Month: June 2022

The Oldest “House” in Los Alamos

June 28, 2022 / Kendra

If I asked you which home in Los Alamos is the “oldest”, your mind would probably meander toward Bathrub Row with its row of log cabin homes dating back to the Los Alamos Ranch School. Or, you might be one of the local history buffs who can name off one of the homesteader cabins currently sitting over at the North Mesa Stables, having been transported there decades ago to be used for animal shelters.

Either of those options would certainly fit the description of the “oldest house”. But there’s another “oldest house” sitting on Trinity Drive not far from the hospital that is very much an “oldest house” in its own right.

The addition to the right of the building was added at some point after original construction.

Going all the way back to the beginning of Los Alamos, the scientific staff was housed in the ranch school buildings. But even from the beginning when Oppenheimer and Bradbury were trying to visualize what Site Y might look like, there was an open acknowledgement that the Manhattan Project had two parts. The Science part and the Laboratory part. Mostly meaning that while you can brainstorm an idea all you want, if there is ever going to be a project, there has to be a facility to build it in.

Building a facility requires laborers, construction staff, support personnel, administrative staff, and probably so many other people that it isn’t surprising the theme of Los Alamos from the beginning has been, “Um, where are we supposed to put all of these folks?”

In December of 1942, M.M. Sundt Construction Company was contracted to build… Build what? It isn’t as if they could tell anyone in detail what was being built in the mysterious city. So, Eugene Sundt is said to have taken one look at the plans he was handed and decided he was building a small military post for about 200 men. Accurate guess wasn’t it? Well, except for the 200 men bit. The number of employees/residents has never been accurate. Not then. Not now.

The reason Sundt’s company was given the contract was that they’d only just finished a large scale project in “nearby” Las Vegas, NM. The Tucson based contractor had a one stop shop for construction. Everything from framing to painting, plumbing, electrical, and everything in between. His equipment was already in the area and ready to go. The fewer contractors read into the project, the better for the secrecy of Los Alamos.

By March 1943, Sundt’s company had opened 42 duplex apartments for use of the staff at Los Alamos. These apartments were clustered in an arc from about where Central Park Square is now to the intersection of Trinity and Oppenheimer Drives. These apartment buildings were called Sundts. The first batch were one bedroom single story duplexes.

Apartments were accessed by narrow curving streets following the natural grade of the land in order to decrease the cost of building roads and dealing with drainage issues. The first Sundts looked like log cabins. The eventual calling card of all Sundts was an enormous stovepipe jutting out from the roof at a height that most people agreed looked ridiculous.

Eventually, Sundts included, one, two, and even three bedroom duplexes and quadruplexes with four units per building. As the war continued and certain construction material limitations went into place, Sundts went from log cabin style, to attractive white clapboard siding and a pitched roof, and eventually to a flat roofed building sided with plasterboard covered in a dull green tar paper. It did not make for much in the way of curb appeal! In fact, those assigned to tar paper covered Sundts called the original log cabin style Sundts “Snob Hollow” and the clapboard sided ones “de Sundts”. People really don’t change, do we?

The tarpaper exterior made for a dark and foreboding building.

The building sitting at 3491 Trinity Drive is a flat roof quadruplex built with the last group of Sundts contracted in 1943. Records indicate the building went up in 1950. Considering the convoluted history of recordkeeping in Los Alamos, it’s possible that date isn’t entirely accurate because the Sundts were never meant to be permanent structures anyway. For whatever reason, most likely having to do with terrain, that building was the furthermost Sundt from the center of “town” back in the late forties. The other Sundts were clustered around the land sitting between Trinity Drive and Canyon Road. A few of the original one bedroom duplexes were in the vicinity of Peach Street behind Bathtub Row. Those would have been the “Snob Hollow” Sundts.

It’s difficult for a modern eye to decide that the white clapboard siding really makes this version more attractive than the later tar paper covered Sundts.

Since most of the other Sundts were torn down to make way for modernized apartment buildings and condos, it’s highly possible that the conversion of that last building from residence to dental office more than a few decades ago is responsible for its preservation. Oddly enough, though the building is zoned for commercial use, it is still considered a condo with an A and B side. I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate that an updating of the HVAC system eventually eliminated the trademark stovepipe jutting out of the roof. The original Sundts all had a central coal burning furnace that heated all the apartment units inside. Former residents have spoken about how hot the buildings were even in the dead of winter and how difficult it was to maintain a consistent temperature. I don’t think any of us would enjoy sitting in a dental operatory with the temperature hovering somewhere between hot-summer-day and hell-on-earth!

