2006 Historically Speaking : As published in the Oak Ridger Newspaper

Ridger

Preface

Historically Speaking has gone well beyond my initial expectations and has opened up opportunities I never anticipated. Each weekly column brings phone calls, e-mails and personal contacts that lead to more stories. Compliments on the articles are embarrassingly frequent.

I have been privileged to gain access to much detailed and specific historic information and to meet many people who have lived the history they share with me. Often the most valuable information comes from a mistake I make or an error I publish through my ignorance of the details of a situation. The phone calls and the e-mails invariably add to my knowledge and make for a more genuinely accurate historic account.

My goal is to share all information on a subject that helps to clarify the details and assures accuracy. Sometimes follow up articles are used to clarify and correct past erroneous or incomplete information.

The weight of responsibility placed on those of us who chose to write of historic events is enormous and I struggle to assure accuracy in all my writing. However, all too frequently, I find that my limited historic experience and lack of first-hand knowledge causes me to rely on sources that may prove to be less than thorough. Thus, the involvement of Historically Speaking readers is most valuable.

My experience writing a weekly historical newspaper column has been valuable and has opened doors for further opportunities. Yet, the experience writing the column pales in comparison to the wonderful, colorful and interesting contacts I have made in the community.

I often feel fortunate that I get to meet great individuals who lived here before there was a Manhattan Project, individuals who experienced the grand military/industrial experiment that was the Manhattan Project – surely the greatest single such effort in the history of the world, individuals who actually and personally helped to win the Cold War and even individuals who are today doing amazing science and producing actual historic accomplishments right now. Oak Ridge truly is where science keeps on making history and education leads the way – a quote from the December 26, 2006 Historically Speaking column, Education Foundation Looks toward the Future.

None of this would be possible without the devoted readers of Historically Speaking. I wish to thank each and every one of you. Your unfailing support and encouragement warms my heart and continually reinforces the value of my efforts to compile information and to complete research that keeps fresh and interesting ideas flowing.

Without the dedicated support of historians Bill Wilcox, Oak Ridge’s Official Historian, and Bill Sergeant as well as numerous others, I would not be able to continue. Each of these resource persons frequently drop what they are doing and provide answers to my often cumbersome questions. The two Bill’s are my most reliable resources, among my strongest supporters and my unfailing yet kind critics.

I also must thank the staff of The Oak Ridger. Donna Smith, Betsy Abernathy, Darrell Richardson, Scott Fraker, Chris Lamm and I am sure there are others who routinely work to assure the Historically Speaking column is published.

But my most grateful and heartfelt thanks goes to my wonderful wife, Fanny. She is most understanding and supportive of the many hours I must spend doing research, writing the column and interacting with the many phone calls we get. She often takes the messages and encourages me to return calls and follow up on each and every contact. She is both my most ardent supporter and my strongest critic, reading each and every article with what I feel is pride yet also with a constant eye for typos.

I am blessed with many supporters and I thank each and every one of you. I surely hope you find this compilation of Historically Speaking columns worthy of your expectations and something that makes you proud of our unique history.

Introduction

Historically Speaking is a weekly newspaper column first published in The Oak Ridger, a local daily newspaper in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Publication began in February, 2006 at the urging of Richard Esposito, Publisher, and Darrell Richardson, Editor, of The Oak Ridger. When first envisioned, the purpose for the column was to provide historical content for the newspaper and to encourage increased interest in Oak Ridge’s unique historical heritage. The primary focus was to be on the Manhattan Project history and to include other aspects of regional history that helped place Oak Ridge in the midst of other Appalachian historic events.

The column is now in its third year of weekly publication. The initial purpose has been fully met and the scope of the historic focus remains Oak Ridge with occasional ventures into surrounding regional history. I believe we Oak Ridgers need to understand our surrounding history and thus have chosen to feature stories that help put that into proper context. Feedback has been strongly positive and each week more and more people contact me with items of interest.

This book contains the articles published in 2006. A second volume is being prepared that will include the articles published in 2007. As the third year of publication has begun and should the column continue, a third book will be published. Just how long Historically Speaking will continue is hard to say…

It is my hope that you enjoy the read yourself, share the stories with others, and that all learn the history of a most unusual and unique experience that placed Oak Ridge amidst equally unusual and unique Appalachian communities in their own right. The resulting interactions, complimentary support, joint growth efforts and other results of the mixing of cultures over the past 65 years has produced a truly intriguing historical kaleidoscope of most interesting stories, all too often undocumented and thus lost within a generation.

