RICHLAND, Wash. — One of Washington state's most endangered historic places is located on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland. That's according to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.
The long warehouse along the Columbia River was once owned by farmers Paul and Mary Bruggemann.
The Tri-City Herald reports that in 1943 the family was given 30 days to leave because the government needed their land for a secret World War II project. It is one of four remaining structures from the pre-Manhattan Project era; the others are Hanford High School, the White Bluffs Bank, and the Allard Pumphouse, according to the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.
Hanford made the plutonium for the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
Historians say the warehouse represents all people who were evicted from their lands in 1943.
But little has been done to preserve the warehouse.
Historians say the building could be saved and serve as an entry point for visitors to the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.