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Oak Ridge was built under a cloak of great secrecy during World War II. A city and three manufacturing plants of unprecedented scope were constructed to develop a technology that ended the war. Oak Ridge was created in 1942 as a major site of the "Manhattan Project," a massive wartime effort which produced the world's first atomic weapons. The 60,000-acre tract on which the town and its plants were built met military requirements for isolation, electric power, water, labor and accessibility to nearby highways and railroads. At that time, the area was populated by 3,000 persons residing in approximately 1,000 homes scattered throughout the communities of Scarboro, Wheat and Robertsville. Scientists had learned by 1939 that uranium atoms could be split with the release of large amounts of energy. This process was called fission. Its use for military purposes was seriously discussed since development of an atomic weapon was considered vital to national security. Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressing the views of several leading scientists and explaining the potential of such a weapon. Early in 1942, it was determined that two methods could be used to produce necessary fissionable material--either plutonium 239 or the highly purified isotope uranium 235. Ultimately, three methods were brought to large-scale production. Oak Ridge played a major role in each of these processes. Three facilities, each identified by a code name, were built in the Oak Ridge complex, then called the Clinton Engineering Works after the nearby town of Clinton. This work was performed under the direction of the Manhattan District of the Corps of Engineers which had been formed in June 1942 to oversee the entire atomic weapons program. (Information sheet published by the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau, Oak Ridge, Tennessee) To understand the why and how of Oak Ridge, read the book, City Behind a Fence, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 1942-1946, by Charles W. Johnson and Charles O. Jackson, published by The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville. There were several of the Roark and Conner family members who lived and worked in the city behind the fence. Grover and Willie Roark’s family, Grover’s brother Lucas Haney, and four of Grover’s nieces, Velma and Virginia, daughters of Joseph Roark, and Winona and Mildred Roark , daughters of Tom Roark, also worked there. World War II was getting into full swing as 1942 began. Many of our Roark and Conner family members, living in the Birchwood area, had been economically affected by the depression and the TVA had taken all of the farms along the Tennessee River at the end of 1939. Site planning began in February 1943 for the housing to accommodate the scientific staff at the Graphite Reactor as well as thousands of other workers on site. By February, land acquisition was taking place with the highest priority. A total of about 56,000 acres were taken initially. The Corps had the responsibility to condemn the land under eminent domain and the residents were only given six weeks to move. The first planning, December, 1942, called for only 500 houses, but by February, 1943, the number had risen to 3,000 houses. Eventually, it went as high as 8,714, although some of the them were not much of a house. The Corps also had an intense parallel program to take care of the mass of construction workers that were coming from many states. Trailers were brought in from all over the eastern half of the United States—about 6,000 of them—which were located around central bathhouses. Separate from the trailers, there were “hutment” areas for white men, white females, black men, and black females. The huts were 16 feet by 16 feet with a wood floor. The walls were made of 2” by 2” studs, a thin sheet of plywood. A potbellied stove was the only method of heating the living area. Pre-fab military barracks for the special engineering detachment were also used. In addition, 987 dormitories housed many more. The work force also needed some other very limited facilities, so drugstores, barbershops, grocery stores, schools, a few crude theaters, and two churches were built. Some people went to church in theaters or school gymnasiums. There was massive construction of water plants, a water distribution system, sanitary plants, sewer lines, and power lines. Normal scheduling was two 10 hour shifts per day, but road grading and some other work was conducted around the clock. In May 1945, the reservation had reached its peak employment of approximately 82,000. At this time there were 47,000 construction workers but the number dropped to only 2,000 by June of 1946. Most of the residents living on the reservation were single. They were not allowed to cook in their dorms or hutments. The reservation provided laundry service. In Aug. 1943, the first drug store, grocery store, and movie theater opened. In the book City Behind a Fence, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 1942-1946 the authors reported that in the summer of 1945, when the general housing reached its maximum size of approximately 75,000 residents, the distribution of the entire reservation population was as follows: single and multiple family units, including apartments, supported 28,834 residents. Another 1,053 individuals resided in minimally renovated pre-project farmhouses. Townsite dorms held 13,786 residents and the remaining 31,257 population lived in barracks, trailers and hutments. I doubt that there has ever been another project like the scope and the speed of the Manhattan Project construction.  