Oak Ridge Today

Once like a small city, Happy Valley has been sold

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An early aerial photo of Happy Valley, a construction camp that was like a small city and used to help build the former K-25 in west Oak Ridge. This picture was taken May, 22, 1944, by Ed Westcott, the official government photographer in Oak Ridge during World War II. (Photo courtesy Ed Westcott/Emily Hunnicutt)

An early aerial photo of Happy Valley, a construction camp that was like a small city and used to help build the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge. This picture was taken May, 22, 1944, by Ed Westcott, the official government photographer in Oak Ridge during World War II. (Photo courtesy Ed Westcott/Emily Hunnicutt)

 

It was once home to a large construction camp that was like a small city and housed workers building K-25 during World War II.

Now the 160-acre parcel known as Happy Valley has been sold.

Happy Valley was in west Oak Ridge, across State Route 58 from the K-25 site. One of three major sites in Oak Ridge, K-25 was built to enrich uranium for atomic weapons as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II.

Today, Happy Valley appears to be mostly a rolling tree-covered landscape between Oak Ridge and Kingston along SR 58. To the public, there is little or no obvious evidence of what was once there—homes, a grocery store, schools, a post office, recreation halls, a gas station, and a bowling alley.

But those who have walked the property have seen evidence of the small city that was once there. [Read more…]

The legacy of Bill Wilcox lives on at K-25 History Center

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Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian and city historian, announces a book published posthumously that was written by Bill Wilcox, a former city historian, former technical director at K-25 and Y-12, and a passionate advocate for historic preservation, including the history of the former K-25 site. Smith announced the book at a ceremony unveiling plans for a K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station at the the former K-25 site, now known as East Tennessee Technology Park on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian and city historian, announces a book published posthumously that was written by Bill Wilcox, a former city historian, former technical director at K-25 and Y-12, and a passionate advocate for historic preservation, including of the former K-25 site. Smith announced the book at a ceremony unveiling plans for a K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station at K-25, now known as East Tennessee Technology Park, on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

He was a passionate advocate for preserving Oak Ridge’s history.

He was known for his bow ties and captivating storytelling. He once led the effort to save the former K-25 Building in west Oak Ridge, or at least part of it.

Now the legacy of Bill Wilcox will live on at the K-25 History Center.

Construction on the history center could start early next year on the second floor of Oak Ridge Fire Station Number Four. That fire station, previously transferred to the city, is on the south side of the former K-25 Building at East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge.

Officials preparing for the construction of the history center gave tours of its future home at the fire station on Thursday. The tours followed a lunchtime celebration that featured tributes to Wilcox and included speeches and presentations by U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge officials, and federal contractors and historic preservation advocates. Wilcox was hailed as the “father of K-25 historic preservation.”

“He would have been really proud,” said Ray Smith, Wilcox’s friend and Y-12 National Security Complex historian and city historian. “His legacy lives on.” [Read more…]

You can see the future home of the K-25 History Center on Thursday

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A rendering of the K-25 History Center at the Oak Ridge Fire Station Number 4 at East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

A rendering of the K-25 History Center at the Oak Ridge Fire Station Number 4 at East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge. (Image courtesy U.S. Department of Energy)

 

A celebratory event on Thursday will formally launch a project to commemorate the history of the former Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant, a uranium-enrichment site that was once known as K-25 and built to help make the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II.

Thursday’s celebration will be followed by a public tour from 2 to 4 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the City of Oak Ridge, the event is part of the city’s 75th Anniversary celebration. It will feature a walk-through of the future home of the K-25 History Center, which will be located in the city’s Fire Station Number 4 at the East Tennessee Technology Park. The U.S. Department of Energy and URS|CH2M Oak Ridge LLC, or UCOR, DOE’s lead cleanup contractor, will unveil plans and the layout for the History Center before construction starts, a press release said.

Large graphics placed throughout the building will provide the visitor a preview of the finished center, the press release said. [Read more…]

See the future home of the K-25 History Center

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Image courtesy DOE Oak Ridge Office

Image courtesy DOE Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management

 

The public is invited to walk through the future home of the K-25 History Center on Thursday, October 19.

