The American Museum of Science and Energy is pictured above on South Tulane Avenue in Oak Ridge on Monday, Jan. 2, 2017. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The flat top house at the American Museum of Science and Energy is moving from its current location on South Tulane Avenue.
The new location hasn’t been announced yet, although an announcement about the move will be made Monday by representatives of the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge.
The AMSE location on South Tulane Avenue has been used for more than 40 years. But it closed in late July because the museum is moving to a new location at Main Street Oak Ridge, the 58-acre redevelopment of the former Oak Ridge Mall. The new AMSE will be near JCPenney on the northeast side of Main Street Oak Ridge. It is scheduled to open in October.
An announcement about the future of the historic flat top will be made Monday afternoon at AMSE in front of the flat top. Beth Shea, executive director of the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge, and Marian Phillips, Children’s Museum Board vice president, will announce the new location, the moving date, and funding plans for the move, a press release said.
One of thousands of prefabricated houses built to house World War II workers and their families in Oak Ridge, the flat top is a small two-bedroom home with a combination living-dining room and one bath, just 576 square feet. Its flat roof gives the house its name.
Unlike many flat tops that have been modified or moved, this one retained its original fixtures and design through a move outside Oak Ridge for use as a summer home. In 2009, this flat top returned to Oak Ridge as a World War II living history exhibit at AMSE, thanks to the donation of the house by Isabelle Smith, whose father bought the house in 1948.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
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