Oak Ridge
Heritage and Preservation Association
March 8, 2007
Attendance: Ruth Ann Maddux, C.J. Maddux, Ken Whitehouse, Peggy Whitehouse, Ed
Westcott, Steve Goodpasture, John Westcott, Judy Clevenger, Katy Brown, Cindy
Kelly, W. E. Tewes, Pat Clark, Colleen Black, Mary Fair, Don Welch, Susan Welch,
Susan Gawarecki, Charlie Hensley, Fanny Smith, Ann Stuck, Phil Longhurst, Tom
Hayes, Ray Evans, Mick Wiest, Edward W. Lollis, Donna F. Bennett, Nicky
Reynolds, Keith McDaniel, James T. Gillespie, Howard Harvey, Dick Raridon, Dave
White, Betty White, Wanda Hagood, Jerry Creasey, William Westcott, Emily
Hunnicutt, Margaret Allard, Larry Allard, Joseph Lee, Ellen Smith, Bill Henry,
Ray Smith, Dave Miller, Heidi Miller, Harold Jernigan, Sophia Kitts, Lloyd
Stokes, Betty Stokes, Sarah Stokes, Bobbie Martin, Anne McBride, Martin McBride,
Johnny Gruber, Kem Hinton, Gordon Fee, David Bradshaw, Bill Wilcox, Diana Davis
The meeting began at 7:05 p.m. in the Wildcat Den room of the Midtown Community
Center. President, Keith McDaniel presided at the meeting. There were 64 people
present. (See attachment 1 on file.)
Harold Jernigan, ORHPA Membership Chairman announced that organization
memberships were available to anyone in the audience who would like one.
Lloyd Stokes, ORHPA Nominating Committee Chairman asked the audience to forward
to him any suggestions they might have for an ORHPA Treasurer. Betty Lay
resigned as our Treasurer on February 28.
Bobbie Martin announced the ORHPA Secret City Festival Committee will meet soon.
Colleen Black introduced her special guest, Jennifer Kitts. She is looking for
women Manhattan Project workers to interview.
Keith McDaniel announced he has found a distributor in Los Angeles who can help
market and sell the Secret City Films and the Clinton 12 Film.
On Sunday evening, March 25 at 8:00 p.m. Fox News will have a special program
featuring our City Historian, Bill Wilcox. He was interviewed on Jan. 20, 2007
by Oliver North for his TV show.
Mayor, David Bradshaw introduced the program for the evening, “Saving a National
Treasure for Future Generations – What, Why, When and How.” This is the
preservation plan for K-25, organized by the Partnership for K-25 Preservation.
Bill Wilcox, (Chair of PKP), introduced Cindy Kelly of the Atomic Heritage
Foundation in Washington. Cindy, (Co-Chair of PKP), listed 3 important projects
now underway.
.
1. The National Park Service is working on a study for the preservation of
Manhattan Project Sites around the country.
Minutes – ORHPA Membership Meeting – March 8, 2007 page 2
2. The Atomic Heritage Foundation is trying to get the nation tuned in to the
stories within the Manhattan Project. The WWII Museum wants to partner with them
on a national tour for museums across the country.
3. An anthology on the Manhattan Project is being published, listing
information, photographs and oral histories on all the Project Sites in the
nation.
Many architectural renderings of the planned preservation of the K-25 site were
displayed around the Wildcat Den Room. Included in the display was a large model
of the future
K-25 Interpretive Center utilizing the North Building of the K-25 U. This model
was designed and built by Margaret Allard, ORHPA Exhibit Chair.
The dream of the PKP Team is to save the North Building of K-25 as an
Interpretive Center and the footprint of the two wings of the K-25 Building as a
National Historic Landmark for future generations and tourists. Another model in
the Wildcat Den room displayed lighted towers designating the corners of the
demolished wings of the K-25 building so that at dusk, tourists looking down on
the site from the Interpretive Center will be able to visualize the enormity of
the original building. The K-25 Building was the largest building in the world
when it was built. There are 300,000 square feet of space in the North Building
alone. The Interpretive Center will be designed to take tourists from the Blair
Road side of the building on an elevator to the 3rd floor. Tourists will be able
to look out the windows at the large courtyard down the center of the K-25 U.
They will also be able to view some of the gaseous diffusion equipment used in
the facility.
DOE signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2005 in which they agreed to
retain the north end of the K-25 Building and put a new roof on it as well. DOE
is currently evaluating how much of the original equipment in K-25 can be saved.
The demolition of the wings will leave a 10 foot foundation wall on which murals
depicting local history of the site will be placed.
There will also be a Heritage Center History Trail telling the story of the
pre-history of the K-25 site, including the Wheat Community Story, the Slave
Cemetery and Happy Valley, the town built for the construction workers at K-25.
This summer there will be tours, during the Secret City Festival, June 15 and
16, of the 18 sites on the History Trail with temporary signage. The K-25
Visitor’s Overlook will be upgraded in time for the Festival.
Johnny Gruber of Access Museum Services from Nashville spoke about how his
company has developed a business plan for the K-25 Tourism Site. He was hired to
compile a marketing report on the viability of the site. He said the development
of this project as a tourism destination is a very sound investment for our
community. “We have something that no one else in the U.S. has.”
Kem Hinton of the Architect Firm, Tuck-Hinton, also of Nashville, spoke about
his role in designing a plan for the tourists. He said Portal 4 will become the
entrance into the Interpretive Center. Tourists will receive a badge as they
enter. He proposes the footprint of the K-25
Minutes – ORHPA Membership Meeting March 8, 2007 page 3
building be strongly marked so tourists will be emotionally impacted by the
enormous size of the original building. If you were to set the K-25 building
next to a horizontal Eiffel Tower you would see a similar sized structure.
People know this was a secret place but they do not know why it was so.
Gordon Fee spoke about how we are dreaming “Big”. “No where else in the world
does anything similar to this site exist. The question is, how can we enhance
the site to make it more attractive to tourists? We have a phased plan for the
development of the site.”
The City of Oak Ridge has already spent l million dollars on heritage tourism,
starting with the Commemorative Walk. A computer database of workers at the K-25
site is being compiled. The goal is to attract several hundred thousand tourists
a year to the site. Restoring the north tower is expected to cost approximate 15
million dollars. “The plan is to move forward, one step at a time and integrate
this with the City’s design for the future,” said Gordon Fee.
It is very important that we participate in and support the Secret City Festival
and encourage our Chamber of Commerce to support Heritage Tourism.
Keith McDaniel thanked all the special guests for participating in the meeting.
He also thanked the Partnership for K-25 Preservation board members for all
their hard work on the project. More information on PKP is available on the
ORHPA website at www.ORHPA.com.
The next ORHPA membership meeting will be held on Thursday, April 12 at 7:00
p.m. in the Midtown Community Center. The agenda for the meeting will include an
update on ORHPA committees and business.
The meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m. Refreshments were served.
Minutes respectfully submitted,
Anne McBride,
Secretary, Oak Ridge Heritage and
Preservation Association.
