Month: November 2024

Snow days in Los Alamos always seem to create a need to reminisce about the past. Of course, my thoughts first turned to epic snow days of the past, which you can read about HERE. And then I started thinking about what life must’ve been like a long time ago here in Los Alamos when it snowed like crazy. The one population here in Los Alamos that was absolutely out this past snow day, driving around like crazy people on a snow/work from home/no school/sleep in day were the Los Alamos Stable Owners. No matter how much snow falls, they’ve been known to cross country ski out there to get the horses fed and watered on time.

That got me thinking about Los Alamos in the early days. How on earth did they plow their way out of there when the snowfall was even heavier on a regular basis?

Jim Womelsduff was one of a handful of Los Alamos Ranch School employees who were critical to the success and sustainability of the community on the Pajarito Plateau. You can read a bit more about Jim in a previous post about the Chief Mechanic’s House. Jim’s nephew, Richard E. Womelsduff, wrote about his uncle in his manuscript, “It Was a Good Time and Place to Be a Boy”, the entirety of which can be read in the Wirth and Aldrich book, Los Alamos: The Ranch School Years. Jim Womelsduff was mechanically inclined in all of the best ways.

It seems consistent with most descriptions of early winters at the ranch school, that snowfall was considerable. As we all know, there aren’t that many ways in and out of Los Alamos. But Jim Womelsduff was responsible for clearing the access roads in and out and also from building to building since many of them were pretty far flung. (Would YOU want too shovel your way from the intersection at Trinity and 20th Streets to Fuller Lodge?) For this purpose, Jim actually designed and built enormous snowplows which could be attached to the Caterpillar tractors, which Jim also kept running. And THAT is how the school kept itself alive in the winter!

Science Class at the Local Ruins

Richard Womelsduff goes on to tell another tale of life in early Los Alamos regarding the native ruins located near the Romero Cabin on 19th St where the road dead ends into a parking lot connected to Central Park Square.

“There were Indian ruins on Los Alamos mesa as well as most places on the Pajarito Plateau. A small ruin mound of about five hundred square feet was located just a few yards to the west of the Big House. It showed a dozen or so small rooms and was worked on from time to time by a science class of schoolboys.”

Can you imagine getting an anthropology or archeology or even a geology lesson where you actually got to dig into a mound and uncover ruins for yourself? Evidently there were several more nearby ruins that were utilized in history seeking expeditions during the boys’ free time. Womelsduff’s account goes on to say, “These ruins were so prevalent all over the area that they were accepted as a normal part of our environment, with little thought given to the people who had once lived and died there.” Oddly enough, this rather reminds me of the general level of appreciation most of us felt about a trip to Bandelier during elementary school. Just another part of life in Los Alamos. As an adult, I’ve come to realize what an incredible opportunity this is!

Six Gun School Play

Richard Womelsduff tells another laughable story about the introduction of a formal elementary school for the local children of ranch school employees. This occurred when AJ Connell hired Fred Rousseau as the LARS business manager. Fred and his wife, Edna, promptly moved into Master Cottage #1. Edna took up a position as the elementary school teacher.

Richard does remember the bonus of a new grade school was that the old grade school building became the home of a horse wrangler named Ted Mather. Ted must’ve been like a character from a book or a tall tale to the young boys of the ranch school. The man came complete with a bow legged walk, a huge moustache, and a six gun that he actually wore strapped to his waist when out and about.

Richard was very pleased that Ted allowed him to borrow the gun, without bullets of course, for his part in the school play. Certainly any kiddo who grew up playing mountain main running about the wilds of early Los Alamos would love a chance to wave a six gun shooter around as he acted in a school play. And perhaps nothing draws a more glaring line between the “good old days” and the here and now. Though I am reminded that our Los Alamos High School has a talented group of young trap shooting and sporting clay shooters who participate in the “Young Guns” Club. It’s even a co-ed group that competes all over the state!

As we gear up for another winter here in Los Alamos and wonder what on Earth happened to autumn, let’s be happy we have things like teleworking, snow plows, central heat and modern wood, gas, and pellet stoves. At least when our fireplace is crackling merrily and we’re curled up in front of our favorite binge watching television, we aren’t usually worried about choking on smoke or having to run out to the forest to chop more wood!

There are so many more funny little tidbit tales about early life in Los Alamos. We’ll have to take a trip through the “Culture Club” era soon. And when you’re ready to find your perfect hearth in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to talk Los Alamos Housing and comfy living spaces in Los Alamos with you!

With all of the recent winter weather and unusually cold temperatures, I got to thinking about life in the Chief Mechanic’s House without central heating. There was a warm wood stove to gather around, but can you imagine dragging your mattress into the living room to curl up around the wood stove like a pack of dogs?

