Oak Ridge
Heritage and Preservation Association
July 12, 2007
Attendance: Fred Heddleson, Dick Raridon, Colleen Black, Mary Fair, Ruth Ann
Maddux, C. J. Maddux, Bill Henry, Howard Harvey, Ray Smith, Fanny Smith, Heidi
Miller, Dave Miller, Betty White, Dave White, Anne McBride, Martin McBride,
Margaret Allard, Bill Wilcox, Jeanie Wilcox, Mick Wiest, Harold Jernigan, Helen
Jernigan, Marty Newton, Ed Westcott, Sheila Hutchison, Keith McDaniel and
Michael Toomey.
The meeting began at 7:05 PM in the Wildcat Den room of the Midtown Community
Center. ORHPA President, Keith McDaniel presided at the meeting. There were 27
people present (see attachment 1 on file).
Secret City Festival –
Mick Wiest reported we had a very large crowd of people visiting our exhibits at
the Civic Center during the Secret City Festival. Bobbie Martin, our Festival
Chairperson will make her report at the next meeting. Martin McBride, who
coordinated this year’s ORHPA publicity for the Festival, suggested we plan to
augment next year’s publicity with paid advertising. Howard Harvey commented
that there was a steady, non-stop flow of visitors through our exhibits on both
days of the Festival this year.
Bill Wilcox reported some of the Partnership for K-25 Preservation and ORHPA
group worked the last 9 months with AMSE setting up an exhibit on the Wheat
Story and the future K-25 Interpretive Center. The exhibit, on the first floor
of AMSE, opened June 1 and will be open through August. The PKP group also
worked from January through June this year updating the displays at the
Visitor’s Overlook at K-25. It has been refurbished and is open to the public
with its new information panels and video. The PKP team led visitors on 4 bus
tours on Friday, June 15 and 6 tours on Saturday, June 16. The bus tours on the
“Heritage Center History Trail” were each about 2 hours long and traveled
through 18 different locations. The visitors on the bus tours received a special
souvenir booklet. The bus tours were very well received by the visitors to the
Festival.
Membership –
Harold Jernigan reported our membership is continuing to grow steadily. We now
have about 175 members.
Special reports –
Ray Smith reported on the ribbon cutting at the New Hope Center, at Y-12, this
past Tuesday. Some former New Hope residents were invited guests along with
Naomi Brummett who was presented with a special NNSA Commemorative Coin as the
community members were thanked for the sacrifice made when the Manhattan Project
took their land. There will be about 200 of Ed Westcott’s photos displayed in
large format at the Center. The Center is referred to as “Y-12’s New Face.”
Keith McDaniel talked about the note in the July ORHPA Newsletter regarding the
future move of the Convention and Visitors Bureau to temporary quarters in our
Alexander Room. The CVB is looking at possibly being in our building for 3 to 5
years. We still have some details to work out and discuss with our attorneys
before they can move into the Alexander Room.
Keith noted that we will miss member Floyd Shook who passed away two weeks ago.
Howard Harvey reported that Logan Atkins, an Eagle Scout Candidate from Boy
Scout Troop 129 has redone the landscaping outside of our building. He is
continuing to water all the new plants that he put into the ground. He has done
a very nice job.
Martin McBride suggested that the Board investigate an ORHPA sign for the lawn
in front of the Midtown Community Center - since we have such a prominent
location on the Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Guest Speaker –
Ray Smith introduced our guest speaker for the evening, Dr. Michael Toomey. Dr.
Toomey is the staff historian for the East Tennessee Historical Society. The
society is located at 601 S. Gay Street in Knoxville. The organization was
founded in 1834 in Knoxville with a collection of early TN Founders letters and
papers. Most of the papers were in the home of a Confederate supporter, J. G. M.
Ramsey, and were lost when his home was burned down at the end of the Civil War.
A book Mr. Ramsey had written, based on the papers, has survived. The East TN
Historical Society has held regular meetings since 1927. Their official goals
are to, “preserve, promote and interpret the history of Tennessee.” Their
unofficial goal is to make history personal, “that’s when it becomes exciting.”
The organization publishes books and does programming. They have a quarterly
lecture series. The next lecture will be on July 29th at 2 PM. The speaker will
be Dr. Robert Tracy McKenzie of the University of Washington. His topic is
“Lincolnites and Rebels: A Divided Town in the American Civil War.” The
organization also has a film archive and an educational outreach program to help
school teachers. They have an aggressive exhibit program as well.
The exhibit program started in the 1980’s when they hired a professional staff.
They change their exhibits every 4 to 5 months. There are currently two exhibits
through September. One is entitled “When the World Came to Knoxville – 25 Years
Later”, about the 1982 World’s Fair. The second one is entitled “Honky-Tonk,
Portraits of Country Music.” The next new exhibit will have its grand opening in
March of 2008. It will be called, “Voices of the Land - People of East
Tennessee.”
The 4 parts of the new exhibit will be- the Frontier, the Civil War, the
Industrialization after the War and the Growing Power of the Federal Government
in East Tennessee (the National Parks, TVA and Oak Ridge’s plants). Many of Ed
Westcott’s photos will be used in the exhibit. Dr. Toomey told us and Ed
Westcott, who was sitting in the audience, that Ed’s photos are some of the
strongest story telling pieces that they are using in the exhibit. The people at
the American Museum of Science and Energy are also helping with the exhibit.
Their goal is to show how the events that have taken place in East Tennessee
have a very unique place in the history of our nation. The website of the E. TN
Historical Society is www.east-tennessee-history.org and they are open Monday –
Saturday 9 AM to 4 PM and Sundays from 1-5 PM. at 601 S. Gay Street, Knoxville,
TN 37901.
The guest speaker for our next meeting, on August 9, will be Don Raby of the
Pellissippi Genealogical Society. His topic will be, “The Kingston Demolition
Range, Updating and Future Opportunities.”
Keith McDaniel is planning to put together a sneak peak at the Secret City Film
Festival for our September 13th meeting. The film festival will take place in
October but Keith has several films that are based on the local area that he
will be showing us early before the Film Festival.
The meeting adjourned at 8:20 PM. Refreshments were served.
Minutes respectfully submitted,
Anne McBride
Secretary, ORHPA, July 24, 2007
