This May, visitors will once again be welcome at the Guest House in Oak Ridge. During the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, General Leslie Groves and other notables stayed at the Guest House, renamed the Alexander Inn in 1950, when visiting the Clinton Engineer Works.
Thanks to a $500,000 grant provided as partial mitigation for the demolition of K-25 plant, the building has been saved from demolition. Rick Dover, founder and general manager of the Family Pride Corporation, is investing $9.9 million to restore the building for use as an assisted living and retirement center with 64 apartments. Rick Dover likes to preserve historic properties “because they tell us who we are and where we are going as a community.”
The lobby of the Guest House will feature memorabilia of the Manhattan Project and exhibits on the famous scientists and government officials who stayed there. On Wednesday, January 21, Y-12 Plant historian Ray Smith gave Cindy Kelly a tour of the building which still has some of its original floors, fireplace, wood pillars and door frames in the lobby. The grand opening should be in May 2015.