As I mentioned several posts ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire several postcards featuring scenic views of Los Alamos from the early years. Several of these absolutely fascinate me for multiple reasons. I thought I would share several and see if any of you have similar thoughts or reactions. Check out this one:

Of course, once my mind moved beyond the picturesque 1940’s era snapshot of what appears to be a beautiful neighborhood in a quaint mountain town, I began to wonder what on earth would make a simple photo of Western Area housing into the sort of thing you’d choose as a postcard?

The description on the back of the postcard reads: “Residential STREET SCENE at Los Alamos, New Mexico, the atomic research center.” The street pictured is Trinity Drive, not far from the Trinity/Diamond intersection.

To a modern mind so used to communicating via text, email, social media, and with the ability to send realtime digital pics to anyone on my contacts list within seconds, a postcard of a residential street seems, well… boring! But I suppose if I consider for a moment some of the pics I take with my phone and send off to friends and combine that with a decades ago mindset, it’s really not surprising that this would make the postcard rack. Perhaps to visitors, housing for the scientific staff responsible for atomic research is a novelty! Rather like buying a postcard featuring a giant sunflower when visiting Kansas.

My next thought? Holy cow! The neighborhood trees have grown taller and the mountains are awfully bare since Western Area was first developed! And The first houses were ready for occupancy in 1947. It was no wonder that Craig Martin credits the Western Area the housing development with “halting the exodus of the scientific staff in the summer of 1947”. The original Western Area three bedroom single family home was the nicest housing option ever to appear in Los Alamos.

Looking at both of these images, there seems to be so much space in the neighborhood! The original plan was to have ample open space and what appeared to be continuous green yards with no barriers. The needs of growing families almost immediately got in the way of that particular master plan. You can see several fences in this image. In those days, you simply had to apply to the Zia Company to put up a fence at your address. So one might suggest it didn’t take long for that wide open space to be disrupted by fencing in favor of keeping kids and dogs at home.

It’s still a gorgeous neighborhood, isn’t it? We all know the flat roofs became an issue. And who can forget the strange kitchen sink issue on the first few “model homes”? But the more I looked, the entire neighborhood began to look so very wrong in these photos. Which brought me to my next “hmmm” moment.

I went back to my Field Guide to Los Alamos Housing and re-read the section on Western Area again. That’s when I realized that in 1948, the housing shortage which had been so briefly addressed by the completion of this new and gorgeous Western Area neighborhood, once again became a major concern for the AEC. At that time, the notion of bridging Pueblo Canyon with utilities was considered a financial non starter. The solution? Squeeze another 150 homes into the Western Area neighborhoods.

Modified Westerns were built between existing homes, at the end of cul de sacs, and all up and down Fairway and Ridgeway, which hadn’t existed until that point. Can you imagine living in that beautiful, brand new neighborhood for a year and then being informed that part of your lot was about to be taken away in order to cram another house in between you and your neighbors?

The Modified Westerns offered much less in the way of amenities than the Originals. No carport or fireplace. No block and stucco this time. Only wood frame was offered. Rooms were 25% smaller and one resident stated in December of 1948 that, “a Christmas tree, a child’s play pen, a few pieces of furniture and a large dog literally filled the living room”.

But it was a roof over their heads, and here in Los Alamos, that means something! If you’re looking to change the roof over your head, give me a call! I love talking real estate in Los Alamos. I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’m always ready to put my knowledge of this wonderful and unique town to work for you and your family!