Maker Info
Oak Ridge Station
In October 1931, Harlow Shapley, the director of Harvard College Observatory announced the establishment of a new observing station on the highest point between Mount Wachusett and the ocean--i.e, on Oak Ridge in Harvard, Massachusetts. The ridge had an altitude of 600 feet, and was situated between the village of Harvard and the Littleton railroad station, about 27 miles northwest of Cambridge. It was to be the most extensively equipped observatory in the Eastern United States.
Construction began in the spring of 1932. It included a building and turret for Harvard's new 61-inch reflector (which was the 5th largest in the world), three buildings for other telescopes, a central building containing a dark room, clock room, library, storage, and quarters for observers. About five photographic telescopes were relocated to Oak Ridge from Cambridge.
In December 1951, Harvard University decided to rename its Oak Ridge Station to the George R. Agassiz Station. It was named in honor of George R. Agassiz (AB 1884) in recognition of his part in the planning and construction of the observatory and his life-long interest in the department of astronomy. Agassiz had also served on the University Board of Overseers from 1924 to 1937, and had been its president for eight years. He had died in 1951.
In August 1982, the "Agassiz Station" name was transferred to a site in Texas when the the Harvard Radio Astronomy Station was officially renamed the George R. Agassiz Station of the Harvard College Observatory. (The Harvard Radio Astronomy Station had been established in September 1956 on Cook Flat, a valley at the base of Mount Locke, in the Davis Mountains about five miles northwest of Fort Davis.)
Consequently the observatory on Oak Ridge needed a new name (yet again!). It became known as the Oak Ridge Observatory.
The observatory site was owned by Harvard University, and research was carried out in later years by the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The Oak Ridge Observatory officially closed in August 2005.
