Friday, April 22, 2011
How a chapel was brought to the prison grounds
Visible from the fence line of the former DC Reformatory at Lorton stands a chapel that boasts an unusual and interesting story about how it came to be built, but possibly even more remarkable is the account of what’s inside. Prior to 1955, religious services for the nearly two thousand prisoners at the Reformatory were conducted by volunteer clergymen in an auditorium at the facility. In that same year the Department of Corrections established a permanent chaplaincy for the prison and took “under advisement” the construction of a chapel to be part of the prison’s ten-year plan. Two of the new members of the chaplaincy, the Protestant Reverend Kreutzer and the Catholic Father Breitfeller, determined this was not acceptable and mounted …
Friday, March 18, 2011
Balloons in the Civil War
I was reading an article last week that said by the time Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office as the President of the United States of America on March 4, 1861, six states had already seceded from the Union; all from the south, although Virginia was not among them. It was not until the bombardment of Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s call for troops in April of 1861 that Virginia left the Union and joined the Confederacy. And although some of the bloodiest battles of the war were fought on Virginia soil, southeastern Fairfax County only saw scattered action. However, one of the more colorful and swashbuckling events that did take place in our area was the launching of hot air balloons at Pohick Church over a three-day period in March of 1862. …
Friday, March 4, 2011
Family doctors kept Lorton healthy
Sniffles, running a fever, sore throat? You waited it out while Mom doused you with tried and true home remedies. Break an arm, cut your hand? Then you made your way down to the local doctor’s office, which was more than likely in his home. Or, if you were lucky, the doctor would make a house call, bag in hand. When you consider that for over half of the 20th century the nearest hospital was in Alexandria, Lorton folks depended on country doctors to handle just about any medical emergency, as well as regular run of the mill illnesses. There was no calling 911 and waiting for an ambulance to whisk you to the nearest emergency care facility, so people learned to rely on their own resources and the services of the good doctor. Just one of the…
Friday, February 25, 2011
One of the few upsides to the prison was the agriculture it produced
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Irma Clifton
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Friday, February 25, 2011
The abundant open space, meadows and woodlands that make Lorton such an attractive place to live can trace this legacy, in part, to the agricultural mission that established the D.C prison in our community. Sustainable, self-sufficiency was the prison’s goal almost one hundred years before those words became fashionable. Southeastern Fairfax County, after the turn of the 19th century, was the home to mostly subsistence farming and fishing. The soil had been depleted by colonial farming methods and many families found it difficult to maintain an acceptable standard of living. In other words, Lorton had a depressed economy. Enter, the prison, bringing jobs and a regular pay check to numerous local families. But the prison brought much more—…
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Friday, February 11, 2011
A spurned lover turned violent
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Irma Clifton
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Friday, February 11, 2011
The year was 1905 and my father, at the time, was a nine-year-old student at Lorton Valley School. It was he who told me the details of this story, but it was only after I became an adult that I was able to research what happened. It seems that not only did my father have a remarkable memory but for a nine-year-old he was observant and got his facts straight as well. Just after the turn of the last century a massive effort was instituted to make railroad tracks uniform throughout the country. To accomplish this, contractors recruited workers from many sources. Labor camps were set up where the laborers would live while working on sections of track, and when the work was done on a section, move on to the next section, setting up a new camp…
Friday, February 4, 2011
Was once the social hub for the area
Traveling the Fairfax County Parkway along the route that was formerly Pohick Road, you will come to an intersection with Lee Chapel Road. On the northeast corner of that intersection once stood a small church referred to as Lee Chapel. The 24 x 40 foot white frame church was built in 1871 to replace Mt. Carmel Methodist Church, which had stood about a mile to the south and was burned during the Civil War. Property for the church was donated by John Mahon, a prominent landowner of the day. It is surrounded by an approximately two-acre cemetery where the oldest grave is reported to date from 1887. Named in honor of General Robert E. Lee, the little Methodist Episcopal Church served as a center of community activities for families and …
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Turning a creek into a river
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Shawn Drury
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Wednesday, January 19, 2011
This is a story about what one person can do if they are convinced their cause is just and they have the tenacity and dedication to see the struggle through to the end. On May 18, 1891, a baby named Mary Rose Rena Springmann was born to Joseph M. and Emma Jane (Plaskett) Springmann, in Lorton. Joseph Springmann ran a store in Lorton and was the RF&P Railroad Agent. In fact, the train station at Lorton was called Springmann for a short time. The Springmann family lived in a lovely Victorian-inspired house near the station. At a very young age Mary Rose went to stay with her aunt Rosa in Washington. From that time until the age of 15 she would travel between Lorton and Washington spending time in both locations and going to school mostly in …
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
When one room schoolhouses were not uncommon
Fairfax County is noted throughout the country for its fine education system, and right here in Lorton we enjoy some of the most modern, up-to-date schools in the county. For all of the twentieth century--and now into the twenty-first century--Lorton has been noted for its quality schools and the willingness of area citizens to encourage and support them. The community should and does take great pride in the fact that through their efforts several schools have been built during the last decade in the Lorton area ahead of schedule and within budget. This is apparently a tradition that is carried over from the last century when a man built a school in Lorton at his own expense, and earlier a leading citizen donated land for a school. Many …
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The Plaskett's are thought of as the first family of Lorton
It is already agreed by most people in the area that the name "Lorton" was given to a geographic area in southeastern Fairfax County by Joseph Plaskett. When he became postmaster in 1875 he named the post office Lorton Valley for the place in Cumberland County, England from which his family had immigrated. Before the post office was established in Plaskett's crossroads store, mail was received through the Accotink post office. The store was located near the intersection of Gunston Road and present day Route 1. Joseph Plaskett left England with his family in 1853, sailing out of Liverpool, and after six weeks at sea, arrived in the port of Philadelphia. The family settled in New Jersey for about a year, but learning of a farm for sale in …
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Occoquan and Lorton are assessed
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Irma Clifton
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Wednesday, December 15, 2010
If you like your local history more visual than textural, I have great news for you. Two books, one newly published and one published several years ago are available and will give those interested a real lesson in area history. The more recent offering, Occoquan, written by town mayor Earnie Porta, and published by Arcadia Publishing as part of its "Images of America" series, covers the history of the town and river from pre-European times through the colonial period and the development and prosperity as a mill town, home to gristmills and sawmills. The book traces the town's growth, citing the establishment of a forge and furnace for an ironworks into the Civil War, when Occoquan, although voting for Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election, …
Sally Spangler
5:06 pm on Thursday, April 28, 2011
I remember my father, Percy Ruffner, Assistant Engineer for the Reformatory welling me about the chapel and the life sized crucifix. I had not been told about the man who hung himself. By the way, the prisoners slept in an open dormitories. Sally Ruffner Spangler more ›