The Neighborhood Built for a Mission
Building the Secret City
Explore how a government-built community rose from the ground to support a top-secret mission.
A government-built community rose from the ground to support one of WWII's most secretive missions.
At the height of World War II, the U.S. government needed a place to house the workers and scientists who would support the Hanford Site, a facility that didn’t officially exist, producing materials for a weapon the public knew nothing about.
That place became Richland, transformed virtually overnight into a planned, government-owned city engineered for secrecy, efficiency, and speed. Streets were laid out. Parks were planted. Schools, churches, and utility systems were built. And thousands of nearly identical homes, known today as Alphabet Houses, rose from the ground in uniform rows, each stamped with a single letter to designate its floorplan.
Richland wasn’t just a place to live, it was an extension of the Manhattan Project itself. Every house, park, and public building was part of a machine working in service to the war. From the moment you entered city limits, the mission shaped every part of daily life.
Today, remnants of that unique experiment in civic design are still everywhere. Whether you’re walking through Richland’s neighborhoods, visiting its historic civic core, or standing in a park that was once mapped by the War Department, you’re standing in the middle of one of America’s most fascinating WWII communities.
Heritage Sites
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In a city built for secrecy and science, Howard Amon Park offered something rare: open space, recreation, and a sense of normal life. Developed during World War II, the park was designed to serve the growing Richland community and boost worker morale.
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Before Richland became the city we know today, it was a federally controlled town managed by engineers and administrators working for the U.S. government. At the center of it all was City Hall — not just a civic building, but a symbol of military-era governance.
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While most Richland residents lived in nearly identical Alphabet Homes during World War II, the Gold Coast reflected the city's next chapter. Built during the Cold War, its larger homes, tree-lined streets, and Columbia River views welcomed many of Hanford's scientists, engineers, and community leaders.
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Once a thriving farm town with schools and churches, Hanford disappeared almost overnight to make way for the Manhattan Project. Its name now belongs to a site, but its history belongs to its people.
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Before commercial jets filled its runways, Pasco’s airport served a higher-stakes mission. During World War II, this airfield became one of the busiest training sites in the country and today, its story lives on in the very same tower that watched it all unfold.
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Before it became a civic gathering space, Vista Field played a quieter but vital wartime role. As a naval auxiliary airfield during World War II, it helped prepare thousands of aviation cadets for missions across the globe.
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Built in 1922, the Pasco–Kennewick Bridge, known locally as the Green Bridge, was the Tri‑Cities’ first vehicular crossing. It shifted the region from isolated ferry towns to a connected community, serving as the only route between Pasco and Kennewick for more than five decades.
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Designed during wartime and built in the aftermath, The Parkway in Richland was no ordinary downtown. It was part of a federally planned experiment in how to create a livable city overnight.
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As thousands of new residents arrived in the Tri-Cities during WWII, one place became a spiritual anchor for Black workers and their families: Morning Star Baptist Church.
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During World War II and the postwar decades, Clover Island evolved from submerged sandbar to strategic Port property. It played a small but meaningful role in supporting regional transportation and workforce life along the Columbia River.
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Kennewick wasn’t part of the Hanford Site, but it felt the impact. During WWII, the city’s downtown grew rapidly to serve the rising population of workers, families, and support staff flooding into the region.
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Overlooking the Columbia River, the REACH Museum connects past to present, tracing the story of the region from ancient landscapes to the Manhattan Project and beyond.
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Housed in a restored 1911 Carnegie Library, the Franklin County Historical Museum brings the story of Pasco’s wartime transformation to life; with a focus on migration, labor, and community resilience.
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In North Richland, a towering submarine sail rises unexpectedly from the earth, a Cold War relic with roots deep in the Hanford Site’s World War II legacy. The USS Triton Sail Park offers a tangible link between wartime science and postwar military innovation.
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Located in near Historic Downtown Kennewick, the Museum at Keewaydin is dedicated to preserving the rich and diverse heritage of East Benton County. From pioneer settlements to local industry and culture, the museum captures the everyday lives and legacies of the people who helped shape the region.
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Located in Prosser, this cemetery became the reinterment site for the White Bluffs community when Hanford was built. It preserves the memory of lives uprooted, and graves moved, as part of one of the largest displacement operations in U.S. history during World War II.
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At Washington State University Tri-Cities, the Hanford History Project preserves the human stories behind one of the most secretive and significant chapters in American history. Through archives, exhibits, and partnerships, the project ensures that the people of Hanford are remembered alongside its science.