A few fun facts about the Sundts and other early housing options here in Los Alamos:

There were no street signs or addresses in Los Alamos. Your building had a T Number and newcomers had to wander the confusing, curved roads asking directions until they stumbled upon their housing assignment.
Eventually there were 332 Sundt apartment units in Los Alamos.
The common furnace in a Sundt required a “furnace man” to stoke the fire and put in coal. To make coal delivery easier, the coal chute and therefore the kitchen, were on the side closest to the “road”. So the back of a Sundt was the front and vice versa.
Cooking units were coal and wood burning. These “black beauties” were so outdated it would have been like cooking on your Great Great Grandma’s stove.
The item most sought after by wives living in Sundts were electric hot plates. Electricity was in high demand for laboratory functions in Los Alamos so all electrical appliances were essentially banned. That meant you had to buy an electric hot plate on the black market.
The furnace of a Sundt was too big for the size of the building. As a result, the water would often come out of the pipes already boiling.
Cast iron was considered vital to the war effort. In 1942 the government stopped all new homes from having a bathtub installed. The Sundts were built with a shower only, and THAT is how Bathtub Row got its name. Those bathtubs predated the war rationing on cast iron. Bathtubs would not make another appearance in Los Alamos housing until the Denver Steels were built.

So take a trip down Trinity Drive and take a peek at the last remaining Sundt apartment in Los Alamos. It looks very unassuming in its current stuccoed form. But if you want to really appreciate your own housing situation in Los Alamos, remind yourself that the Sundt was, for quite a long time, the best available housing in Los Alamos. In fact, until the Denver Steels and then the Western Area were built, the Sundts were preferred by residents. Their floorplans were much roomier than other options available at the time, and they had indoor plumbing! And when you’re ready to find your own home in Los Alamos, indoor plumbing included of course, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with you!

The Kitchen Sink Crisis

June 22, 2022 / Kendra

Have you ever stood at your kitchen sink and paid attention to something other than what’s in that sink? Believe it or not, the question of whether or not a person had the ability to gaze out the window while washing up, dishes or otherwise, became a really hot topic in Los Alamos sometime around 1947.

By January of 1946 there was a firm agreement among the “powers that be” that Los Alamos was going to become a permanent facility. There were multiple opinions regarding what, exactly, the identity of that facility would be. But Los Alamos was deemed necessary and that meant transitioning the town from what amounted to a giant hodgepodge collection of temporary housing, trailers, huts (yes, they were called hutments!), and old ranch school buildings, into a viable town with real housing for scientists, support staff, and their growing families.

The first place tagged for Los Alamos expansion was the Western Area. It seemed logical mostly because the land was already clear and flat-ish. “Ish” because the natural mountain meadow of Western Area had been the town golf course and horse pasture for years. The other thing that made it desirable was the probability of getting utilities over there without having to jump a canyon in order to do so.

Community planner Lawrence B Sheridan was commissioned to design a neighborhood. It was the height of modernity with the big horseshoe main drag and swooping side streets ending in quiet cul-de-sacs. Pictured below during construction, Western Area was supposed to be the answer to the housing crisis in Los Alamos. By 1947, there were more than a few barriers between dreams and reality.

The building contract was won by a company called McKee. The builder came up with two different models. One was concrete block covered in stucco and the other was wood frame with siding. Since there were no streets in the Western Area at the time these sample homes were built, the homes went up on Spruce Street. The Army Commander in charge at that time crowed that “Every home will have a bathtub!” While that was true, there was a laundry list of other things that worried potential occupants.

A women’s organization called the Mesa Club actually made a detailed list of improvements they felt necessary to render the model homes liveable. The list was detailed because one of the complaints was that the linen closet was not deep enough to adequately accommodate a set of folded sheets. Other items of complaint were that the windows were not set as to encourage a cross breeze, the windows in the children’s rooms were too high, and the major complaint was that the kitchen sink was placed in such a way that it faced a blank wall. After all, whoever heard of a kitchen sink that didn’t have a window over it?

