Last updated: March 12, 2025
Place
Oak Ridge Wayside: Atomic City ABCs
NPS
Quick Facts
Amenities
1 listed
Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits
Subtitle
Alphabet Houses of Oak Ridge
Main Text
Across the World War II home front, industrial centers and port cities experienced phenomenal growth. Americans flocked to these “boom towns” looking for good paying jobs that supported the fighting in Europe and the Pacific. With the employment needs of the project vastly exceeding US Army estimates, Manhattan Project administrators faced housing shortages at all sites. In Los Alamos, nearly any school building or homesteader cabin was fair game to house workers. Oak Ridge, the largest city of the project, faced an acute housing need as workers rushed to build homes for the 75,000 workers and dependents to reside in the town by 1945.
Throughout Oak Ridge, housing varied from extremely temporary (plywood hutments) to semimobile (trailers and modular homes), to more permanent but still quickly constructed single-family homes (the Alphabet Houses). The Alphabet Houses were also known as cemestos, referencing the buildings’ cement and asbestos panels. Alphabet Houses, only available to higher-grade White workers, came in eight types, A through H, with larger home types generally later in the alphabet. Throughout the northern residential neighborhoods of Oak Ridge, these homes are still plentiful and actively lived in.
Exhibit Panel Description
A black and white exhibit panel on a black frame approximately four feet tall. The panel has a black band at the top and a title underneath that reads “Atomic City ABCs: Alphabet Houses of Oak Ridge." The right of the panel includes black and white photos of different housing types. The text of the panel is located at the left.
Visit this Exhibit Panel
This wayside is located in Elm Grove Park, 351 E. Tennessee Ave, Oak Ridge, TN 37830.
Alphabet Houses of Oak Ridge
Main Text
Across the World War II home front, industrial centers and port cities experienced phenomenal growth. Americans flocked to these “boom towns” looking for good paying jobs that supported the fighting in Europe and the Pacific. With the employment needs of the project vastly exceeding US Army estimates, Manhattan Project administrators faced housing shortages at all sites. In Los Alamos, nearly any school building or homesteader cabin was fair game to house workers. Oak Ridge, the largest city of the project, faced an acute housing need as workers rushed to build homes for the 75,000 workers and dependents to reside in the town by 1945.
Throughout Oak Ridge, housing varied from extremely temporary (plywood hutments) to semimobile (trailers and modular homes), to more permanent but still quickly constructed single-family homes (the Alphabet Houses). The Alphabet Houses were also known as cemestos, referencing the buildings’ cement and asbestos panels. Alphabet Houses, only available to higher-grade White workers, came in eight types, A through H, with larger home types generally later in the alphabet. Throughout the northern residential neighborhoods of Oak Ridge, these homes are still plentiful and actively lived in.
Exhibit Panel Description
A black and white exhibit panel on a black frame approximately four feet tall. The panel has a black band at the top and a title underneath that reads “Atomic City ABCs: Alphabet Houses of Oak Ridge." The right of the panel includes black and white photos of different housing types. The text of the panel is located at the left.
Visit this Exhibit Panel
This wayside is located in Elm Grove Park, 351 E. Tennessee Ave, Oak Ridge, TN 37830.