The Guest House (Alexander Inn)

The Guest House was the primary Oak Ridge hotel during the Manhattan Project.

NPS/KLEIN

Quick Facts

Location:

Oak Ridge, TN

MANAGED BY:

Senior Solutions Management Group

Amenities

3 listed

Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Restroom

The acrid smell of cigarette smoke, the clink of martini glasses, laughter and hush conversations of nuclear physics; all are held within the walls of this silent witness to the dawn of the nuclear age. 

The Guest House, constructed in 1943, and designed to house officials and scientists working temporarily in Oak Ridge was one of the first buildings constructed in the Secret City. The Guest House provided a comfortable resting place for official visitors to Oak Ridge during the Manhattan Project. Well known figures including General Leslie Groves, physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Secretary of War Henry Stimson spent many nights socializing and resting in the Guest House. Leaders, administrators, military personnel, and scientists working on the Manhattan Project had to travel between the isolated secret cities to transmit sensitive information and materials, as well as to manage the sites. The Guest House and Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos, New Mexico, provide sanctuary to travelers travelling on important Manhattan Project business.  

Room rates for all guests during the Manhattan Project, regardless of status, was two dollars per night for a room with a private bath, or a dollar fifty per night with a communal bathroom. The majority of visitors registered under assumed names to ensure secrecy. Physicist Enrico Fermi used the alias “Mr. Farmer.” Fermi designed the first reactor at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Lab. He was essential to the success of the Manhattan Project and assigned a codename and a bodyguard to protect him around the clock. Fermi was not only known as Mr. Farmer at the Guest House; most people working at the Hanford, Washington site knew and referred to Fermi as Mr. Farmer.   

Continue Your Journey

Currently the Guest House (Alexander Inn) is an assisted living facility. Visitors are encouraged to view the small Manhattan Project-related exhibit in the main lobby but be mindful of current residents. In addition, the Chapel on the Hill, Jackson Square, and the Community Tennis Courts, which were major centers for worship, shopping, and community activities during the Manhattan Project, are a short walk from the Guest House (Alexander Inn).