If you’ve ever lived in a modern apartment complex you might have had more than a few kitchens without any windows at all. Of course, what the Mesa Club wasn’t grasping was that an optimal way to cut construction costs was to place the kitchen sink near the same wall that housed the plumbing for the bathroom. The Commander scoffed at the ladies’ complaints and told them there was no call for building “custom type houses”. After all, the last housing actually built in Los Alamos were the Sundt Apartments. (If you don’t know what a Sundt is, I’m planning a post about these fascinating apartments later on.) For a cost comparison, a Sundt Apartment building that housed up to four families cost $3000 to build. Each single family home or half duplex in the Western Area project carried a price tag of $14000!

But the ladies of the Mesa Club weren’t about to drop the topic of the kitchen sink. They rallied their husbands, a good number of them prominent Laboratory employees. 30 of the Laboratory’s top scientists put their signatures on a letter which was sent to Washington DC. The letter cited more than one issue with the housing options planned for the Western Area. Houses had only gone up on 41st and 42nd Streets before a task force was assigned to come out here to Los Alamos to see what all the fuss was about. Yes. A task force was called out over the kitchen sink… The next time you think you have a housing issue here in Los Alamos, just remind yourself of kitchen sinks and laugh.

This modified Western has some updating, but a lot of the exterior features are still present and make for an attractive home. Imagine how amazing this might have looked to a family previously living in a hutment or trailer with outdoor plumbing!

Needless to say, the kitchen sink was indeed moved. Because of this, for quite some time there were half a dozen houses on 41st and 42nd Streets that had the kitchen sink in the original position. It’s a safe bet that these have undergone plenty of renovations over the years. But sometimes I am just a bit curious to know if there are still homes in the Western Area with the kitchen sink facing a blank wall.

One of the most luxurious features was the third bedroom available in more than one version of the Western Area homes. To families who had been sleeping in cramped quarters for quite some time, it probably felt huge! Still, homes were assigned based upon family size. To merit a three bedroom home, you needed to be a family of at least five people. And while there was a bathtub in every house, a good number of these homes did not come with a shower. Believe it or not, tub and shower combos were not considered “standard” until well into the eighties.

Construction on Western Area continued once the initial complaints were addressed. Construction began at the intersection of Trinity and Diamond Drives and went around the horseshoe expanding first to the West, then the North, and then East. This created a bizarre situation for some families. Because of construction traffic, if you were assigned a house on the Northern side of the horseshoe, you got to move in last even though your home had been finished for months!

A good example of an Orignal Western. While the carport is now enclosed, you can see how basic the home design is. Also note the “high windows” in the “children’s room”.

Because of the delays in building the Western Area, and the housing crunch in general, there were several other short term housing options brought in to fill the gap. Last week I blogged about the Denver Steels – or Denver Metals. If you missed that post, click here. There were a few other short term options that I’ll talk about in future posts. But until then, don’t forget to pick up Craig Martin’s book about Los Alamos housing. Some of the information is bound to make the pieces of our housing history click into place! You can purchase Quads, Duplexes, and Sunken Living Rooms here. And when you’re ready to go in search of your own Dream Home in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with you!

What’s the Deal With Denver Steel?

June 12, 2022 / Kendra

All villages, towns, and cities have neighborhoods with names that go way back. Most of these names made perfect sense in the beginning, but the meanings might have been lost over time for any number of reasons. Los Alamos has more than a few oddly named neighborhoods. After all, our most historic area of town is called “Bathtub Row”. But another one of my all time favorites is the “Denver Steels” neighborhood tucked just behind Los Alamos High School on Pueblo Mesa. Believe it or not, the Denver Steels has the dubious honor of being one of the very first single family home neighborhoods in Los Alamos County.

There are a lot of myths about how the Denver Steels got to Los Alamos. Really though, they aren’t myths so much as blended stories about early housing solutions proposed and executed in an effort to ease the housing crisis in Post War Los Alamos.

Myth #1

The homes were shipped here from the Washington State area. I’ve even heard a variation where they were the previous dwellings of steel workers in Washington State, hence the Denver Steels name. Of course, this myth makes no mention of how the word “Denver” came into play.

The truth is that there were temporary houses shipped to Los Alamos from Washington State. The Manhattan Engineer District, or MED, was in charge of operations in 1946. While the Western Area was being built, which was a whole other hassle we’ll talk about some other time, the MED brought 107 “houses” from their plutonium facility in Hanford, WA to Los Alamos. The homes were placed along 10th Street, Rim Road, and Canyon Road. I don’t know about you, but I seriously wish I could’ve been witness to the caravan of 214 flatbed trailers trucking up the Main Hill Road, each with half a Hanford Home strapped onboard. What a sight!

