Robertsville was a

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

community in Anderson County,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, that was disbanded in 1942 when the area was acquired for the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. Its site is now part of the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Robertsville was established in 1804 by a merchant named Collins Roberts, who received a

land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

., National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, July 1991. Section E, pages 3-4. The community was located on the Old Emory Coach Road, and a natural

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

in Robertsville called Cross Spring was a rest stop where travelers on that road could water and rest their

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s. During the 19th century, Robertsville was also the site of a slave block. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, however, community residents generally supported the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

cause. Notable residents included Swiss-German immigrant Henry Sienknecht, a Confederate Army physician who practiced medicine in Robertsville for several decades after the

, before moving in 1890 to Oliver Springs, where he operated a store. The community continued to exist until 1942, when the United States government acquired the land as a part of the

. The residents of Robertsville were displaced, along with the residents of several other communities. Robertsville is now in the residential and commercial portion of the city of Oak Ridge. The present Robertsville Middle School is located on the site of the old Robertsville High School, which was built in about 1915. The high school gymnasium was retained to become the middle school's gym.ORNL: The First 50 Years - Chapter 1: Wartime Laboratory
, ''ORNL Review'', Vol. 25, Nos. 3 and 4 (1992) Collins Roberts is buried in the Robertsville Baptist Cemetery. In the 1930s Cross Spring was

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

med by a local farmer to form a small

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

that the Army Corps of Engineers lined with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

to convert it to a large swimming pool. The site of the lake is still the location of Oak Ridge's unusually large outdoor municipal swimming pool.

References

{{coord, 36, 00, 49, N, 84, 16, 28, W, type:city_region:US-TN_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Oak Ridge, Tennessee Geography of Anderson County, Tennessee Populated places disestablished in 1942 Populated places established in 1804