Editing Oak Ridge, Tennessee (section)

=== Planned community ===
The location and low population helped keep the town a secret, though the settlement grew from 3,000 to 3,750 in 1942 to about 75,000 by 1945.<ref name="life1945082094" /><ref>{{cite web |title=National Archives at Atlanta |url=https://www.archives.gov/atlanta/exhibits/item126.html |website=archives.gov}}</ref> Because of the large number of workers recruited to the area for the Manhattan Project, the Army planned a town for project workers at the eastern end of the valley. The time required for the project's completion caused the Army to opt for a relatively permanent establishment rather than an enormous camp. The name "Oak Ridge" was chosen for the settlement in 1943 from suggestions submitted by project employees. The name evoked the settlement's location along Black Oak Ridge, and officials thought the rural-sounding name "held outside curiosity to a minimum".<ref>''For Your Information: A Guide to Oak Ridge'' (United States Engineering Department – Community Relations Section, September 1946), p. 3.</ref> The name was formally adopted in 1949. 

The architectural and engineering firm [[Skidmore, Owings & Merrill]] was contracted to provide the layout for the town and house designs.<ref>Johnson and Jackson, ''City Behind a Fence'', 14.</ref> [[John O. Merrill]] moved to Tennessee to take charge of designing the secret buildings at Oak Ridge.<ref>Westcott, Ed. (2005). Westcott, Ed. (2005). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=1xHhqLqFHcgC& Oak Ridge]'', Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. {{ISBN|978-0-7385-4170-9}}; [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62511041 OCLC 62511041], page 61</ref> He directed the creation of a town,<ref>Lehman College Art Gallery, [http://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/arch/bio/som.html Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), Merrill bio notes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221115190524/https://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/arch/bio/som.html |date=November 15, 2022 }}</ref> which soon had {{convert|300|mi}} of roads, {{convert|55|mi}} of railroad track, ten schools, seven theaters, 17 restaurants and cafeterias, and 13 supermarkets. A library with 9,400 books, a [[Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra|symphony orchestra]], sporting facilities, church services for 17 denominations, and a [[Fuller Brush Company]] salesman served the new city and its 75,000 residents.<ref name="life1945082094">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hkgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA94 | title=Mystery Town Cradled Bomb: 75,000 in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Worked Hard and Wondered Long about Their Secret Job | magazine=Life | date=August 20, 1945 | access-date=November 25, 2011 | pages=94}}</ref> No airport was built, for security reasons.<ref name="wickware19460909" /> [[Prefabricated]] [[modular home]]s, apartments, and dormitories, many made from [[cemesto]] (bonded cement and [[asbestos]]) panels, were quickly erected. Streets were laid out in the manner of a "[[planned community]]".

The original streets included several main east-to-west roads, namely the Oak Ridge Turnpike, Tennessee Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, Hillside Road, Robertsville Road, and Outer Drive. North-to-south oriented streets connecting these main roads were designated "avenues", and streets branching off from the avenues were designated "roads", "places", "lanes", or "circles". "Roads" connected two streets, while "lanes" and "places" were [[Dead end street|dead ends]].<ref name="fyiroads">''For Your Information: A Guide to Oak Ridge'' (United States Engineering Department – Community Relations Section, September 1946), p. 18.</ref> The names of the main avenues generally progressed alphabetically from east to west (e.g., Alabama Avenue in the east, Vermont Avenue in the west), and the names of the smaller streets began with the same letter as the main avenue from which they started (e.g., streets connected to Florida Avenue began with "F").

The dramatic population increase, and the secret nature of the project, meant chronic shortages of housing and supplies during the war years. The town was administered by [[Turner Construction Company]] through a subsidiary named the Roane-Anderson Company.<ref name="wickware19460909">{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UEkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2 | title=Oak Ridge | magazine=Life | date=September 9, 1946 | access-date=December 17, 2014 | author=Wickware, Francis Sill | pages=2}}</ref> For most residents, however, their "landlord" was known as "MSI" (Management Services, Inc.). All workers wore badges. The town was surrounded by guard towers and a fence with seven gates.