Architectural style Modern Movement Area 3.602 km² Added to NRHP 7 March 2005 | NRHP Reference # 04000315 Year built 1943 | |
 | ||
Location Roughly bounded by Willis St, Davison Ave, Hunt Ave, Davison Ave, and George Washington Way, Richland, Washington Architect Gustav Albin Pehrson, Hoffman Smith and Wight Co., et al | ||
The Gold Coast Historic District is a historic neighborhood of Richland, Washington. The homes in this neighborhood are Government-designed and prefabricated homes built in 1943 to house workers for the nearby Hanford Nuclear site.
About
Richland was a small farm town until the US Army purchased 1660 km² (640 sq mi) along the Columbia River for the war effort, evicting the 300 residents of Richland as well as those of the now vanished towns of White Bluffs and Hanford just upriver. The army turned it into a bedroom community for the workers on its Manhattan Project facility at the nearby Hanford Engineering Works (now the Hanford site). The population increased from 300 in July and August 1943 to 25,000 by the end of World War II in August 1945. Richland became a closed city (federally controlled Atomic Energy community), with access restricted to residents and others authorized by the U.S. Army. All land and buildings were owned by the government. Housing was assigned to residents and token rent was collected; families were assigned to houses or duplexes; single people were placed in apartments or barracks.
Much of the city was planned by Spokane architect Albin Pherson in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers. While there were dormitories and barracks built at the time, prefabricated duplexes and single family homes are all that survive today. Because homes were allocated based on family size and need, there were a number of floorplans available. These were each identified by a letter of the alphabet, and so came to be known as alphabet houses.
In 2003, neighborhood associations in Richland began to work to have the area listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2004, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (GACHP) began reviewing the City’s Gold Coast Historic District preservation application. These efforts are still ongoing.