Workhouse Arts Center October Events in Lorton: Haunt & History
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"No actors, no jump scares, and no fiction." That is how the Workhouse Arts Center describes its Historic Flashlight Tours. They run on the same nights and the same campus as the Workhouse Haunt, a walk-through built entirely on made-up stories.
The Haunt's story is fiction. It begins with a group of friends who set out in the fall of 1996 to chase rural Virginia legends and vanished, leaving a smashed camcorder and a damaged tape behind. The flashlight tour starts inside the Lorton Prison Museum, goes through the historic cellblock, and heads outside through the stretch the Workhouse calls Murder Alley. You see the un-rehabilitated buildings on the back side of campus "not in a new light, but without light."
Most October roundups list the Haunt and stop there. The rest of the Workhouse calendar tells a different story this fall. The invented scare is the draw. The real history of the old Occoquan Workhouse and Lorton Reformatory fills more of the calendar and keeps going after the Haunt closes.
The Workhouse Haunt runs October 3 through 30 on Fridays, Saturdays, and select Sundays. It is an outdoor walk-through with timed-entry tickets. The Haunt nights are October 3, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, and 30.
On every one of those nights, the Historic Flashlight Tours run continuously alongside the Haunt. A tour takes 15 to 20 minutes and costs $10 to $15 per person. The price varies by night, and tickets are sold on-site during the Haunt. You don't need a reservation, and you keep the souvenir flashlight. The last tour leaves no later than 9:45 p.m., and if Haunt activities end early on a given night, the tours stop too.
The Workhouse pitches the tour as something to do before or after your Haunt time slot, or while you wait for friends and family to finish the trail. In practice, that turns the Haunt into a way in. If someone in your group would rather skip the scares, they can spend those 20 minutes in the actual cellblock instead.
Since the flashlight tour lasts only a few minutes, the gallery is the better place to spend real time with the history. "TRANSFORMATIONS," a show by photographer Lloyd Wolf, documents the pilot substance abuse program at Lorton Reformatory from 1989 to 1991. It is in the McGuire Woods Gallery, Building W-16, on the second floor, and it runs September 12 through November 7, 2026.
The reception is Saturday, October 3, from 3 to 5 p.m. That is also the Haunt's opening night and the first night of the flashlight tours, which run 7 to 10 p.m. on the Workhouse calendar. Here is one way to spend that Saturday on a single campus:
The show covers the reformatory's last chapter, and the flashlight tour takes you through the buildings where it happened. Seeing both on the same day gives you a clearer picture than either one alone.
The Lorton Prison Museum, which includes the Lucy Burns Gallery, is in Building W-2. From September through May, it is open Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., and until 9 p.m. on second Saturdays. Summer hours add Thursdays, so the museum is already on its shorter schedule for the season.
The second Saturday this month is October 10, which is also a Haunt night. On Haunt nights, the Workhouse says regular, fully lit museum gallery hours and standard guided tours are not available during Haunt hours. It suggests seeing the full historical exhibits during regular hours or booking a private guided tour. If you want both on October 10, see the galleries in daylight and come back for a flashlight tour after dark. The next second Saturday is November 14, after the Haunt has closed and the exhibition has come down, so the museum is the reason to go that night.
The Lucy Burns Gallery is named for the suffragist. It holds the part of the site's history that matters most to the Workhouse's November program.
| Date | Event | Where on campus |
|---|---|---|
| Sat., Oct. 3, 3–5 p.m. | "TRANSFORMATIONS" reception | McGuire Woods Gallery, W-16 |
| Oct. 3–30, Haunt nights | Workhouse Haunt | Outdoor trail, timed entry |
| Same nights, 7–10 p.m. | Historic Flashlight Tours | Starts in the Lorton Prison Museum |
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Second Saturday and a Haunt night; see the galleries in daylight | Building W-2 |
| Sat., Oct. 17 | Fall mini-golf tournament | Central Quad |
| Through Sat., Nov. 7 | "TRANSFORMATIONS" on view | W-16 |
| Sun., Nov. 15 | EqualiTEA | Tea service and museum tour |
The mini-golf tournament on October 17 is the lightest event on the list. It has daytime play on the Central Quad plus an after-dark round with LED golf balls. It also falls on a Haunt Saturday, so you can play a round, take a flashlight tour, and walk the trail in one evening.
EqualiTEA on Sunday, November 15 brings the season back to history. It pairs a tea service with a tour of the Lucy Burns Museum about the suffragists jailed at the Occoquan Workhouse and the 1917 "Night of Terror." It falls 16 days after the last Haunt night, and the site's history is the whole program.
The theater runs on a longer schedule. The Workhouse's new 2026–27 season pass covers all four mainstage shows and includes priority seating and no-fee exchanges. The Workhouse says it saves up to $50. InsideNoVa listed the announcement on August 26.
The only food and drink on campus is Bunnyman Brewing Cafe at 9514 Workhouse Way. It opened in a former prison building on June 29, 2024. It serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, beer, and drinks other than beer. Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday. On Sunday Haunt nights, plan around the earlier close.
FFXnow reported in October 2025 that DrinkLocal had approval for a second spot at 9517 Workhouse Way with Old Dominion Pizza Company. The plan was a family restaurant downstairs and a date-night space upstairs, with a target opening the next spring. We haven't found an opening announcement yet, so treat it as a project to watch, not a dinner plan.
A short drive away, you have several options:
The Workhouse is the best-known Lorton site with a past now open to the public, and two more are taking shape on Furnace Road. On September 2, Waste Management broke ground on Overlook Ridge Park at the former Lorton Landfill, 10001 Furnace Road. The site is nearly 250 acres. Plans call for trails, a playground, an amphitheater, restrooms, and overlooks for birding and views of the Potomac River.
The idea dates back two decades. EnviroSolutions first proposed a park there in 2006, the landfill closed in 2018, and Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality confirmed final closure in 2021. The Fairfax County Park Authority says the closure agreement requires regular testing for methane and other gases, and that there is a protocol to close the park if Waste Management and DEQ report any issues. The park is expected to open in summer or fall 2027.
Nearby, at 9850 Furnace Road, a 5-megawatt solar array now covers 37 acres of the closed part of the I-95 Landfill Complex. FFXnow reported it in May as Fairfax County's largest solar project to date.
Overlook Ridge is about a year away. For now, the Workhouse is where Lorton's past is open to visit, and the last Haunt night is Friday, October 30.
If you go to the "TRANSFORMATIONS" reception or take a flashlight tour this month, I'd love to hear what you thought. Conversations about how places like the Workhouse shape daily life in Lorton are some of my favorites. When you're ready to talk about your own plans, Jennifir Birtwhistle is here. Let's Connect.
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