Alexandria's Naval Torpedo Station

Visit this exhibit on the first floor of the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
Page updated on November 6, 2026 at 4:20 PM
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Alexandria's Naval Torpedo Station

An early version of the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ordnance seal shows an anchor at the center with two crossed cannon.

Today's Torpedo Factory Art Center is the only remaining building of Alexandria's U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, first constructed at the end of World War I. A green Mark 14 torpedo, one of nearly 10,000 produced and tested at the Station during World War II, is at the center of an exhibit on the first floor. The exhibit details the many uses of the building over the years, including as federal storage, a torpedo manufacturing and testing station, a Federal Records Center and an experimental arts center.

World War I: Building Support

The Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station was built after World War I to manufacture and store torpedoes. Today's Torpedo Factory Art Center was part of a larger complex used by the United States government during times of war and peace. 

Alexandria's position near DC and its direct access to the Potomac River and rail lines made the city a prime candidate for military mobilization. During World War I, the supply of torpedoes could not keep up with the Navy's demand. Alexandria was chosen to increase production. Construction on the first two Naval Ordnance buildings began after the war ended in 1918. 

By World War II, the waterfront was filled with industrial and military buildings, including the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station. Goods were transported by nearby railroads and munitions testing took place in the Potomac River at Piney Point. 

An aerial photo shows Alexandria in the foreground and D.C. and M.D. across the Potomac River. Handwritten labels on the photo show the location of waterfront military and industrial installations including the Annex of the U.S. Naval Ordnance Plant in the center, the Army Radio Station to the south, and VEPCO and Standard Oil Co. to the north.
The Naval Ordnance Plant's Franklin Street Annex is at the center of this 1947 photo, with the Army radio station on the right. The Plant's main facility, including today's Torpedo Factory Art Center building, is out of frame to the left. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command. 

The Bureau of Ordnance began construction of the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station the day after the 1918 Armistice officially ending World War I. 

Workers cleared the two-block site and erected seawalls and a 330-foot pier for the testing barge. It opened in June 1919, with a walkway connecting the first two station buildings. The plant's 500 workers assembled and stored over 300 Mark 4 and Mark 8 torpedoes until the site's deactivation in June 1923. 

A black and white photo shows stacks of cinderblocks and timber in the foreground, steam-powered equipment and horses pulling carts of materials in the center, and the framed first floor of the Torpedo Station in the background.
U.S. Naval Torpedo Plant, February 24, 1919. Photo by M. Loeb, Alexandria, VA. Courtesy: National Archives. 
The photo is taken looking north up Union Street, complete with rail lines and workers. On the right is two-story Building #2 and on the left is Building #1, still under construction. A second floor passageway, also under construction, connects the two buildings across Union Street.
U.S. Naval Torpedo Plant, June 10, 1919. Photo by M. Loeb, Alexandria, VA. Courtesy: National Archives. 
A 1919 photo shows a four-story building still under construction.
U.S. Naval Torpedo Plant, October 6, 1919. Photo by M. Loeb, Alexandria, VA. Courtesy: National Archives. 

Alexandria's torpedo assembly ceased in 1923 and moved back to Rhode Island's Newport U.S Naval Torpedo Station. 

The original two-building complex stored 908 torpedoes for the Naval Gun Factory, as well as housed federal records and offices until WWII. 

A large room with brick floor and concrete columns is filled with stacked boxes and filing cabinets.
National Archives, 1935

In 1937, the Plant opened as a unit of the Washington Navy Yard. It began manufacturing torpedoes in early 1940, and became an independent station in July 1941. 

At its height, it had over 5,000 workers, making it the city's largest employer. Mark 13, 14, 15, and 23 torpedoes were manufactured, proved, and overhauled at the station, in addition to exploder mechanisms and rocket motor parts. 

An aerial photo shows Alexandria's waterfront with today's Torpedo Factory Art Center building in the foreground. The two-story building is connected to a larger four-story square building directly to the west on the other side of Union Street.
National Archives, 1941

The Station's only remaining building is today's Torpedo Factory Art Center, Building #2, shown in yellow in the 1941 photo above. It held the General Offices, power plant, and storage for the Supply Department. Building #1 is shown in blue in the photo above. The Navy added seventeen buildings to meet production demands during WWII. Construction can be seen to the right of this building in the 1941 photo above. By 1943, the additional Franklin Street Annex opened to the south of the Main Plant. 