Literally the quote from potential occupants was, “Well, they have indoor plumbing!”

Myth #2

The Denver Steels were originally military troop housing on a base somewhere else in the US. Maybe Denver? There are certainly a number of potential military installations in the Colorado region to choose from. But this myth is once again, not a myth, but a truth based upon another temporary housing solution from our past.

The military installation was Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and the units were duplexes, triplexes, and quadraplexes. There were 270 units of these wood framed domiciles and honestly they looked like military housing. Each individual “pod” was 672 square feet. The structures were placed on Canyon Road, Manhattan Loop, and what used to be M, O, & P Streets in 1947. Currently those areas are in the vicinity of Myrtle and Pine Streets. At the time of their initial usage, these homes were considered the most desirable housing in Los Alamos. Yet the major complaint was that people wanted single family housing. Sound familiar?

There was a definite military look to these homes.

The Real Story

In late 1947 the Army authorized the purchase of housing for the military officers still stationed here in Los Alamos. At that time there were a lot of pre fab housing experiments going on in the US. You can check out my Lustron Homes post if you want to read more about that. But this shouldn’t be a surprise if you think about it. This was Post War America, the Baby Boomer generation was being born. Families wanted the American Dream they’d fought so hard for and they wanted it now! So the pre fab housing boom created some really interesting options.

Enter the Denver Steels. Or rather, the Denver Metals, as they were originally known. These units had steel I-beam framing and aluminum siding. They were fabricated by a steel company in Denver, Colorado and shipped in pieces to Los Alamos where they were assembled in record time.

718 sq ft of no nonsense utility – All were 2 bedroom and one bathroom

It might surprise you to know that the first 39 of these homes were actually placed over on Rim Road and Quartz not far from the other temporary housing brought to Los Alamos. Perhaps that’s where the myths got jumbled together. None of those 39 original Denver Steels are still around. They went the way of the Hanford homes and the Fort Leonard Wood multi units.

There were originally 251 Denver Steels ordered, but only 200 of them managed to be carefully situated onto Pueblo Mesa. Of those 200, half were reserved for the new civilian security inspectors coming into town. Craig Martin’s book on housing in Los Alamos doesn’t specify where the missing 12 were placed. But it’s probable that they were near the original 39 in an area that underwent multiple overhauls. Truthfully, the Denver Steels weren’t intended to be long term housing options for families in Los Alamos.

The original units were 718 square feet. Every home had two bedrooms and one bathroom and there was no bathtub. Only a shower. There were two models available from the company. The Marquette and the Columbine. Strangely, there were only 2 Marquettes ordered. The rest of the homes were the Columbine model and considering the minimal differences between the two, trying to find those two Marquettes would be like chasing the proverbial needle in the haystack. The most memorable feature of the Denver Steels wasn’t a feature at all. It was the fact that the all metal construction created a bizarre situation of simultaneous sweating and freezing in the wintertime. This resulted in the exterior walls being coated with ice. It would be interesting to know if this worked like natural insulation or not. But considering the mass amount of renovating, remodeling, and updating that has gone on in the Denver Steels in the last 75 years, it would be unlikely that any of the homes still have that unique problem.

Hard to believe that this inviting home ever resembled that original drawing!

Truly, the renaissance of the Denver Steels has been incredible. The area has long been considered a “starter” home neighborhood here in Los Alamos because of the modest square footage of the homes and the reasonable pricing. But some of the remodels have nearly doubled the 718 sq ft homes and in the last two years some of the sale prices of these beautifully updated homes have rivaled those of other “higher end” neighborhoods in town.

This home still has the original front window configuration. Two panes on the right, three on the left!

Though many of the updated versions of the Denver Steels have been added onto, it is sometimes still possible to see the ghost of the original construction if you know what you’re looking for. Take a tour of the neighborhood sometime and you’ll get a peek at the wonderful creativity and ingenuity of homeowners throughout the years.

As always, Craig Martin’s book, Quads, Shoeboxes and Sunken Living Rooms: A History of Los Alamos Housing, has been an invaluable and fascinating resource for this post. If you haven’t already, you should pick one up from the Historical Society’s Website. It’s a great resource for anyone who loves the uniqueness of Los Alamos, or even if it drives you nuts! And as always, if you’re ready to talk Real Estate in Los Alamos, I’m your hometown Real Estate Broker. Give me a call! I’d love to talk with you!