In 1943 Grover Roark got a construction job as a carpenter’s helper. He moved his family to Oak Ridge where he was able to get the front part of a large farmhouse, near the site of K-25. They had the kitchen, dining room, and 3 bedrooms. The family included his wife, Willie, plus daughter, Gretrude, and her baby daughter, Marylyn. (Gretrude’s husband, Jesse Davenport was in the Marines), Ruth, Marleita, Ola Mae, W.G., Clara “Cooter”, and Addie. Grover got a construction job and later got on with Bacon and Davis as a security guard, where he wore a uniform and carried a nightstick sometimes called a “Billy Club”. Willie worked in a cafeteria near K-25. (In July 1944 there were 931 people working in the eleven cafeterias.) The house where they lived has been torn down, but the church where they attended is still standing.  This is the employee security badge of Marleita Roark Hughes when she worked at Ford, Bacon, and Davis, Inc. in August 1944. At the time she was married to a soldier named James Fletcher Hughes. She had been living with her parents in Chattanooga and had been working at Coosa Thatcher Textile Company earning $31 a week. She was able to get a release from that job to go to a job in Oak Ridge. Her sister, Ruth Roark, was working at Brock Candy Company earning about $12 a week, and she also got a job at Oak Ridge. W.G., Cooter, and Addie attended school at Oak Ridge. W.G. finished the 11th grade in Oak Ridge and then left and joined the Marines. He reported that it was a good school and remembers it was a long narrow building. As many people came from all over the nation to work at Oak Ridge, there were 47 of the 48 states represented at the school. W.G. would shine his Dad’s and his friend, Shorty’s shoes for some spending money. He remembers going to the movies on Saturday. During the summer, W.G. got a job working in a grocery store six days a week , 9 hours a day, and for his 54 hours he made $31 dollars. Later he got another job washing dishes in a restaurant. When Grover and Willie left Oak Ridge they moved to Portland, Tennessee. Velma Roark, daughter of Joseph and Mary Millard Roark attended the National School of Business and graduated in 1943, when she was 25 years old. The Oak Ridge employment office had posted notices at the school, that they were hiring. Velma and her older sister Virginia went to Oak Ridge for Velma to interview for a job. They tested Velma’s steno skills and offered her a job on the spot and wanted her to start to work the next morning. She told them that she could not take the job unless they hired her sister. They told her that they could get her a job in one of the labs. Velma and Virginia lived in the Alexandria Inn, a dorm type place. They had folding cots where they slept and kept their suitcases under the cots. They ate all of their meals in the cafeteria. Jobs were probably scarce in the Birchwood and Salem area, and when residents learned that you could get a government job in Oak Ridge, several took advantage ot the opportunity. Velma started working in a lab at site X-10 and later transferred to the purchasing Department in site K-25. For the duration of the war, Velma and Virginia would travel by bus down highway 58 and get home on Friday night. Then they would leave Sunday afternoon and return to Oak Ridge. Velma met Porter Moore from a small town near Nashville, Tennessee while working at Oak Ridge and they were married in 1946. Porter worked in the Post Office at site Y-12. After they were married they lived in a flat roof Victory Cottage, which they shared with his mother. Both Velma and Porter retired in 1984 after 41 years of service. Virginia was 27 years old when she started working in a material lab where employees were checked every day before they left to see if they may have been contaminated. While working at the plant, Virginia met Albert Greenwood, a soldier from Maryland. Virginia and Albert were married and moved to Maryland when he got out of the service. Mildred worked in the Y-12 plant, adjusting cubicle knobs, recording the meter readings, etc., which she had been trained to do. Both sisters lived in a barracks (less than luxurious but comfortable) for the duration of their employment, rode buses to and from work and basically saved their salaries to enable them to continue their college work. Mildred stated “At no time were we told or in any way informed of the mission of Oak Ridge and we did not have a clue as to the historical significance of Oak Ridge till the Atomic bomb explosion over Japan!” Employees who lived in the city behind a gate were allowed to have churches, but there could not be any list of members. There was a fear that someone might be able to learn the names of some of the people working on the project.  This is a picture, taken in 2000, of the church that Grover and his family attended. | Return Home | Great Links | Calendar | History Page | |
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