I hope you agree that 2006 Historically Speaking has succeeded in capturing history that will be enjoyed and appreciated by readers now and for generations to come.

Ray Smith

2006 Historically Speaking is available for purchase online from www.TheSecretCityStore.com, directly from the publisher at www.lulu.com/smithdray or www.SmithDRay.net or also by contacting me directly by e-mail at draysmith@comcast.net or by phone at 865-482-4224.

Bill Wilcox - Oak Ridge historian

By: D. Ray Smith | Historically Speaking | The Oak Ridger | February 7, 2006

My friend, Bill Wilcox – what a great honor it is to begin a new history column in The Oak Ridger featuring the history of the epitome of role models for a historian.

As a result of recent articles I have written about Jack Case and the desire of both Richard Esposito, publisher, and Darrell Richardson, editor, to have more history published in The Oak Ridger, I have been given an opportunity to try my hand at a regular column in our local daily newspaper. I sure hope I am worthy of their trust.

While I will write about such historic elements of our city as the Alexander Inn (The Guest House) and the building at 55 Jefferson Ave., and may even try to tell the history of such institutions as The Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge and the American Museum of Science and Energy, I truly want to focus most of the columns on individuals who have contributed to Oak Ridge’s history. Obviously, Dick Smyser, Gene Joyce, Ed Westcott and others come immediately to mind. I solicit your input on individuals you would like to see featured (e-mail draysmith@comcast.net).

However, I see this column as a forum whereby some of the local individuals who may have gone unrecognized in the past might just be included here - and their stories told for us all to enjoy. The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association’s 60 Heritage Honorees created at Oak Ridge’s 60th anniversary is an excellent starting point for identifying such individuals. Thanks to the efforts of several ORHPA members led by Bobbie Martin, there is a great deal of information available to build upon.

Let’s start with Bill. Born Jan. 26, 1923, in Harrisburg, Penn., Bill attended Raub Elementary School in Allentown from 1929 to 1935 and graduated from Allentown High School in 1939. He then went to college at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., graduating in 1943.

Immediately out of college, he joined the Manhattan Project in Rochester, N.Y., as a chemist. As soon as the first chemistry building was finished at Y-12, he came to Oak Ridge. His career began by working in the Y-12 chemistry labs as a chemist in the Refining Oxide Department, Beta Chemistry Division at Y-12 in support of the electromagnetic separation process in the calutrons. This process purified the half-enriched product from the alpha calutrons so it could be fed into the beta calutrons that turned out the highly pure Uranium 235 for the first atomic bomb.

Bill Wilcox speaks at the well-attended Secret City Commemorative Walk dedication last summer. He was a driving force in the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge’s efforts to build the historic landmark in downtown Oak Ridge.

Bill worked in Building 9203 and then Building 9206, both of which were chemical processing facilities. Remember that Y-12 peaked with 1,152 calutrons in nine huge buildings and had 22,400 people working just to turn out something over 140 pounds of the precious Uranium 235. This material was so scarce and hard to obtain that every possible measure was taken to assure that none of the material was lost. After the war effort, Bill worked as a process control laboratory head and then as a research chemist at Y-12 before transferring to K-25 in 1949 to assist the research and development director.

In 1954, Bill became the head of the Physics Department and served there for 12 years. In 1966, he was promoted to R&D division superintendent and held that position for three years. In 1969, he undertook a unique assignment to become the technical director for both the K-25 and Y-12 plants. Before retiring, Bill served as technical assistant to the president of Union Carbide Nuclear Division for five years.

For six years after retirement, Bill worked as an independent management consultant providing assistance to the three DOE plants in Oak Ridge and the Paducah plant, as well as many other organizations, through his most effective style of facilitating strategic planning for both large and small organizations.

In later years, Bill has taken on the role of lecturer extraordinaire. If you have never attended a presentation by Bill to see his facial expressions, his arm waving, his enthusiastic and demonstrative style, then you have truly missed an exceptional and memorable experience. He is immortalized by his performance in Secret City: The Oak Ridge Story - The War Years, a 90-minute DVD produced by Keith McDaniel and co-produced by David Bradshaw and myself. We think the huge success of this film is due largely to Bill’s exquisite performance.

