The United States Bureau of Mines selected a location in Albany to be home to the Northwest Electro-development Laboratory on March 17, 1943. The grounds of the center and some buildings had been the home of Albany College (now Lewis & Clark College) from 1925 until 1937. The facility was planned to develop new metallurgical processes as well as study ways to use low-grade resources using the surplus of electricity in the region. In 1945, the name was changed to the Albany Metallurgy Research Center.