Oak Ridge Gatehouses - Design and Uses

Design and Uses

Design of the three checking stations was identical. Each one consists of two concrete block buildings: a single-story main building with a two-story guard tower at one corner and a smaller one-story guard house across the street. Gun portals are visible on both buildings in each pair, and the windows on both buildings are protected by bulletproof glass. Military police controlled a metal gate that extended between the pair of buildings. Workers and visitors had to show special badges to the guards in order to pass through the gates.

The two restored gatehouses are now fitted with period and replica furniture from the 1940s and 1950s and decorated with historic photographs by Ed Westcott. They are used as meeting rooms and for educational, cultural, and civic activities sponsored by DOE. In 2010, the Tennessee Department of Transportation began a project to widen State Route 95 in the vicinity of the Oak Ridge Turnpike checking station with a road design that does not affect the checking station. The design for the widened roadway calls for five lanes and a sidewalk in the segment that passes between the two gatehouse structures.