The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association will celebrate its 20th anniversary and the receipt of an S80,000 state grant during a ceremony on Saturday.
The state grant is for the new Oak Ridge History Museum, a press release said.
The public is invited to Saturday’s ceremony. The Oak Ridge History Museum is at 102 Robertsville Road in central Oak Ridge.
[Read more…]
The last Oak Ridge Reservation Nature Walk of 2019 will be held at the historic Freels cabin—the oldest structure in Oak Ridge—on Saturday.
The cabin is on Freels Bend near Melton Hill Lake in south Oak Ridge, east of Clark Center Park. It was built in 1844, and it’s been reported to be on the National Historic Register.
The opportunities to see the cabin are rare because it’s on restricted U.S. Department of Energy land.
Saturday’s walk is titled “History of the Oak Ridge Reservation—Freels Bend.” Registered walkers will meet at 1 p.m. in the parking lot behind the ORISE building at the corner of Bethel Valley and Pumphouse roads, a press release said.
[Read more…]The 2019 season of Oak Ridge Reservation nature walks continues on Sunday, April 14, with a wildflower and old growth forest walk.
More than 1,100 vascular plants, 72 fish, 34 mammals, and more than 200 bird species have been observed on the U.S. Department of Energy reservation. This year, the public is invited to eight nature walks designed to highlight the rich flora and fauna diversity of the ORR and to demonstrate the work being done to sustainably manage and conserve this resource, a press release said. The series closes with a history talk in August.
Reservations for the following events must be made in advance by noon the Thursday prior to each walk by contacting Tracy Clem at (865) 574-5151 ([email protected]). If weather forces postponement of an event, it will be announced on Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Information Line at (865) 574-9836 (i.e. 574-XTEN) at least two hours before the scheduled start of the walk. Children are allowed on the walks; no pets, please.
Sunday, April 14: Wildflower and old growth forest walk
[Read more…]
A historical marker for the Poplar Creek Seminary is pictured above near State Route 58 in the former Wheat community in west Oak Ridge. The George Jones Memorial Baptist Church is in the background. (Submitted photo)
We’ve been thinking recently that maybe we should run an occasional feature called “Did you know?” on Oak Ridge Today that would highlight interesting facts about Oak Ridge that might not be widely known. This could be information that makes the city unique or unusual, but doesn’t normally fit into a news story. Many of these could be history-related facts, but they wouldn’t all have to be.
Here’s an example from the K-25 History Center unveiling celebration last week:
Did you know that the Wheat community in what is now west Oak Ridge was once famous for its peach orchards? The peaches were sold across the country, according to Mick Wiest, president of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
Besides its peaches, Wheat was also famous for its schools and education, Wiest said during a Thursday ceremony for the K-25 History Center at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former K-25 site. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, seated at right, and UCOR President and Project Manager Ken Rueter, also seated, sign a license that allows UCOR, the federal cleanup contractor in Oak Ridge, to start construction of the K-25 History Center on the second floor of the city-owned Fire Station Number Four at East Tennessee Technology Park on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. Also pictured standing is Jay Mullis, acting manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. (DOE photo by Lynn Freeny)
Construction of the K-25 History Center could start early next year on the second floor of Oak Ridge Fire Station Number Four at the East Tennessee Technology Park in west Oak Ridge. Officials celebrated with a signing ceremony and tours of the future home of the history center on Thursday. Here are photos from that event. [Read more…]
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.â€
“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…]
Women enriching uranium in calutrons at Y-12 as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II. The 75th anniversary of the city that became Oak Ridge and still includes Y-12 is Sept. 19, 2017. (Photo by Ed Westcott)
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday will consider setting up a committee to celebrate the city’s 75th anniversary.
Oak Ridge’s birthday has been recognized on September 19. That’s because the city that is now Oak Ridge was picked for the top-secret Manhattan Project on September 19, 1942, almost 75 years ago. That was the day that General Leslie Groves approved the acquisition of 59,000 acres of land along the Clinch River for what soon became the Manhattan Project, a federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs, before Germany could. Oak Ridge was then 90 square miles of East Tennessee farmland. It was the first site for Manhattan Project facilities.
By the time President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Project on December 28, 1942, work on the East Tennessee site where the first production facilities were to be built was already under way.
