Anybody lived in or visited Oakridge TN? Is the Atomic Museum worth a visit?

[aceplace57]

I’ve always been fascinated by the city behind a fence. Atomic City or as it was originally known, the Clinton Engineer Works (CEW). At its height there were 75,000 people there in a town that was practically constructed overnight and wasn’t on any maps.

We’ve long talked about taking a trip to Oakridge. I’d love to see these old government houses made of cemesto (bonded cement and asbestos) panels. Visit the Atomic museum and take the bus tour.

Is it worth the trip? How much is left of the original WWII community? It shrunk from 75,000 to todays population of 29,000. I’d guess a lot was torn down?

Museum Trip Advisor

Ed Westcott Photo Archive He was the gov’s official photographer for the Manhattan Project. Great shots of life on the community, but you’ll notice the Fence, guardposts, and MP’s aren’t in the pictures. Very surreal to see boy scouts, girls learning to ride, the high school and just out of the frame was MP’s and guard shacks.

City Behind A Fence: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 1942-1946 Best book I’ve found on life in Oakridge and how life behind the fence and the intense secrecy affected them.

Oakridge

Housing for families was constructed according to a series of templates, identified by letters. Thus an “A” house was the smallest lettered design, with two small bedrooms and one bathroom. A “B” house featured two bedrooms, one bathroom and a larger living space. A “C” house featured three bedrooms and one bathroom. A “D” house featured three bedrooms with one and one-half bathrooms and a larger living space. An “E” was a two-story four-unit structure, and an “F” was the largest type home. The smallest homes were called “flat tops”; originally intended to be only temporary structures, they proliferated atop the ridges in the west end of town.

[aceplace57]

This is of personal interest to me because I lived on an Air Force Base up until the 5th grade. We lived in base housing, I played in the base playground directly behind our house, went to a base elementary school, and shopped at the Bx and commissary. There was a guard shack at the entrance of the base.

But I never experienced the intense security atmosphere of Oakridge. A place where no one ever discussed what they did or asked too many questions.

[aceplace57]

I forgot to mention Ed Westcott’s Photo book. It has more pics of WWII Oakridge than the free website than I linked in the OP.

[lost4life]

I live right next door, but never did the museum. You can see some of the old housing around the area. I don’t have much to add except to say that it’s Oak Ridge, two words.

Oh yeah, and it’s where the Oak Ridge Boys originally performed, although I think they’re actually from Knoxville.

[Iggy]

I only learned last year that much of the Oak Ridge project was managed by workers from the same Eastman Kodak chemical plant where my father worked in my old hometown.

Not sure if it was just the overall nature of the secrecy of the project but this critical role of our hometown was never mentioned in school. They did have a lesson about how the local army ammunition plant was a wartime contributor, in fact built by that same Eastman Kodak chemical plant.