Many Hands Make Work Light

June 4, 2022 / Kendra

There’s no doubt that we’ve all experienced that down and out feeling. It could be a natural disaster like a fire or a flood. Maybe it’s a financial disaster such as property theft or loss of a job. Loss comes in many different forms. The key to surviving loss is having a support network to help connect you to the right resources when you need them.

The key to surviving these challenges in life is support. A helping hand. A listening ear. Someone who can hear your story, nod their head, and then say, “I know exactly who to call”. Since 1969, the non-profit Self Help Inc has been doing just that.

Located in Los Alamos County and based out of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Self Help Inc offers consultation, advocacy, emergency financial assistance, and seed money grants to Northern New Mexico individuals, families, and businesses. Their goal is to empower others to get back on their feet and become self sustaining and independent. It’s an important mission that takes on all new meaning as this year’s record breaking Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire impacts our neighboring communities in Northern New Mexico.

While Self Help Inc primarily helps those in Los Alamos, Taos, Rio Arriba, and Northern Santa Fe County, they have also made a positive impact on other rural communities north of the Santa Fe City line. Their model of helping others focuses on three things, Emergency Financial Assistance, Seed Money Grants, and Resources.

Emergency Relief

Most of us have experienced that moment of fear and utter hopelessness that comes with a financial situation we simply cannot handle. A sudden illness that leaves us unable to pay our rent or mortgage. The car breaking down when we have no money for repairs and desperately need it for day to day transportation. The list goes on and on. Whether it’s help with utility bills in the middle of winter or groceries in a crisis, Self Help Inc has a solution to offer.

Part of their success in helping individuals and families in crisis has come from their creativity. Money isn’t always the answer. Perhaps an individual just got the new job of their dreams, but doesn’t have enough ready cash to purchase clothes or the necessary uniform to get them through their first paycheck. In that case, a few pairs of scrubs could be the answer to everything!

If you know someone in crisis or have experienced an emergency crisis yourself, the key to reaching out for the helping hand. It’s the hardest step and Self Help Inc has tried to make this as easy and painless as possible. Simply fill out their contact form HERE, and one of their experience staff members will reach out to YOU.

Seed Money Grants

This may be an unfamiliar phrase, but the meaning is pretty darned cool. Seed Money is used to give potential businesses a boost! Perhaps a talented photographer who wants to start a professional business but can’t quite afford all of the equipment necessary. Maybe you’d like to start a business and you’ve got everything ready to go but can’t afford the licensing fees. Seed Money is exactly what it sounds like. The seeds that help to grow your business into a self sustaining, contributing member of the community landscape!

One of the recent businesses helped by Self Help Inc was Muy Salsas in Los Alamos. I think we should all make a donation of gratitude to Self Help Inc in honor of Taco Tuesdays!

Resources

When you feel overwhelmed by circumstance, sometimes the only thing you need is a listening ear and someone to help you decide what the next step is. In the last few years, Self Help Inc has been doing their best to make as many network connections all over Northern New Mexico as they can. These connections enable them to know exactly who to put YOU in touch with when you’re facing a problem and you don’t know what to do. The amazing thing is how much comfort you can get from someone listening to your story and then offering reassurance that this isn’t the first time they’ve known someone facing your situation. It’s comforting to have someone identify possible next steps, and then name resources to help you make those steps happen. So many of us could keep moving forward in life if we only knew what direction to take!

Helping Self Help Inc

In this day and age it’s difficult to know how best to help your community and your world. You can hit any social media platform and be offered thousands of “buttons” that give you the opportunity to donate money to a worthy cause. Whether you’d like to give your time or you want to donate cash, the coolest thing about partnering with Self Help Inc is that your contribution, whether it’s labor or money, is being automatically diversified. Self Help Inc partners with the United Way of New Mexico and more community foundations than I can name off. For a peek at their partners, click on this link. Maybe the most important piece is that supporting Self Help Inc allows you to support our community.

So when you’re ready to help out in Los Alamos, check out Self Help Inc. And when you’re ready to buy and sell real estate in Los Alamos, call me! I love to talk anything Los Alamos and I’m your hometown real estate broker!

Month: June 2022

The Oldest “House” in Los Alamos

The Kitchen Sink Crisis

What’s the Deal With Denver Steel?

Many Hands Make Work Light

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