Bill is the author of numerous white papers such as A Plan for Preserving the Manhattan Project Heritage of Oak Ridge in March 2003. In August 2001, he published a history of the Y-12 Plant which is available at the American Museum of Science and Energy Discovery Shop, as is the DVD mentioned above. He has assisted in the History Channel’s Modern Marvels documentary Manhattan Project and has spoken often to numerous audiences on Why Did the Manhattan Project Succeed? and even more often on The Role of Oak Ridge in the Manhattan Project.

One of Bill’s most impressive accomplishments is his help with the Secret City Commemorative Walk, a gift to the city from the Rotary Club of Oak Ridge. Since its dedication in June 2005 it has become a central location for anyone desiring to know the history of Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project and the time that Oak Ridge truly was a secret city. Bill’s dedication speech, given to a huge audience in the parking lot of the library, served to set the stage for the scope of the endeavor to create the walk. It also recognized the worldchanging events that took place here in the secret city and the people who actually accomplished the seemingly impossible, and forever set the world on a new and exciting course of discovery and application of atomic energy.

Bill’s latest passion is the historic K-25 U Building (at 44 acres, the largest building under one roof in the entire world at the time of its construction) at the K-25 Site - known now as the Heritage Center of the East Tennessee Technology Park. With the demolition of the majority of the World War II Manhattan Project structures at the former Gaseous Diffusion Plant, Bill has championed an approach that will save a significant portion of the history of the tremendous work done at the K-25 Plant for over 40 years. A visual concept of the building will be available to the public through creative and selective demolition activities that will keep the basement inner wall and perimeter of the original building. In addition, the North End building will be preserved with example authentic diffusion equipment for the realistic experience of the visiting public. While the details are still being worked out, Bill has tirelessly contributed specific and minutely-described explicit instructions as to what will be required to obtain the goal of a tourist destination at the K-25 Heritage Center that will sustain itself and provide income for the city for years to come.

His latest white paper and PowerPoint presentation, Saving K-25: Why Save It, What to Save, and for Whom? is a work of art and a tremendous asset to those who are attempting to understand how to transition from a culture of demolition only to one of determining both what key facilities to save and how to assure the structures being preserved for the future are truly the right ones to put the money and effort into. The payback must be there, and heritage tourism is a key element in the overall picture of the future with regard to historic preservation. Bill understands this.

In addition to being a long-time member of the Rotary Club, Bill also is a member of the Oak Ridge Heritage & Preservation Association, a founder and advisory board member of the Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees, has been on the boards of the Methodist Medical Center, Aid for Distressed Families in Appalachian Counties, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Citizens for National Security, and is presently actively supporting the Oak Ridge Heritage Tourism Implementation Task Force.

Bill married Eugenia Jeanie Holder Aug. 17, 1946, after meeting her in Oak Ridge. They have three children, Kitty, Bill and Martha, and have lived in an F house on New York Avenue since 1956. Before becoming addicted to Oak Ridge history in recent years, his interests were George Washington’s Life

Portraits, which many groups in town have heard about, family history, work with his church, and his neglected - he complains - lake house on Watts Bar.

See why I am so proud to begin this new endeavor with Bill Wilcox as the first installment of the column to promote better understanding and appreciation of our short but significant history? I look forward to the opportunity to write about our mutual interest in the history in Oak Ridge and would very much like to do so as you would like to see it presented.

Please let me know what you would like to see included in future columns. You may contact me via e-mail at draysmith@comcast.net or by phone at (865) 482-4224.

The Guest House (Alexander Inn)

By: D. Ray Smith | Historically Speaking | The Oak Ridger | February 14, 2006

The historic marker standing just southwest of the front entrance to the Alexander Inn commemorates visitors to the Clinton Engineer Works such as J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Secretary of War Henry Stimson. The front lobby still has furniture reminiscent of an earlier time. The sign, though faded, still welcomes the visitor to the Restaurant and City Club Lounge, and the front porch still looks inviting as it stands empty. It affords an expansive view of the bustling city of Oak Ridge passing by below.

The historic Guest House is in a sad state of disrepair. Although there is recent evidence of attempts to prevent further damage through boarding up windows and trimming overgrown bushes, a lot of significant damage has already been done. The vandals who routinely entered and continually damaged this unique and historic icon of the Manhattan Project history ought to be ashamed of their behavior and utter disrespect for our unique history. The fragile nature of this property makes it dangerously close to being lost to us forever. The Tennessee Preservation Trust has listed the Alexander Inn as being one of the state’s top 10 most endangered historic landmarks.

