Oak Ridge Architecture

[MPicciotto]

Friends of mine purchased a home in Oak Ridge, TN. When visiting them and talking with their neighbor I learned that their home and, actually that entire section of Oak Ridge was built during the war. Does anybody know much about these homes?

I found the architecture quite interesting. It was a ranch style home on a full basement. Set in a hillside so their were steps to large front porch/patio. Nothing unusual so far. But then you entered through the kitchen? And went around to the left through the kitchen to the dining and living rooms which have a broad brick structure through the middle of the house. Going well beyond the absolute necessary for the fireplace. The rear of the home had very large glass windows, several feet across and probably 4ft high.

Was wondering how much of that was original and how much was done since. Also I forgot which letter designation their home is. But it's a 2 bedroom one.

Matt

 

[MPicciotto]

No bites? Ok I'll go get some pictures this week and put them up. Maybe that will help.

Matt

 

[Repairman Joe]

Hey! Thats my neck of the woods! Dont know too much about the architecture itself,but I do know that everything in Oak Ridge was originally built by the govt.(in secret) for the scientists working on the Manhatten Project. It was the Area 51 of its time...it was SO Top Secret that the entire town was built without the locals ever having a clue that it was even there. I had an Aunt that lived there(my Uncle worked at the labs) and when she moved in the 70's almost everything in her house was original. I've been back to the town since and can confirm that it hasnt changed much....like a lot of towns around these mountains,parts of it are definitely frozen in time !

 

[dhermann1]

I would love to see some pics. I believe Oak Ridge was the uranium purification facility for the A bomb project. There were like a couple miles worth of centrifuges that step by step concentrated the raw ore. I believe it is STILL the largest manufacturing facility ever built. I've seen a couple of clips or shots of the homes there. Nice little bungalows, but all identical.

 

[MPicciotto]

I'm all tired out from 9 hours of driving so pics will have to wait. But I took many pictures of my friends home. It's a "B Home" that is it's a 2 bedroom rancher, there were A, D and E homes as well. I think also an F. Each letter designated an additional bedroom as well as a bit more living space. The Wikipedia page does a nice job of condensing the information about the town during the war. The houses "up on the hill" where my friends live were apparently the more solidly built and housed scientist and their families. It is those homes that appear to have survived.

Dhermann1 that is correct. There were four separate facilities that used several different methods of enrichment. All no longer do enrichment. One is now being converted into a commercial/industrial park, another is a nuclear weapons facility and the third is a government laboratory. And one other was shut down at the end of the war. The K-25 site had the building you may be thinking of; 44 acres!! Largest building in the world at the time. (maybe still is?)

Matt

 

[MPicciotto]

Ok here are the pictures I promised. I have several shots of their home. Again this is a "B" House. It has a living room/dining room combination. The front entry off of the front porch goes straight into the kitchen. and to the right side of the house accessible from the living room are the two bedrooms and the bathroom is pretty much center/front of the house.

I found some post cards of Oak Ridge on eBay, late 1940's one and also one photo at a little museum kiosk thing across the street from the K-25 facility that showed the homes as they were. No driveways. So this driveway was added later. and by somebody who was serious. The retaining wall at the end is about 7ft tall. A LOT of earth was removed for that improvement to the property.

Along with the driveway this glass block window was added by a previous owner to let a LOT of light into the basement. You will also notice two siding types. There is an older steel or aluminum siding and a newer vinyl. Not sure when some of the older siding was replaced but it must have been a budget job and was limited to only the parts of the house absolutely needing it.

Under the new deck was a concrete slab for a rear patio and it appears to have previously had one of those metal awnings.

Nothing is original about the kitchen anymore. Straight in the front door and immediately to the right is a closet with a washer and drier, it was not originally a closet, but an alcove of sorts.

Looking back towards the kitchen from sort of between the living room and dining room 'areas' I think these shelves were installed by a previous owner who was a hobby woodworker. They are nicely done but have some characteristics that would point towards a hobbiest/owner versus a contractor or carpenter.

The floor in the living/dining room is T&G Oak. And is the original floor. I had suspected that these homes had boiler and were heated with baseboard heat, but I am wrong on that count. I did not find evidence of baseboard heat. There may have been radiators instead.

