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Est. MMXXVI · Alexandria, Virginia

The Torpedo Factory Art Center is the former U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, a naval munitions factory on the banks of the Potomac River in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, which was converted into an art center in 1974. The facility is located a
Beyond My Ken · via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Institutional · Alexandria, VA

105
North Union Street

Waterfront munitions plant built in 1918 as the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station; produced torpedoes through World War II, served as federal records storage after the war, and has operated since 1974 as the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
Jim Crow Era Mid-Century Transformation
38.8049, -77.0398 Claim this place
Year built
1918
Style
Industrial
Status
Extant
Designations
Old and Historic Alexandria District

Narrative

Place narrative

The U.S. Naval Torpedo Station was built on the Alexandria waterfront beginning in 1918 and expanded substantially during World War II, when it produced Mark 14 torpedoes around the clock for the Navy [1] Source 1 NARA Civil War records Government record . The complex at its peak employed several thousand workers, many of them women drawn into wartime manufacturing. It was among the largest industrial operations in Alexandria’s history.

Production wound down in 1946. The federal government retained the buildings for records storage — including, among other holdings, captured German documents and some Nuremberg trial records — into the 1960s [2] Source 2 Alexandria Library Special Collections Manuscript . Waterfront redevelopment plans in the 1970s would have demolished the complex.

Under the leadership of the artist Marian Van Landingham and a coalition of local advocates, the City of Alexandria instead acquired the main building in 1969 and reopened it in 1974 as the Torpedo Factory Art Center, housing working studios, galleries, and Alexandria Archaeology [3] Source 3 HABS Alexandria survey Government record . The reuse is widely cited as an early American example of successful adaptive reuse of an industrial building. The adjacent Strand Street Place Strand Street The Potomac waterfront from the Torpedo Factory south to Jones Point, subject to a decades-long redevelopment project that has converted former industrial and shipping frontage to … redevelopment has proceeded around the Torpedo Factory in the decades since.

A Place in Time

Timeline

4 chronological entries across 2 eras.

· · Jim Crow Era Mid-Century Transformation
Jim Crow Era · 1900–1960 2 entries

  1. Opening of the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station [1] Source NARA Civil War records

    construction
  2. –

    Alexandria's Black workforce was largely excluded from the segregated federal production lines during the war, a pattern documented in period NAACP correspondence. [1] Source NARA Civil War records [2] Source Alexandria Library Special Collections

    Freedmen of the Contrabands Camp resident factory_worker
Mid-Century Transformation · 1960–1990 2 entries
  1. –

    The Torpedo Factory Art Center became a regular venue for field trips from Alexandria's public schools after reopening in 1974. [2] Source Alexandria Library Special Collections

    Parker-Gray School visitor_notable art_center

  2. Reopening as the Torpedo Factory Art Center [2] Source Alexandria Library Special Collections

    news mention

Architecture

The building

Style
Industrial

Images

Gallery

  • Stylized illustration of Torpedo Factory (early twentieth-century institutional building).
    Placeholder illustration of Torpedo Factory. Seed placeholder — KingSt.com, 2026. To be replaced with archival photograph.
  • Secondary illustration of Torpedo Factory (early twentieth-century institutional building).
    Secondary placeholder view of Torpedo Factory. Seed placeholder — KingSt.com, 2026. To be replaced with archival photograph.

People & organizations

Connected

  • Family · Notable

    Freedmen of the Contrabands Camp

    founded 1861

    Collective entity representing the several thousand formerly enslaved people who fled to Union-occupied Alexandria during the Civil War, settling in camps at Shuter's Hill, around …

    Resident · Factory worker · %!d(float64=1940)–%!d(float64=1945)

  • Nonprofit · Notable

    Parker-Gray School

    founded 1920· dissolved 1965

    Alexandria's segregated public school for Black students, named for John Parker and Sarah Gray, two early Black educators in the city. Parker-Gray operated as the city's only Black …

    Visitor notable · Art center · %!d(float64=1974)–%!d(float64=1990)

Contemporary

Nearby in time

Geographically

Nearby in space

Current

Now

No current occupant on file. Are you, or someone you know, the present occupant? Claim this place to add operating hours, a current photo, and a short note.

About this street

All Old Town street origins →

Union Street

Named for The federal union of American states, c. 1796.

On the ground

Interpretive signs nearby

All 250 city signs →

The City of Alexandria has installed 13 historical interpretive signs within walking distance of this place. Each links to the actual sign image on alexandriava.gov.

References

Sources

  1. 1.

    National Archives and Records Administration, Union Provost Marshal records and Civil War-era military correspondence (RG 109, RG 110, RG 393).

    Government record

  2. 2.

    Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections, Barrett Branch, Alexandria, Virginia.

    Manuscript

  3. 3.

    Historic American Buildings Survey, Alexandria, Virginia records, National Park Service / Library of Congress.

    Government record

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