In 1910, the United States Government purchased 1,000 acres of land in Lorton, Virginia to build a work farm for District of Columbia. prisoners. Prisoners were to be rehabilitated by working in a brickyard, dairy farm, chicken farm, and later a license plate plant. Eventually the complex expanded to eight prisons on 3,000 acres before closing in 2001.

From 1912 to 1967, prisoners churned out millions of bricks for buildings in Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, and for construction of the Lorton Correctional Complex itself. The Lorton and Occoquan Railroad transported the bricks from the plant to rail and water transports.

Constructed in 1911, the brick factory was built on the shores of the Occoquan River. It consisted of eight round beehive kilns with 40 foot chimneys, and additional buildings to dry and store the bricks. Operation began in 1912. Between July 1913 to June 1914, prisoners fired 2.4 million bricks and more than 200,000 paving blocks. By 1929, prisoners made more than 6 million bricks annually. In February 1928, an appropriation of $36,000 was used to repair and remodel the eight kilns, construct three additional kilns, and expand and modernize the plant. The brick factory closed in 1967.

In 1983, the site of the brick factory was given to the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority to create Occoquan Regional Park. That same year, NVRPA demolished eight of the remaining nine kilns, adjacent brick factory buildings, and the brick coal trestle of the L&O railroad. The kilns were deemed unsafe and had been crumbling from years of neglect. NVRPA did preserve one kiln for posterity, which has since been restored.