Editing Richland, Washington (section)

===World War II===
[[File:HD.4D.010_(10409287065).jpg|thumb|right|Richland during the early days of the Hanford project]]

Richland was a small farm town until the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]] purchased {{convert|1660|km2|abbr=on|order=flip}} of land – half the size of [[Rhode Island]] – along the Columbia River during [[World War II]] for the [[Manhattan Project]]. On March 6, 1943, over 300 residents of Richland as well as those of the now vanished towns of [[White Bluffs, Washington|White Bluffs]] and [[Hanford, Washington|Hanford]] just upriver were evicted after a federal court order had condemned their properties for wartime use.<ref name="HistoryLink"/>

The army transformed Richland into a [[bedroom community]] for the workers on its Manhattan Project facility at the nearby [[Hanford Engineering Works]] (now the Hanford site). The population increased from 300 in July and August 1943 to 25,000 by the end of [[World War II]] in August 1945. All land and buildings were owned by the government. Housing was assigned to residents, and token rent was collected; families were assigned to houses or duplexes; single people were placed in apartments or barracks. Everything necessary was provided, from free bus service to light bulbs, and trees were planted in people's yards by the government.{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} Much of the city was planned by Spokane architect Gustav Albin Pherson and overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers. While there were dormitories and barracks built at the time, prefabricated duplexes and single-family homes are all that survive today.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> Because homes were allocated based on family size and need, there were a number of floorplans available. These were each identified by a letter of the alphabet, and so came to be known as alphabet houses.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ci.richland.wa.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=732 |format=pdf |title=Home Blown: The History of the Homes of Richland |publisher=City of Richland |access-date=November 14, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718120637/http://www.ci.richland.wa.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=732 |archive-date=July 18, 2011 }}</ref>

Richland's link to the Army Engineers is suggested by its street nomenclature; many of the streets are named after famous engineers. The main street ([[George Washington]] Way) is named after the first president, who was a surveyor; Stevens Drive is named after [[John Frank Stevens]], chief engineer of the [[Panama Canal]] and [[Stevens Pass]]; Goethals Drive is named after [[George W. Goethals]], designer of the Panama Canal; and Thayer Drive is named after [[Sylvanus Thayer]], superintendent of [[West Point]] and later founder of the [[Thayer School of Engineering]] at [[Dartmouth College]]. The rule is that if alphabet houses reside on a given street, they are named after an engineer or a type of tree.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}