Oakwood and the A-bomb

You may not have ever heard about it, but Dayton was instrumental in the creation of the atomic bombs that ended World War II.  The Manhattan Project was the research and creation of atomic weapons and under this nuclear umbrella was the Dayton Project. The Dayton Project was operated by Monsanto chemical company and had multiple project sites in the Dayton area.

One of these sites was in Oakwood, a suburb of Dayton.  The Runnymede Playhouse was a large community center that included an outdoor pool, tennis courts, a ballroom, and a stage and auditorium.  It was on the Talbott family’s property and was a popular hangout for Oakwood residents.  The Thomas and Hochwalt Laboratories conducted researched on the initiation process for the atomic bomb under the auspices of Monsanto after the large company purchased their lab.  Charles Thomas was married to Margaret Talbott and he worked to gain the permission of the Oakwood City Council and the Talbott family to use it for a government project.  But the US Government seized it anyway under the Emergency Powers Act and stated that it was going to be used as a film laboratory… Yeah, sure it was.

The Playhouse in its glory days:

Work began at the Runnymede Playhouse to find a stable initiation to detonate the atomic bomb that the rest of the Manhattan Project was creating.  Polonium was the key.  In 1944, the first shipment of the extracted Polonium left Runnymede in a lead-lined suitcase and made its way to Los Alamos, the testing site for the bombs. The bomb initiation worked and World War II came to an end with the help of uncredited scientists who transformed the playhouse into a high-security, secret government facility in the middle of residential estates.

An eyewitness report from someone who saw the bomb test at Los Alamos:

Initially, it was thought that Runnymede Playhouse would be able to be decontaminated and returned to its former glory.  However, the site was too irradiated and had to be torn down.  The torn-down building was buried underground at a site in New Mexico along with all of the cobblestones from the driveway and seven feet of soil from underneath the site.  There is a new house there now, but it has always been a difficult property to sell because of the fear of continued radioactive contamination. 

Sources:

Records of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, National Archives