Although… if you were one of the households affected by the power outages here in New Mexico in the last few days, that probably sounds like a great idea!

In the beginning of the Manhattan Project’s occupation of the cabin built by Floyd Womelsduff, six of the Junior scientists were packed into the front bedroom. They used bunk beds and shared the bathroom facilities with Bob Christy and his wife, who were billeted in the structure’s back bedroom. This meant poor Mrs. Christy had the dubious pleasure of tiptoeing through the crowded front bedroom to use the bathroom facilities! Can you imagine what that was like on a day to day basis? Sometimes I think modern folks have become downright divas regarding our living space requirements.

This continuing saga of musical billeting continued at T-128 until mid-1943 when General Groves reluctantly allowed “foreigners” to begin collaborating on the project. Sir James Chadwick of the British Mission had been awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932 for his discovery of the neutron. He and his wife and their twin seventeen year old daughters moved to Los Alamos and suddenly things at the old Womelsduffs’ house got even more interesting.

According to Eleanor Jette’s book, Inside Box 1663, “The Chadwick’s arrived: Sir James and his lady lost their titles on the Hill.” This became a rather fascinating part of life in Los Alamos in the mid to late 1940s. The Chief Mechanic’s House was renovated prior to the Chadwick family’s occupation. The first thing that was added was central heating and the cabin was made more comfortable, but remained very rustic.

Lady Chadwick became quite the character here in Los Alamos. She’d never visited the US before, which I find is frequently still true of foreign nationals who find their way to Los Alamos even today. Fortunately, now we have far more information about a country to base our opinions on before arrival. But there are still plenty of people who make assumptions that the Rockies are just like the Ozarks, which are just like the Great Smoky Mountains. We know that those mountain ranges are enormously different in terrain, vegetation, and elevation, but if you were coming to Los Alamos before the Internet and you’d never experienced another American community…

Needless to say, Lady Chadwick began having social events to host and welcome the vast array of foreign science staff coming to Los Alamos. T-128 soon played host to Niels Bohr, Otto Frisch, Rudolph Peierls, George Placzek, and even Klaus Fuchs who would later be identified as a rather infamous spy.

Soon enough, she became a fairly loud voice in the Women’s Club. Both the American and British wives offered polite tolerance for Lady Chadwick’s attempts to “refine” them through the use of high teas and social events. The American wives got a bit snippy however when Lady Chadwick’s diatribes on “primitive” American culture took a nasty turn and she began publicly declaring she was unable to believe the Americans could have possibly been all that helpful on “D Day” due to their complete lack of social graces and culture.

Fortunately for Lady Chadwick, (and Los Alamos), Sir James began spending most of his time in Washington and soon moved his family to the city where Lady Chadwick and her daughters found the social scene and amenities more to their liking. I suppose her opinion of Los Alamos would’ve been much worse had she started on the East Coast and moved West…

Robert and Jean Bacher were thrilled to move into T-128 when the Chadwicks left town. Jean was fond of saying the bathtub was an irresistible incentive to babysitters and she had no trouble getting volunteers to watch her children. The Bachers were frequent entertainers and dozens of parties were held at T-128 over their stay, (more about that in a future post!).

By 1946, T-128 became designated as the Army post commander’s billet. In 1947, the AEC officially took over operation of Los Alamos. The first Los Alamos area manager was Carrol Tyler. While occupying the Chief Mechanic’s House, she suddenly found herself in charge of reams worth of top-secret documents left over from the project years. To help with storage, Zia Company installed a safe in the dining room of the Chief Mechanic’s House. Entirely hidden by wood panels, the safe was said to house the “crown jewels” of the atomic energy program during the late 1940s. The safe is still in the house and the Historical Society actually got a peek at the safe on a visit to the current owner.

By 1957, the housing points system was in place and T-128 was put into the draw with many of the other Bathtub Row cottages. Richard Baker moved into the Chief Mechanic’s House. He was a well-known chemist and head of CM-B Division at LASL. The Bakers later purchased the house in 1969 and owned it until 1995. The Chief Mechanic’s House is still most commonly known as “The Baker House”. The Bakers loved the novelty of living on Bathtub Row and the history of Los Alamos. The Baker House is still occupied today, with the record of being the longest continually occupied dwelling in Los Alamos.

When you’re ready to look for a dwelling to occupy here in Los Alamos, OR if you’re looking to sell your dwelling, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl at heart and I love chatting about real estate in Los Alamos! It’s always a pleasure and a privilege to get a peek inside the unique and often historic homes here in Los Alamos!