World War II: Joining the War Effort

Approximately 80 employees, both Black and white women and men of varying ages, watch as a small group of white men in Navy uniforms inspect a torpedo.
The Station Commandant inspects a Mark 13 aerial torpedo manufactured at the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command, ca. 1940s.

 

At the start of World War II, workers moved to Alexandria to join the rapidly growing workforce. The Naval Torpedo Station employed over 5,000 workers - 8% of the population at the time. It was one of seven factories in the United States manufacturing torpedoes. 

"About eight or ten girls were working in the shop until I left. It it leaked, we took it back to the girls and they relapped all the parts to that valve." - John Pierpoint, apprentice machinist at the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station

Segregated housing was built under the Lanham Act to help accommodate some defense workers and their families, including Torpedo Station employees.

Chinquapin Village and Cameron Valley were built for white workers. Other federal housing included two temporary trailer parks and Ramsey Homes for African American defense workers. By 1949, 35% of Station workers had bought, or were buying, houses in the Alexandria area.

About 70 white men, women, and children pose in front of identical one-story standalone houses in neat rows. Several are holding instruments, including a double bass and accordion.
Residents pose at Chinquapin Village. Courtesy: Office of Historic Alexandria

 

"The bus company sent a bus up there every morning to pick the men up to go to work [at the Torpedo Station] and brought them back to their houses at night." - Jerry Sare, Chinquapin Village resident

Federal housing projects used innovative techniques and experimental materials like rammed-earth stabilized cement and "Fabcrete" precast panels to conserve steel and help alleviate the housing shortage. 

 

Two workers are shown assembling a house out of precast panels, about 10 feet high by four feet wide.
Courtesy: Architectural Record, March 1942. 
The Martha Washington Trailer Camp Sign is shown in the center, with an arrow pointing toward the office. Small rounded trailers, cars, and clotheslines are shown in the background.
Martha Washington Trailer Camp, Courtesy of Library of Congress, 1941.
A few children dressed in warm clothes and hats sit on the ground while playing with a doll. Several trailers are parked among the bare winter trees behind the children, with clotheslines strung between them.
Martha Washington Trailer Camp, Courtesy of Library of Congress, 1941.

During the height of production, the plant operated seven days a week. 

Two employees wearing aprons stand in front of a torpedo while others work in the background.
Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station workers balance torpedoes, ca. 1940s. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command.

Employees worked 48 to 54 hours per week, split into three shifts. While desegregation of the federal government and military began in 1941, progress was slow and white men continued to hold supervisory positions.

Several employees in aprons work on a line of torpedo parts with a man in a suit watching their work.
Alexandria workers overhaul torpedo afterbodies, ca. 1940s. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command.
A Black man stands behind a metal lathe with his sleeves cuffed just above the elbow and with an ID badge pinned to his chest.
Hubert F. Wright drills on a turret lathe. "The TORP," December 1944. Photo by Helen Joyce.
Hundreds of workers, both men and women dressed in suits and workwear, stand shoulder to shoulder and fill the entire field of view to the back of the large building.
Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station employees gather for a ceremony in the plant, ca. 1947-49, Naval History and Heritage Command.

Over 800 employees left for the armed forces over the course of the war, leaving trained staff in short supply. 

Three women weld while wearing safety glasses, large protective gloves, and ID badges.
Hilda R. Cornwell, Grace Jones, and Doris Croson work in the Maintenance Department Welding Shop. "The TORP," 1944. 

Women, African Americans, school students, and older workers filled some of the roles previously held by white men. Women workers included members of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) and WOWs (Women Ordnance Workers). By 1943, over 1400 women were employed at the factory. 

During downtime, employees used factory equipment and materials to make jewelry and souvenirs. Examples of these can be seen on display in the exhibit. 

Seven women pose on bleachers with a basketball.
Flying Torps basketball team, The TORP, February 1944. Photo by Herbert A. Thom. 

