urb-ex playground. Total awesomeness!!

Can see the "The Hill" on Google street view too. All the new cracker boxes look so nice. Big complex with a cool aerial view.

Too cool!

Does anyone know if thery are going to raze the reformatory when people start moving into the houses?

I think thjey will raze it to build more houses. It will look like any other boring place then

I read on google news archives that in 1974, Some inmates took some hostages here. You can read about it here.



http://news.google.com...+lorton+va&hl=en

They did release the hostages though.

@ Michael; The newspaper clip is amazing. I never knew this facility had such a history. Thanks for posting the link.

I LOVE your site! I live in one of the "cheesy" houses. This is a 55 and older community that appreciates the history of the prison. There is a fantastic Arts Center that has been developed within the prison complex and we are waiting to see how creative a developer can be with the maximum security side. The architecture and history is so rich - I marvel at it daily as I get to see the guard tower and imposing walls through my kitchen window.

lol why are all the houses like blue?

I've driven by this place for years, and it's always had a sort of mystery about it. Once they shut it down in 2001, that's when they really started to develop the area and build the homes... like some of the people have wondered about in the comments here, people didn't want to spend the money they were asking for these homes to have their back yards be practically in a prison rec yard, so the facility had to be shut down first. with this being said, I had heard that they were supposed to tear it down in 2004/2005, but it still stands. I think they're having a hard time getting the funds to demolish, but I'm not sure. In any event, a great place to visit if you're into what Motts likes :D

Better watch out, you beautiful old building complex! Looks like those crap beige vinyl-sided POSs in the background are gonna run you over!

FlaGator and JackieB: Nope. They didn't raze it. I live about half an hour away from this place and they turned it into an arts facility in all of the cell blocks.

I knew something was up. I went by there on the way to the Fairfax County Dump and the parking lot in front had a slew of cars in front. I'm glad that it was not razed. I find it humorous that they built a new development so close to the county dump site, it's a huge.

I grew up 6 houses from this main gate on Silverbrook and used to walk my Grandmother to work. She was a telephone operator for over 35 yrs and most ofmy uncles were guards there and they all retired from there. It was a main source of income for some Lorton residents and if there was a break, they didnt stay around town, they headed straight up the railroad tracks to DC. I remember when it was a working prison with apple orchards, dairy farm and even a brickyard. Our family property was sold to builders to build all those houses that surround the prison now. I miss the old days, but dont and wont miss the prison when they do get around to tearing it down, it's progress.