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…]
There will be a grand re-opening celebration for the K-25 Visitors Center and Overlook in west Oak Ridge on Monday afternoon, according to the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
It’s a kick-off party for National Travel and Tourism Week. There will be food trucks, live music, interactive exhibits, and more, the ORHPA said.
The celebration is scheduled from 4-6 p.m. Monday, May 6, at 2013 Highway 58.
[Read more…]
Seventy-five-year-old asphalt pavement found in the overgrowth adjacent to the bridge on Historic Emery Road. (Submitted photo)
Volunteers are seeking help for a March 30 cleanup of the Historic Emery Road in Oak Ridge.
“The Emery Road is both the best kept secret of Oak Ridge and a national treasure,” a press release said. “Even though the century-and-a-half old Emery Road Rock Pillar Bridge is in the heart of the downtown area, few are aware of this monument to the past, nor that the oldest road in the state passed through the center of our town. This colonial settlement trail should have been formally recognized long ago, just as the Natchez Trace has been. A grassroots group of citizens seek to change this oversight, first by cleaning up the parkland surrounding it, where the invasive underbrush catches all the blowing litter from the surrounding businesses, and then by getting it recognized as a proper heritage park.
“If you think our deeper heritage as a community is important, come join us in the cleanup on March 30, 2019, at the Midtown Community Center (Robertsville Road and Oak Ridge Turnpike) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.” [Read more…]
Image courtesy American Museum of Science and Energy
The American Museum of Science and Energy is celebrating 70 years. As part of the celebration, there are three events scheduled next week, on March 19 and March 23, at AMSE and Oak Ridge History Museum.
It’s being called a platinum anniversary celebration of science, ingenuity, and the catalyst of the Atomic Age.
“As an anchor of the community, AMSE is proud to celebrate a city that once only existed a vision,” a press release said. “The footprint of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will forever be etched into history as one of the foundations of the Manhattan Project. Seventy years ago, steps were taken to preserve that vision and recognize how the world was changed by the ‘Secret City.’ The museum tells the story about how and why people learned to split the atom. On March 19, 1949, the city’s gates and the nation’s first atomic energy museum, named the American Museum of Atomic Energy, were opened to the public for the first time. [Read more…]
Photo by Oak Ridge History Museum
The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association will celebrate two history-related events this month: the opening of the Oak Ridge city gates 70 years ago and the opening of a new museum, the Oak Ridge History Museum.
The celebration is scheduled for Saturday, March 23.
The new museum was established to preserve the history of the life and work of the people who made the Manhattan Project a success, a press release said. The primary purpose of the museum is to focus on the “human side†of the Manhattan Project, telling the story of the history of Oak Ridge and the people’s day-to-day lives during World War II. The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II.
The Oak Ridge History Museum exhibits feature a unique collection of authentic artifacts and displays, including historic photographs made by Ed Westcott, the famous Manhattan Project photographer in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]
Jim Walther (Photo courtesy ORHPA)
The director of the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in New Mexico will speak in Oak Ridge on Tuesday.
The talk by the director, Jim Walther, is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Tuesday, January, 22, at the American Museum of Science and Energy, which relocated to renovated space near JCPenney at Main Street Oak Ridge in October.
The talk is hosted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association and AMSE.
“Make your plans now to attend this exceptional event,” a press release said. “The evening public forum meeting is free, and the public is encouraged to attend. Jim Walther will provide unique museum insights to help us learn more about the opportunities that may be available to Oak Ridge and our museums from an experienced museum professional of 39 years. [Read more…]
The Midtown Community Center on Robertsville Road is pictured above. (Submitted photo)
In August, the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association announced that it was opening the historic Midtown Community Center to the public on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and the organization has plans for a new Oak Ridge History Museum.
The announcement was made by the ORHPA’s Oak Ridge History Museum Committee.
The Midtown Community Center is open to the public: [Read more…]
Submitted photo
Carolyn Krause, a newspaper contributor and former editor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will discuss mercury in Oak Ridge at a meeting tonight (Thursday, May 17).
Krause’s talk is titled “Oak Ridge’s Mercury Saga: A History of Mercury Contamination in Oak Ridge and the Public and Scientific Response.”
The talk is hosted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Midtown Community Center (formerly the Wildcat Den) at 102 Robertsville Road.
“On May 17, 1983, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it had ‘lost’ or could not account for 2.4 million pounds of mercury in the Oak Ridge environment as a result of lithium production for a U.S. thermonuclear weapons program,” a press release said. [Read more…]
Submitted image
A Wildcat Den Preservation Party on Friday will feature Soul Sanction.
The Preservation Party is promoted by the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
It is scheduled from 7-10:30 p.m. Friday, May 11, at the Midtown Community Center at 102 Robertsville Road. [Read more…]
The Highland View Neighborhood Association and the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association have organized a cleanup of the historic Emery Road Rock Pillar Bridge Area near the Midtown Community Center (Wildcat Den) on Saturday.
The cleanup is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, April 28.
“We invite the public to help in cleaning up this parkland area,” an event notice said. “Bring gloves; other equipment will be provided by Keep Anderson County Beautiful. Snacks and water will be served to participants of the cleanup to sustain the effort.”
The rain day for this event will be May 5. [Read more…]
Mary Harris
Anderson County’s historian will discuss the land and people before Oak Ridge during a Thursday evening meeting.
Mary S. Harris is Anderson County historian and records custodian, a press release said.
She will be the featured speaker at the monthly public meeting of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association. It is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 8, at the Midtown Community Center’s Wildcat Den.
The city that is now Oak Ridge was picked for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal project to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II, more than 75 years ago, on September 19, 1942. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Project on December 28, 1942, and by then, work on the site where the first production facilities would be built here was already under way. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation is planning to publish a commemorative book to mark the 75th anniversary of Oak Ridge Schools, complete with color photos, stories, and memories as told by teachers and alumni from each class from 1944 to 2018. The book’s cover art is by Jim Dodson. (Submitted image)
The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation is planning a special book project to celebrate the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Oak Ridge Schools.
The book will be a collection of memories as told by teachers and alumni across all classes from 1944-2018. The Foundation has identified people to serve as anchor authors for each of the 75 classes, a press release said. Anchor authors have the option to share their memories, and they will help collect memories from classmates. Each class will submit two to three pages for publication in the book.
“This is a timely project to still be able to tell first-hand stories from the early beginnings and to cross-pollinate and historically savor and preserve the collected experiences from the first 75 years,†said Benita Albert, Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation board member. Albert, a retired math teacher, has found it to be very rewarding interviewing alumni and researching stories from the earliest years, the press release said. [Read more…]