Joanne Gailar said of the Alexander Inn in an article published in The Oak Ridger in March 2002:

"It was there - in 1945, during this Inn’s first two of its seven years as the Guest House - that I spent my first night in Oak Ridge. An immature bride of 20, having dwelt all my life in settled, ‘old’ New Orleans, how I wept when my husband told me that this was ‘the most beautiful site’ in the raw ‘new’ town that would be my home. If anyone had told me that, 20 years hence, I would come to love Oak Ridge as no other town in the world and regard the Guest House/Alexander Inn as a cherished symbol of its pioneer days, I would have laughed aloud.

"Not so my parents. From their first night at the Guest House in 1948 until their last, 21 years later, in the (then) Alexander, they delighted in the friendliness of the staff and the informal atmosphere - so much so that even in 1959, when my husband and I had a large enough house to accommodate them, they preferred to stay there.

"In 1981, when my father came to spend his last five years with Norman and me, little wonder that he chose the Alexander as his favorite place for lunch. Still able to drive at 87, once a week he would don his felt hat in winter, his straw hat in summer, and indulge in the lavish buffet. ‘Buffet?’ I queried him, remembering how he referred to my company dinners as ‘Joanne’s cafeteria-style meals.’ ‘But Daddy, you don’t like buffets,’ I reminded him. ‘No problem,’ he explained, ‘the waitresses bring it to the table for me.’

"My most heartwarming memory of the Alexander and these ‘waitresses’ dates back to the day Daddy forgot his wallet. ’Don’t worry,‘ he reassured the one who had served him, ’I’ll go right home and get it.‘ Before he could leave the table, all four waitresses assembled around him. ’That’s not necessary, Mr. Stern,‘ announced their spokesperson, ’This time the meal’s on us.‘

"Other pleasant recollections are of lunching with friends in the Alexander’s restaurant - or with civic groups in its private dining room. And one of my oddest has to do with my mother’s encounter with a stranger in the lounge. ‘My husband has been wooed away by the prostitutes of Oak Ridge,’ she lamented to my astonished parent. (‘I didn’t know that Oak Ridge had prostitutes,’ Mother commented to me later.)

"My most recent visits to the Alexander occurred in the ‘90s, when I participated in two of the three Elderhostels on Oak Ridge, sponsored by the local Children’s Museum. What an appropriate place, I thought, to describe Oak Ridge in her pioneer days.

Rather than focus on the facts about the Guest House at this time or add to the cry for its preservation (which is obviously the right thing to do), I have chosen to include Joanne’s account of the joy her father experienced when visiting the Alexander Inn. We have a cultural treasure here in the Guest House/Alexander Inn and it is fast slipping from our grasp. That should not be. We should not allow this icon of early Oak Ridge history to pass from our midst - it must be restored to its former grandeur and once again become a center of activity in Oak Ridge.

Just a bit of history before we wrap up this article (I can’t resist). The Guest House was constructed in the spring of 1943. The 44-room concrete block addition was added in 1949. It was renamed the Alexander Inn in 1950 for the New Jersey owner McKie Alexander. The kitchen, dining room and lounge were added in 1950 and ushered in the City Club era. Merrill Boatman purchased the property in the late 1980s. The hotel was closed and has been vacant since sometime in the 1990s.

In a future column on The Guest House/The Alexander Inn, I will include more history of the fine old establishment and its storied legacy.

Ed Westcott - Oak Ridge photographer extraordinaire

By: D. Ray Smith | Historically Speaking | The Oak Ridger | February 21, 2006

Lynn Freeny, present-day official photographer for the Department of Energy, Oak Ridge Office, proudly calls Ed Westcott his friend and fellow photographer. In honoring Ed by contributing to the book Through the Lens of Ed Westcott Lynn tells how he met Ed Westcott. It seems Lynn was a young photographer working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the early 1980s when, because of the heavy workload, Ed Westcott was hired part-time to help in the darkroom. Lynn noted that the prints coming out were better than when he printed the same negatives. He wanted to know who is the person? That is when he was introduced to our own renowned Manhattan Project photographer Ed Westcott.

From that introduction Ed and Lynn formed a fast friendship. Lynn gives Ed credit for paving the way for other photographers in Oak Ridge. I might add that Ed set a standard of excellence that few have attained. His photographs are truly works of art!

Baldwin Lee, professor of art in the School of Art at the University of Tennessee, chronicled the early history of Ed in the same book mentioned above. Lee begins with Ed’s assignment on Dec. 15, 1942, as official Manhattan Project photographer at age 20. He then recalls Ed’s early introduction to photography by his father, Jamie Westcott, who, after saving for