Looking closely I believe the large windows in the rear of the home are original. The two most striking elements to me about these homes are

1. The entry through the kitchen. It seems to violate all architectual discipline to make the main entry to the home go right through the kitchen. On the other hand it's good for grocery shopping.

2. The massive brick mantle. The base of which divides the basement almost in two. For a rapidly constructed government "war worker" home such a space occupying, labor intensive element seems out of place. Looking at listings for sale and looking at the outsides of other homes in the neighborhood it does not seem unique to their home. To me it seems to run counter to other construction methods used such as the "Cemesto" panels for siding.

It appears the foundation, chimney and floor were all built heavily using traditional methods and then the walls were built using a modular system. I failed to take any pictures of the inside showing this. But the exterior walls tend to have a vertical column every about 8ft. In looking at the few homes that were not resided this seems to corrospond with battens over the Cemesto panels.

If one does a real estate search for Oak Ridge, TN and sets the parameters to homes built before 1945 one can see many examples for sale of the various types. Also an eBay search will show some picture post cards. Most are color shots that were heavily worked on. But a few are actual photographs taken circa 1946. In them you can see the steel tube railings for the front steps, the lack of driveways but also the existence of porches. These homes were for the important scientist working on the Manhattan Project. The accommodations built for them were definitely above the typical war worker.

Matt

 

[MPicciotto]

An update. As I'll be moving to that area in 1.5-2 years I'm "window shopping" for houses. In the process I've found another example of a "B" home that has the same shelves around the door from the kitchen to the dining/living room and also the LARGE windows. Although that house seemed to have a smaller bathroom with access from the kitchen both to the left as per my friends home and also the right towards the bedrooms, bathroom and "hall" to the living room.

Matt

 

[listenone]

..sounds mysterious

 

[scottyrocks]

Not to minimize your research, but it looks like a plain ol' rectangular box house, maybe with some of the extras you described/showed.

 

[Treetopflyer]

Looking at your pictures, the first thing that comes to mind is standard military base housing. If you go to any base that was built during that time period you will find the base housing looks very similar.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

^^^I have to second this opinion. The house is oddly configured, but that just points to a government built house. I wonder if the kitchen is configured that way to save on plumbing? If the kitchen is at the front of the house, (and presumably the bathroom is on that side), then it's a few yards less pipe that has to be run to the main line out near the street. Multiplied by a couple of thousand it could save quite bit of metal - I guess. Not a contractor, but I've watched one on TV .

That, or an efficiency expert designed them. No real families were consulted!

 

[Gregg Axley]

Marsha, being in gov't I can honestly say that they didn't consult the "best in the business."
Cheapest yes, but not best....

 

[MPicciotto]

Thanks everyone! Like I mentioned earlier, upon studying another example in a real estate advert I was able to determine that the house had something of an entry way that one would then turn right into the bedrooms or left into the kitchen. There house must have been modified for a larger bathroom and larger kitchen of the modern taste. So the house design makes much more sense now. You still have to entertain guest by having them come through either your kitchen or past your bathroom and bedroom doors to reach the living and dining rooms.

And yes the water service is to the corner of the house with the kitchen and then only a short distance to the bathroom. Now that they saved on metal for water piping they must have splurged on bricks for a massively huge chimney in the center of the house.

As an aside since the town was "civilinized" in the 50's many improvements were done to a lot of the houses through town. The biggest being carports! At one time it looks like if you didn't have a car port in Oak Ridge then you weren't any better then a man without a lid. Lots of decorative concrete too.

It's obvious that these were built to a different standard then the "temporary" war worker housing common around factories and also in the valley of Oak Ridge. These house (as was suggested up thread) may have been built to the same standard as base housing for military families. They were built to last, a testimony to that is the number that still remain "on the hill". Driving through that neighborhood my wife and I were hard pressed to find homes that were NOT one of the original houses.

As to the comment that it's just a box. Right you are! Nothing particularly captivating architecturally like bungalow style. Nothing FLW inspired here. But what it is is a box that helped to end WW2 an estimated 5 years sooner and 10 million casualties lower. It also helped to usher in an age of great optimism and prosperity in America combined with a looming nervousness on a global scale as rival super powers held the biggest and scariest arms race in history.

Matt

 

[scottyrocks]

Wow. Who knew boxes could be so responsible?!