The Station's monthly newspaper, "The TORP," provided news and boosted morale and camaraderie. 

Its pages contained employee spotlights and promotions, and news of budding romances, marriages, and births. While "The TORP" is filled with war bond and blood drives, it also shows welcome diversions from the war effort. USO Clubs were established in town for both men and women defense workers, and dances, talent shows, beauty contests, and plant-sponsored clubs and sports fill the pages of the paper. The Station had its own bowling leagues, as well as baseball, softball, wrestling, and basketball teams. 

World War II: Building and Testing Torpedoes

The Navy entered World War II with a severe torpedo shortage. 

At the start of WWII, the Navy reopened the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station to meet the growing demand for torpedoes. Its workforce produced and tested ordnance, including the Mark 14. 

Alexandria was the second highest producer in the country, manufacturing nearly 10,000 by the end of the war. The Station was awarded the distinguished Navy "E" six times in recognition for excellence in production.

Station employees watch from the testing barge as a torpedo is launched. It can be seen about six feet off of the water's surface, having just been fired from the barge.
One of the first torpedoes made in Alexandria is fired from Testing Barge No. 2 at the Naval Torpedo Testing Range, September 16, 1941, Piney Point, Maryland. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command.
A marine flag shows an anchor and with stars encircling a letter "E."

"No torpedo should leave this Station which is not a credit to the loyal force here who made it." - R.B. Simons, Captain, U.S. Navy Commanding Officer, Naval Torpedo Station, Alexandria, VA, December 1943

The Alexandria Torpedo Station manufactured and assembled aerial, submarine-launched, and destroyer-launched torpedoes. The green submarine-launched Mark 14 on display in the exhibit was made at the Alexandria Station in 1944. The Mark 14 was made up of about 5,000 parts. It was propelled by an alcohol-fired steam turbine and carried a contact detonator and a classified Mark 6 magnetic exploder, triggered by an enemy ship's magnetic field. 

Men wearing aprons sit and stand in front of a line of machinery.
Alexandria Torpedo Station workers, ca. 1942. Courtesy: Library of Congress
A man wearing an apron works on a torpedo propeller.
Alexandria Torpedo Station, ca. 1940s. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command. 

testing and improving munitions

Two men fire a torpedo into the water from a testing barge's deck-mounted torpedo tube.
Testing a torpedo at the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station or Piney Point, Maryland, ca. 1940s. Courtesy: Naval History and Heritage Command

Torpedoes were tested at the nearby range in Piney Point, Maryland. They were filled with air and painted bright green to make them easier to recover.

Early Mark 14 torpedoes often missed their target, running deeper than intended or straying from their set course. A hit did not guarantee success either. Sometimes the contact exploder failed, or the magnetic influence exploder detonated prematurely. Reports from battle and from proving grounds like Piney Point identified these issues. 

The Mark 14 was a reliable weapon by the end of 1943. Workers at the Alexandria Station played a large role in its success with improvements in rust prevention, a redesign of the lubrication system, and other war production suggestions. 

A multi-story testing barge sits alongside a dock on the Potomac River.
The YTT-6 testing barge docked at the Alexandria Naval Torpedo Station, 1945. Photo credit: H.A. Thom.

By the end of the war, over 1,500 torpedoes from Alexandria sunk or damaged Axis ships. Each was tallied and celebrated in "The TORP."

Each torpedo was marked to show where and when it was made. The Mark 14 on exhibit in the Torpedo Factory Art Center is engraved with the register number 64220. 

Post-War Records Storage

Two trucks with cloth-covered beds are parked on Union Street. The trucks are filled with cloth bags. Three Black men stand beside and on the trucks.
Disposal of classified records. Courtesy: National Archives, 1957

Records captured during World War II were processed and stored buildings that were once part of the Torpedo Station's Main Plant. Some of the records were later used to prosecute war crimes. 

After the Naval Torpedo Station closed in 1950, four of its buildings were repurposed as a Federal Records Center, run by both the National Archives and the Army's Departmental Records Branch. The Alexandria Record Center stored, processed, and disposed of records until 1967. 