The K-25 History Center will be built on the second floor of Oak Ridge’s Fire Station Number 4. The fire station is at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

The public walk-through is scheduled from 2-4 p.m. October 19.

The K-25 History Center is expected to help preserve the history of the World War II-era Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge was built during that top-secret project to help build the world’s first atomic weapons.

K-25 was one of three major federal sites built in the city that is now Oak Ridge as part of the Manhattan Project. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge’s 75th anniversary: Fire prevention celebration includes parade Saturday

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Map courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Map courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

A fire prevention celebration on Saturday will include a parade as part of Oak Ridge’s 75th anniversary celebration.

The celebration will kick off with a “Then and Now”-themed parade that will start at Oak Ridge Fire Department Fire Station Number 3 on Tuskegee Drive and end at Alvin K. Bissell Park. Lineup for participants begins at 9 a.m., with the parade getting underway at 10 a.m.

The city that is now Oak Ridge was built as part of the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. Among other things, uranium enriched at Y-12 fueled the first atomic bomb used in wartime. Code-named “Little Boy,” it was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, shortly before the end of the war. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge Fire Department’s Then & Now Parade part of 75th anniversary celebration

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Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/Ed Westcott

Photo courtesy U.S. Department of Energy/Ed Westcott

 

The Oak Ridge Fire Department will be hosting a fire prevention celebration on Saturday, October 7, as part of the city’s 75th anniversary.

In the 1940s, Oak Ridge hosted a parade during Fire Prevention Week every October to help spread the word about fire safety. ORFD hopes to rekindle this tradition in honor of the City’s milestone anniversary, a press release said.

The celebration will kick off with a Then and Now-themed parade at ORFD Fire Station Number 3 on Tuskegee Drive and end at Alvin K. Bissell Park. Lineup for participants will begin at 9 a.m., with the parade getting underway at 10 a.m., the press release said.

Following the parade, everyone is invited to gather in A.K. Bissell Park at 11 a.m. for opening ceremonies that will include static displays of emergency services equipment, bounce houses, safety information booths, and emergency services demonstrations. [Read more…]

Tennessee State Museum will have fall bus excursion to Oak Ridge

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The Oak Ridge History Room (Image courtesy American Museum of Science and Energy)

The Oak Ridge History Room (Image courtesy American Museum of Science and Energy)

 

The Tennessee State Museum will have its fall bus excursion to Oak Ridge on Saturday, November 4. It will be a one-day guided trip to the former “Secret City,” a press release said.

“Local historian Ray Smith will join the bus in Oak Ridge and accompany the group on its stops at the American Museum of Science and Energy, the Y-12 History Center, as well as drive by other locations,” the press release said. “Don’t miss this chance to see the museum before it closes at the end of the year and moves to a new, smaller location.”

Nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians, the area that is now Oak Ridge was created when the U.S. government started buying up more than 50,000 acres of land for one of three major sites for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. (Besides Oak Ridge, the other two major sites were Hanford, Washington, and Los Alamos, New Mexico.)

“Even Governor Prentice Cooper didn’t initially know what was going on as he complained about 1,000 Tennessee families losing their homes,” the press release said. [Read more…]

City wants to renovate fire station as DOE, contractors work on K-25 History Center

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K-25 History Center and Equipment Building

An image showing the K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned fire station, right, at East Tennessee Technology Park, with the Equipment Building and Viewing Tower at left. (Graphic by David Brown/U.S. Department of Energy)

 

Note: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m.

Oak Ridge wants to renovate the fire station where the federal government and its contractors are building the K-25 History Center, a project that is expected to help preserve the history of the World War II-era Manhattan Project.

The K-25 History Center will be built on the second floor of Oak Ridge’s Fire Station Number 4. The fire station is at East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site in west Oak Ridge.

K-25 was one of three major federal sites built in Oak Ridge during World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project. That was a federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons, before Germany could.

K-25’s signature facility, the K-25 Building, has been demolished. But a 2012 agreement that allowed the complete demolition of that building, once the world’s largest building under one roof, called for the history center at the fire station, among other projects.

Work is proceeding on the K-25 History Center, Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said in a July 21 memo to City Manager Mark Watson. The K-25 History Center is a project of the U.S. Department of Energy and UCOR, DOE’s cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge.

