AN EYE TOWARDS HISTORY
About ORHPA
The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association (ORHPA) is a nonprofit historical society founded in 1999 to preserve and educate the public about Oak Ridge’s unique and rich technical and cultural history, and to work to preserve selected historical buildings of the WWII city and nuclear installations.
Oak Ridge was the most costly part of the Manhattan Project and its greatest gamble. Three large and different plants, first of their kind anywhere, consumed 89% of the Oak Ridge effort, each built in the hopes we could learn to enrich uranium-235 and beat Nazi Germany to the bomb. In addition, the world’s first plutonium production reactor for research was also built here.
Honoring Ed Westcott, Photographer of the Manhattan Project
The Oak Ridge Heritage and Preservation Association has commissioned a statue honoring Ed Westcott, the official photographer for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge. Westcott’s extraordinary images documented a pivotal moment in world history, capturing the people, places, and spirit of a top-secret city that played a crucial role in ending World War II. His work remains one of the most important visual records of the atomic age. This statue will serve as a lasting tribute to his legacy and to the power of photography to preserve our shared history.
Your donation will help make this memorial possible and ensure that future generations recognize the man behind the lens.
PROTECTING THE LEGACY
The Oak Ridge
History Museum
THE ORHM IS CURRENTLY OPEN:
MONDAY 12-4
TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY 10-4
SATURDAY 10-3
The Oak Ridge History Museum shines a light on the “human side” of the Manhattan Project, focusing on history and people’s day-to-day lives during World War II in Oak Ridge.
LEARN MORE →
VISIT THE MUSEUM WEBSITE →
Admission
Adult
Military/Veterans
Students
Under 12
Group Rate
2024 Heritage Award – Jefferson Compounding & Soda Fountain
The Oak Ridge Heritage & Preservation Association (ORHPA) has selected Jefferson Compounding & Soda Fountain for its 2024 Historic Preservation Award. The Award is a way to recognize the maintenance and preservation of historic structures in Oak Ridge. Owners Jack Greene and his wife, Connie, began working in the store in 1971 and are much loved by the community. Many locals and visitors come to Jefferson to enjoy its unique offerings of compounded drugs and a selection of gifts and locally [...]
ORHPA Highlights for 2023
These highlights begin with a big Thank You to the volunteers that keep our organization going, especially the Oak Ridge History Museum. We remain an all-volunteer group, and I continue to hear many compliments on what a tremendous job we have done forming a first-class museum. Our first program for the year for the ORHPA membership included guest speaker Zach Foster, Anderson County Historian who spoke about life in this area in the early years (pre 1942), including life at the [...]
ACKNOWLEDGING ACHIEVEMENT
Preservation
Awards
ORHPA awards a Historic Preservation Award annually. The award is given to a public-use facility that reflects guide-lines outlined for historic preservation in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Archaeology and Historic Preservation.
2023
Old
Towne
Inn
2022
Railroad Maintenance Building
2021
Eric's
Diner/
Magic Wok