Diamond Pearson needed a new place to live and was looking for something with an industrial feel. When Liberty Crest Apartments in Fairfax Countygolden palasyo, Va., came up in her online search, she was intrigued.

“I checked it out and fell in love — the brick, the concrete floors — it was so beautiful,” said Ms. Pearson, 32, who works at Fairfax County Schools. Every unit in the complex is unique, and she liked that, too. It wasn’t until she was signing the lease agreement that someone said, “Did you know this is an old prison?”

Indeed, the development, now called Liberty, had a former life as the Lorton Reformatory, a prison housing inmates from Washington, D.C. Built in 1910, it’s best known for the dozens of suffragists who were imprisoned there in harsh and violent conditions — including forced feedings — after they picketed outside the White House.

Ms. Gray’s 14-year-old son, Colt, is being charged as an adult for murder in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history. He is accused of bringing an AR-15-style rifle to Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., earlier this month, killing four — two students and two math teachers — and injuring at least nine.

“I welcome the chance to open a new chapter,” Mr. Biden said in the Oval Office. “The U.A.E. is a nation of trailblazers always looking, always looking to the future,22win register always making big bets, and that’s something our countries have in common and our people have in common.”

The prison shut down in 2001, and the next year Fairfax County bought the 2,400-acre site, which had included a farm and work areas where prisoners could learn trades like metalworking and carpentry, for $4.2 million. The county gradually turned the property into a park and golf course, three schools and a sprawling arts center. In 2008, the county started working with the Alexander Company, a Wisconsin developer with expertise in historic preservation and adaptive reuse, to convert former cellblocks and other buildings, and to build new structures. The complex now includes 165 apartments, of which 98 percent are leased, 157 town homes and 24 single-family homes, as well as commercial spaces. In 2017, tenants started moving in, many attracted by amenities like a swimming pool, 24-hour gym and yoga room.

ImageDiamond Pearson didn’t realize the apartment she fell in love with was a former prison until she was signing the lease agreement.Credit...Susana Raab for The New York TimesImageMs. Pearson has been living at Liberty Crest Apartments with her son, Britain, and dog, Nike, since 2022. At first, “it was a little spooky,” she said of learning that her apartment was in a former prison.Credit...Susana Raab for The New York Times

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