As that project proceeds, several upgrades will be needed to the first floor of the city-owned fire station in order to create the required living space for fire department personnel, Kerley said. [Read more…]

Manhattan Project public program: Ride with a ranger, learn about Oak Ridge history on Saturday

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Join a park ranger for a bike ride on the North Boundary Greenway in Oak Ridge to see how the former communities of the area have changed during the past 70 years. The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will present a free program at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 29, 2017. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

You can join a park ranger for a bicycle ride and learn more about the history of Oak Ridge on Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday morning, May 13, 2017. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

 

You can join a park ranger for a bicycle ride and learn more about the history of Oak Ridge on Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday morning.

The free program is presented by the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. It will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 13, at Elza Gate Park, former entry point to the “Secret City,” and continue down Melton Lake Greenway.

“Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area,” a press release said. [Read more…]

Not clear yet where National Park Service will go when AMSE closes

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former-sears-roebuck-co-oak-ridge-jan-2-2017-web

An agreement signed Friday, Dec. 30, 2016, by the U.S. Department of Energy and City of Oak Ridge calls for the American Museum of Science and Energy missions to be relocated within about one year to 18,000 square feet of space in a two-story building that once housed a Sears Roebuck store next to JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge. It’s not yet clear if the National Park Service, which has shared space with AMSE, will also move into this building. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

It’s not clear yet where the National Park Service will go when the American Museum of Science and Energy building closes at the end of the year, but a federal official said the Park Service will stay in Oak Ridge.

It could relocate to a two-story building that once housed Sears Roebuck at Main Street Oak Ridge, the former Oak Ridge Mall. That’s where the U.S. Department of Energy’s public education and outreach missions, now housed at the American Museum of Science and Energy, are moving.

But the National Park Service hadn’t committed to moving there as of April 17, said Niki Nicholas, site manager of the Oak Ridge unit of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The NPS needs more information, Nicholas said in response to questions after a Monday afternoon presentation to AAUW, or American Association of University Women. (A reader had told Oak Ridge Today of an April 17 letter reportedly sent from the Manhattan Project National Historical Park to federal officials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which manages AMSE.)

Nicholas said the National Park Service has several options in Oak Ridge, including Main Street Oak Ridge. But she declined to elaborate on the precise number of options, where they might be, or what organizations or businesses might be co-located in those buildings. [Read more…]

Bike with a Ranger on the North Boundary Greenway on Saturday

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Join a park ranger for a bike ride on the North Boundary Greenway in Oak Ridge to see how the former communities of the area have changed during the past 70 years. The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will present a free program at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 29, 2017. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

Join a park ranger for a bike ride on the North Boundary Greenway in Oak Ridge to see how the former communities of the area have changed during the past 70 years. The Manhattan Project National Historical Park will present the free program at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 29, 2017. (Photo courtesy National Park Service)

 

You can join a National Park Service park ranger for a bike ride on the North Boundary Greenway to see how the former communities of the area have changed during the past 70 years.

It’s a free program by the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, and it will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 29. The program will begin at the Turnpike Gatehouse and travel down Quarry Trail, a press release said

“Along the ride, we will explore the former communities that were here before the Manhattan Project,” the press release said. “Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area.”

The Turnpike Gatehouse is located at 2900 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. Tennessee state law requires that bicycle operators under 16 years of age must wear a helmet, and child passengers under 40 pounds or 40 inches must be seated and secured in a child restraining seat or bicycle trailer, the press release said. [Read more…]

Learn more about Oak Ridge, bike with a park ranger on Saturday

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Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge

 

You can join a park ranger for a bike ride down Melton Lake Greenway on Saturday.

The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge, will present a free program on Saturday, March 25, at 10 a.m. The program will begin at Elza Gate Park, former entry point to the Secret City, and continue down Melton Lake Greenway. Rangers will stop several times along the bike ride to point out the rich history that is found within the Oak Ridge area, a press release said.

Elza Gate Park is located at 101 Oak Ridge Turnpike in east Oak Ridge. If you need directions, maps are available at the National Park desk in the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge, or you can call (865) 576-6767. [Read more…]