Oak Ridge Today

Help identify photos in Oak Ridge Library’s Ruth Carey collection

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From the Oak Ridge Public Library Ruth Carey photo collection (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

From the Oak Ridge Public Library Ruth Carey photo collection (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

 

The Oak Ridge Public Library needs your help. The library is privileged to house the photography collection of Ruth Carey, an original Oak Ridge resident and longtime photographer for The Oak Ridger from the 1960s to the mid-1990s. Her photo collection is vast and varied, including pictures of key political and cultural figures, community events, and weddings. Figures such as Alex Haley and Guilford Glazer, for instance, appear in several photos. Unfortunately, many of the photographs do not include notes about who is in the photo or when or where it was taken.

With the help of volunteers, Oak Ridge Public Library staff members Teresa Fortney and Jordan Reed have begun digitizing the collection. Some of the photographs that have been digitized are available for public viewing online at www.orpl.org. However, Carey’s collection was so comprehensive, only a portion of the total number of photographs have been digitized. As the library continues its digitization efforts, it is important that the people and places are identified so as not to lose this important part of our history. [Read more…]

Letter: Proud of Progress PAC endorsement, positive campaign

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To the Editor:

I read the article in Wednesday’s The Oak Ridger where the reporter contacted the five candidates who were not endorsed by the Progress PAC for comments. I wonder why The Oak Ridger did not contact all the candidates.

Either way, I found most comments professional, and in particular Mike Mahathy’s and Jean Hiser’s and in general Andrew Howe’s. Both Andrew Howe’s and Laurie Paine’s, however, referenced me so I feel necessary to respond. [Read more…]

Former home of Oak Ridger, shops near Magic Wok could be demolished

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Wender Building

Most of a commercial building that once housed The Oak Ridger on Tyrone Road near Jackson Square could be demolished in six months under a plan proposed to a city board on Thursday. The Magic Wok restaurant, which is separate from the building, would remain, as would a small portion of the building.

 

Magic Wok

The detached Magic Wok diner would remain and so would the western portion of the building near the restaurant.

Note: This story was updated at 2:35 p.m. May 10.

Most of a commercial building that was once home to The Oak Ridger newspaper and other businesses on Tyler and East Tyrone roads could be demolished later this year, an engineer and surveyor told a city board on Thursday.

The western part of the building near the Magic Wok restaurant would remain, and so would the diner itself.

Roughly 26,000 square feet of the building, which has housed a wide variety of businesses since the 1940s, would be demolished down to the slab. The demolition of the property, which is also known as the Wender Building after a former owner, would include the space occupied for decades by Classic Cleaners.

Noel M. Peterson, owner of Coal Creek Surveying and Engineering of Lake City, briefly outlined the plans of the owners—Jia-Chao and Ming-Wha Wang—during a Thursday meeting of the Oak Ridge Board of Building and Housing Code Appeals.

Many of the details still have to be worked out with the Oak Ridge municipal staff, and the board gave the owners another 30 days. But it’s considered a last-chance extension. [Read more…]

Frank hires Oak Ridger reporter for county post

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New Anderson County Mayor Terry Frank has named newspaper reporter Leean Tupper as her administrative assistant, a press release said.

An Anderson County native, Tupper has worked as staff reporter and lifestyles editor at The Oak Ridger since November 2004. She previously worked for more than five years at the Courier News in Clinton. Between the two jobs, she has covered Anderson County government and local schools for 13 years, the press release said.

“I am so excited to add Leean to the operations of the mayor’s office,” Frank said. “In addition to being a wonderfully kind and professional woman, Leean brings to county government a great understanding of the history of Anderson County from her years as a reporter.”

[Read more…]