Oak Ridge became the home of two uranium enrichment plants (K-25 and Y-12), a liquid thermal diffusion plant (S-50), and a pilot plutonium production reactor (X-10 Graphite Reactor). Groves approved Oak Ridge as the site for the pilot plutonium plant and the uranium enrichment plant in 1942. Manhattan Project engineers had to quickly build a town to accommodate 30,000 workers—as well as build the enormously complex plants. [Read more…]
Preservationists are concerned as federal officials seek public comment on the possibility of moving out of a historic building that is one of the few World War II-era buildings remaining on main roads in Oak Ridge—and possibly the only one left on Illinois Avenue. It was once an emergency hospital and then a health department. It now houses the Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, or ATDD, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, at 456 South Illinois Avenue. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Preservationists are concerned as federal officials seek public comment on the possibility of moving out of a historic building that is one of the few World War II-era buildings remaining on main roads in Oak Ridge—and possibly the only one left on Illinois Avenue.
The Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division, or ATDD, of the Air Resources Laboratory, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, is now at 456 South Illinois Avenue. It’s just north of Ole Ben Franklin Motors and across from new shopping centers on the other side of South Illinois Avenue.
During World War II, the single-story white building was an emergency hospital to serve federal plants. Oak Ridge was built in the mid-1940s, during the war, to help make the world’s first nuclear weapons as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, and it enriched uranium for the first atomic bomb used in wartime.
After the war, the building, which is now owned by NOAA, was used as the city’s health department, said Mick Wiest of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association, or ORHPA.
Wiest said the building is well-maintained, and it’s received a historic preservation award from ORHPA. [Read more…]
The Red Cross building, which was the city’s housing office during World War II, is for sale. The building, which is on Oak Ridge Turnpike, is pictured above on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The Red Cross building, which was used as the city’s housing office during World War II, is for sale.
The American Red Cross had been in the building since 1945, but it last had a part-time employee there in 2014.
It’s one of the few original Oak Ridge buildings remaining on Oak Ridge Turnpike or Illinois Avenue, said Mick Wiest, president of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
A Red Cross official said the organization is trying to lower its overhead across the country and occupy fewer buildings. That leaves more money to serve clients, said Michelle Hankes, executive director of the Red Cross East Tennessee Chapter Office, which is based in Knoxville.
Much of the organization’s work is field work and can be conducted with a laptop and cell phone, Hankes said. [Read more…]
The front entrance is pictured above at the Alexander Guest House, which converted the historic but long-vacant Alexander Inn hotel into a beautifully restored assisted living center. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Rick Dover and Dover Development of Knoxville have won a national preservation award for their work to convert the historic Alexander Inn, a dilapidated, vacant two-story hotel in Oak Ridge, into the Alexander Guest House, a beautifully restored assisted living center.
Knox Heritage, which played a key role in the project, announced the award on Friday. Also playing a key role was the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance.
Dover Development won the Chairman’s Award for Achievement in Historic Preservation from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, or ACHP, a press release said. Members of the ACHP are appointed by the president of the United States.
It’s one of the highest awards given for historic preservation, the press release said. [Read more…]
Pictured above during a ribbon-cutting and open house at the Alexander Guest House on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2015, are former Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan, left; Rick Dover of Dover Development, the East Tennessee company that converted the historic two-story hotel into an assisted living center; and Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
A ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, November 5, celebrated the conversion of the former Alexander Inn, a historic two-story hotel in central Oak Ridge, into an assisted living center called Alexander Guest House.
The ceremony, which was organized by the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce, included an open house. Guests toured the new 64-apartment assisted living center, which is located at 210 East Madison Road in Jackson Square.
Preserving the former Alexander Inn had been a dream for years, and those who have toured the two-year, $8 million conversion, completed by Dover Development of East Tennessee, have described it as “lovely” and “absolutely tremendous,†among other superlatives. [Read more…]
A historic Ed Westcott image of the original showing of the movie, “The Beginning or the End”—The Story of the Atomic Bomb and Oak Ridge. (Submitted photo)
Reminder: A 70th anniversary celebration of the end of World War II will feature a special showing of the historic movie “‘The Beginning or the End,’ The Story of the Atomic Bomb and Oak Ridge.â€
This movie was Hollywood’s first attempt to tell the fascinating story of the creation of the world’s first atomic bomb in the massive, top-secret Manhattan Project. The movie was originally released in 1947, just two years after the end of the war. It stars Brian Donlevy, Robert Walker, and Tom Drake.
The celebration has been organized by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It’s scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday, August 29, at the Historic Grove Theater at 123 Randolph Road in Grove Center.
“We wanted to honor those who perished in WWII, our great veterans, Manhattan Project and Cold War workers, and the world-changing Y-12 plant on this anniversary,†said Mick Wiest, president of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. “It’s important to remember and be grateful.†[Read more…]
