A book about the desegregation of Clinton schools won the Tennessee History Book Award for 2023.
The book is “A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation.” It was written by Rachel Louise Martin, a historian and writer, a press release said.
The award was announced by the Tennessee Historical Commission and the Tennessee Historical Society. The award prize includes $2,000.
[Read more…]The City of Oak Ridge is pursuing a historic preservation grant that could be used to study priority historic areas and focus on preservation, the removal of blight, and the expansion of the tax base.
If awarded, the grant from the Tennessee Historical Commission could be worth up to $15,000. It would require a 40 percent local match.
The Oak Ridge City Council will consider accepting the grant, if it is awarded, during its regular meeting on Monday.
[Read more…]
Note: This story was updated at 12:30 p.m.
The Freels Bend Cabin, Oak Ridge’s oldest structure, was recognized with a historical sign in October.
The historical sign by the Tennessee Historical Commission said the Freels Bend Cabin, next to Melton Hill Lake east of Clark Center Park in south Oak Ridge, is the only Oak Ridge home that is still standing that was built in the 1800s.
It was one of the earliest cabins built in Anderson County. It’s on the National Historic Register.
[Read more…]
D. Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian, left, received a U.S. Department of Energy Gold Medal Award on Monday, Nov. 20, 2017, for his role in helping to create the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge. The award was presented to Smith by retired Lieutenant General Frank G. Klotz, DOE under secretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. (Photo courtesy NNSA)
Note: This story was updated at 4:05 p.m.
D. Ray Smith, Y-12 National Security Complex historian, received a U.S. Department of Energy Gold Medal Award on Monday for his role in helping to create the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge.
The award was presented to Smith by retired Lieutenant General Frank G. Klotz, DOE under secretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Smith is retiring this month. He previously told Oak Ridge Today that he would retire November 22.
Established in November 2015, the Manhattan Project National Historical Park is a unique three-site park that includes Oak Ridge; Hanford, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico. The Manhattan Project was a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic weapons during World War II. Among other activities, Oak Ridge built uranium enrichment facilities for the Manhattan Project at Y-12 and the former K-25 site, and the city had the pilot facility for plutonium production at the Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which was then known as X-10. [Read more…]
Ray Smith is retiring as Y-12 National Security Complex historian on Nov. 22, 2017. Smith is pictured above during a ceremony for the K-25 History Center at East Tennessee Technology Park on Thursday, Oct. 19. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Y-12 National Security Complex Historian Ray Smith is retiring. Smith said he has been at Y-12 for 47 years, and he is retiring November 22.
Besides being Y-12 historian, Smith is also City of Oak Ridge historian and history columnist for The Oak Ridger newspaper, where he writes “Historically Speaking.” In 2012, he testified during a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the legislation to create the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes Oak Ridge; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington.
Smith has been Y-12 historian for about 10 years. He has also been a maintenance manager at Y-12.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed it,” Smith said this week.
After an overseas trip in August, Smith said he wants to travel with his wife Fanny.
“Fanny and I went to Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, and that made my decision,” Smith said.
Smith, who is a Vietnam veteran, said he will continue to write and be the Oak Ridge historian. He is vice president of the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association, and he was recently appointed to the Tennessee Historical Commission. He is a local leader helping to preserve the city’s history. He was friends with Bill Wilcox, the previous city historian who wrote a history of the former K-25 site that has been published posthumously with help from family members, Smith, and the Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association.
D. Ray Smith (Submitted photo)
Ray Smith, historian for the City of Oak Ridge and the Y-12 National Security Complex, has been selected to serve on the Tennessee Historical Commission, a press release said.
It’s the first time an Oak Ridger has been selected to serve on the Tennessee Historical Commission, the press release said.
There are 20 members from across the state, and a balanced mix of members is maintained to best represent the entire state on the commission, the release said.
It said Oak Ridge contributes to the State of Tennessee in a number of significant ways, including economic development and heritage and science tourism. [Read more…]
TVA Norris Hydoelectric Project (Submitted photo)
Norris Dam is one of three Tennessee sites added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, state officials said Wednesday.