The National Archives began as a preservation organization, holding roughly 1 million cubic feet of records leading up to WWII. By 1949, it was reorganized and tasked with holding all federal records, an additional 18 million cubic feet. To keep up with this growing need for space, new Federal Records Centers were opened in 1950, including one in Alexandria. The center held federal records from the Mid-Atlantic region as well as records captured during the war. These seized records were controlled by the Army until they were transferred to the National Archives in 1958. 

A view from an upper floor of the old Torpedo building shows an endless sea of boxes, stacked at least six boxes high, filling the entire view to the back of the building.
IBM record cards at the Federal Records Center in Alexandria, 1959. Courtesy: National Archives
A "Federal Records Center" sign is mounted to chain-link fencing outside of an old Torpedo Station building, now in disrepair.
The Alexandria Federal Records Center, Courtesy of National Archives.

The U.S. Army's World War II Records Division, later assisted by the American Historical Association, microfilmed and processed the captured records for intelligence purposes and historical research. Some were used to prosecute war crimes, including as evidence during the Nuremberg trials that prosecuted major Nazi leaders. 

Ten, majority Black, employees sit behind two rows of desks. They were suits and dresses and are surrounded by filing cabinets and bookshelves.
The Record Center employed an increasingly desegregated federal workforce. The Reference Service Unit of the World War II Records Division, Courtesy of the National Archives. 

 

A woman in a dress stands on a tall ladder to reach the very top of a tall set of filing cabinets.
Five employees look at records and type on a typewriter. A rolling cart in the foreground is labeled in German, roughly translated to "Unsuitable for the transport of food for humans or animals!"
Four employees sit at desks with piles of records and microfilming equipment.
Three employees stand around a man seated at a desk. They are surrounded by filing cabinets and shelving and are holding papers.
A man in a suit feeds papers into a large shredding machine. Shredded paper can be seen in a bin behind him.
Men hoist large cloth sacks into a large pile and stand beside industrial carts.
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A woman in a dress stands on a tall ladder to reach the very top of a tall set of filing cabinets.
Courtesy of National Archives, 1956
Five employees look at records and type on a typewriter. A rolling cart in the foreground is labeled in German, roughly translated to "Unsuitable for the transport of food for humans or animals!"
American Historical Association staff describe and analyze captured German Records. Courtesy of National Archives.
Four employees sit at desks with piles of records and microfilming equipment.
Microfilming Unit Disposal Filming Operation, World War II Records Division. Courtesy of National Archives.
Three employees stand around a man seated at a desk. They are surrounded by filing cabinets and shelving and are holding papers.
The World War II Records Division's Packing and Shelving Operation. Courtesy of National Archives
A man in a suit feeds papers into a large shredding machine. Shredded paper can be seen in a bin behind him.
Departmental Records Branch staff dispose of records using a paper shredder. Courtesy of National Archives, 1956.
Men hoist large cloth sacks into a large pile and stand beside industrial carts.
Departmental Records Branch staff salvage records as waste paper after analysis and evaluation. Courtesy of National Archives, 1957.

From Archives to Art

A four-story Torpedo Station building with a water tower on top is shown in the foreground, with today's two-story Torpedo Factory Art Center just visible in the background. Both buildings look to be in disrepair.
This 1960 photo shows Building #3 in the center with today's Torpedo Factory Art Center, the two-story Building #2, in the background.

The remaining Torpedo Station complex was briefly used as federal storage, including for the Smithsonian, after the Modern Military Records Division's 1968 move to the National Archives. The City of Alexandria bought the buildings from the federal government the following year. 

Local artists saw potential in the run-down building and worked with the City to renovate it, hauling away forty dump trucks of debris. In 1974, the old munitions factory reopened as an experimental art center, home to artist studios and Alexandria Archaeology.

 

exhibit acknowledgements

Torpedo provided courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command. This exhibit was made possible by the support of Christopher Erney, Krystyn Moon, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association, and Office of Historic Alexandria staff. 

Historic Alexandria would like to thank the many people who once worked within the walls of the Torpedo Factory buildings and the artists and staff who continue to work there today, keeping the building's history alive.