1943

1943. . The year opened with fierce fighting on battlefronts all over the world – Stalingrad, North Africa, the South Pacific. Here, February saw groundbreaking for Oak Ridge’s Y-12 Plant and the X-10 Graphite Reactor. Starting April 1, armed guards manned the gates to the Clinton Engineer Works. President Roosevelt froze all wages and prices to forestall “black markets”. By summer the area swarmed with 20,000 construction workers building the plants and new city, and August saw the opening of the town’s first drug store, grocery, movie theater, and post office. In the fall, enough of Y-12 and the town had been completed, so the scientists, engineers, and thousands of support people began pouring in from all over the nation. One universal complaint everyone had was the mud – even a light shower turned thinly graveled streets into a gooey mess. The town’s answer was 163 miles of boardwalks. For fun, folks went to the movies, bowled, danced in the “rec” halls, and sometimes on the tennis courts. Overseas, the Allied Forces finally defeated the Germans in North Africa, but began the invasion of Italy with heavy losses.

Erected in Honor of All Those Who Built Our Community and in Special Memory of the Vision and Legacy of A.P. Cappiello, Sr. by Cappiello Real Estate and Development, June 2005.