The Tennessee Historical Commission announced the addition of the three sites. Besides Norris Dam, the other two sites are Jefferson Street Historic District in Brownsville in Haywood County and Kenner Manor Historic District in Nashville.
Norris Dam is referred to as the Norris Hydroelectric Project. Built in Anderson and Campbell counties between 1933 and 1936, the Norris Hydroelectric Project was the first project for the newly established Tennessee Valley Authority, a press release said. Named after Nebraska Senator George Norris, who advocated for public power facilities, the dam and associated properties provided electricity to the rural areas of Tennessee and the surrounding states, helped with seasonal flood control, and provided power for wartime industries.
Norris Hydroelectric Project had a dramatic impact on the landscape since people were displaced when Norris Lake was flooded, recreation areas were created, and the community of Norris was built, the press release said. [Read more…]
The interior of a rustic cabin at Norris Dam State Park. (Photos courtesy Tennessee State Parks/Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation)
Submitted
NASHVILLE—The Tennessee Historical Commission has announced that five Tennessee sites, including rustic cabins at Norris Dam State Park, have been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The National Register of Historic Places is the nation’s official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. It is part of a nationwide program that coordinates and supports efforts to identify, evaluate and protect historic resources. The Tennessee Historical Commission, as the State Historic Preservation Office, administers the program in Tennessee.
“The National Register is an honorary recognition for time-honored places that enrich our communities and make them unique,†State Historic Preservation Officer and Executive Director of the Tennessee Historical Commission Patrick McIntyre said. “We hope this recognition helps generate and reinforce an appreciation for these special properties, so they can be retained for present and future generations of Tennesseans.â€
Sites recently added to the National Register of Historic Places include: [Read more…]
Local, state, and federal officials join volunteers and nonprofit and business executives for a groundbreaking ceremony at the historic Alexander Inn on Thursday.
Top military leaders and scientists once stayed at this historic two-story hotel in the heart of Oak Ridge, and now it’s being converted into an assisted living center.
The $5.5 million renovation of the Alexander Inn at Jackson Square started in July, the culmination of a years-long preservation effort. It could be complete by mid-2014, said Rick Dover, manager of Family Pride Corp., the company converting the hotel.
The Guest House Senior Living at the Alexander Inn will have 62 rooms, including a 17-room memory care wing.
The hotel was built during the Manhattan Project, a top-secret federal program to build the world’s first atomic bombs during World War II. Guests who once stayed there included Gen. Leslie Groves, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and physicists J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi. [Read more…]
In June, workers had demolished the ballroom at the Alexander Inn, a historic, dilapidated two-story hotel that has been vacant for years and is now being converted into an assisted living facility. (File photo)
Local, state, and federal officials will join nonprofit and business executives for a formal groundbreaking and press conference on Thursday at the historic Alexander Inn, which is being converted into an assisted living center.
The press conference will start at 10 a.m. at the Guest House at the Alexander Inn Senior Living, which is at 210 E. Madison Road on the northwest side of Jackson Square. Representatives from the City of Oak Ridge, U.S. Department of Energy, Tennessee Historical Commission, East Tennessee Preservation Alliance, and Family Pride Corp. are all expected to take part.
The iconic two-story hotel had been unused for about two decades and fallen into disrepair. Family Pride Corp. has been rehabilitating the Manhattan Project-era building since May. It’s been stabilized, but the building will not be completed until mid-2014, a press release said. [Read more…]
Demolition is almost complete on most of the K-25 Building’s East Wing, and work on the North Tower, pictured in the background at left, could start in September. (Photo submitted by UCOR)
Historic preservationists lobbied for years to save the North Tower of the mile-long, U-shaped K-25 Building in west Oak Ridge, but an agreement that received a final signature on Tuesday clears the way for demolition work to begin there in late September or early October.
“It allows us to proceed with our cleanup activities … without delay,†said Mike Koentop, U.S. Department of Energy spokesman in the Oak Ridge Office.
However, officials plan to pay homage to the site, built during World War II to enrich uranium for atomic bombs, with a replica equipment building, viewing tower, and nearby history center, as well as a Web-based virtual museum and a $500,000 grant to buy and stabilize the dilapidated, historic Alexander Inn in central Oak Ridge.
