oppenheimer, the manhattan project, and dayton, ohio - part 2

A little history and scene setting...In the beautiful suburb of Oakwood, just south of the Dayton city line, Orville Wright moved into his new home named Hawthorn Hill in 1914.

Ten years later in 1924 and three blocks away from Hawthorn Hill, the Talbott family built the Runnymeade Playhouse which is no longer standing. Orville would have attended community events in this building. In 1944 Orville Wright would notice changes in the Runnymeade Playhouse. Barbed wire and floodlights were put up. Trucks delivered and picked up materials at all hours. Guards stopped people from entering except for the 90 employees who worked there on some secret activity.  

Wright died in 1948 and never did learn about what happened at Runnymeade Playhouse. This was the site where all of the polonium used for triggering the first atomic bombs was made and purified.  The Trinity Test was an important part of the Oppenheimer movie. Trinity didn't test the bomb. It tested the trigger of the bomb, which used polonium produced on Runnymeade Road in Oakwood.

Hawthorn Hill, home of Orville Wright

A contemporary home now stands on the former site of the Runnymede Playhouse, a building that played a unique part in the City of Oakwood's history. Originally part of the Talbott family estate, Runnymede Playhouse was first a social and entertainment center for the Oakwood community. During World War II, the playhouse was used as a facility for research and refinement of polonium bomb triggers.

In the 1940s, Dr. Charles Allen Thomas, an engineer who had married into the Talbott family, assisted the Monsanto Chemical Company in procuring a lease on Runnymede Playhouse. He promised his mother-in-law, Katherine Talbott, that he'd return the playhouse in the same condition. The playhouse was used to conduct research into polonium, an element used in the production of atomic weapons. Polonium forms part of atomic bomb triggers and is still a part of weapon construction. The Runnymede Playhouse (also known as Unit IV), was one of five facilities around Dayton involved in nuclear bomb research. Nearly 90 people worked at Unit IV. Oral histories state that big trucks rolled in and out, and floodlights and heavy duty power lines were strung around the property. In 1949, operations moved to Miamisburg, and the following year the Runnymede Playhouse was demolished. The structure and ground were transported to Tennessee for safe burial. In 1998, The Ohio EPA working with the Ohio Department of Health determined that no immediate health risks are posed by the site. (From the Oakwood Historical Society).

Research: Dayton at Work and Play