When General Leslie Groves and Robert J Oppenheimer made their choice regarding potential sites for Project Y, Groves considered Fuller Lodge to be a bonus to the Los Alamos Ranch School’s desirability as a location. According to Craig Martin and Heather McClenahan’s book, “Of Logs and Stone”, Groves considered Fuller Lodge “immediately ready for use as ‘transient housing and messing of post and technical personnel”.

I had a good chuckle at the wording. “Messing” of post and technical personnel? In the military lingo, “messing” refers to feeding. And apparently Fuller Lodge was averaging 13,000 meals served each month during the Project Y years! If you lived or stayed in the Lodge or the Big House, you ate your meals at Fuller Lodge. However, if you wanted to show up for a steak on a Friday night at Fuller Lodge, you paid just a dollar per person for your dinner.

That’s right. It seems like a deal worthy of a casino buffet, but a full meal ticket covering 3 square meals per day was $60/mo. Breakfast was $.50; Lunch was $.65; and dinner would cost you a dollar no matter what they were serving. As you might imagine, a lot of Project Y personnel lined up when the lodge was serving their steak dinner, (something Eleanor Jette speaks about in her book, Inside Box 1663).

The most distinguished guests in Los Alamos were billeted at Fuller Lodge during their stays, and if you were a bachelor you were likely to be at the Lodge or the Big House. Considering the necessity of feeding both guests and the science guy bachelor population, local legend suggests Fuller Lodge was often hosting at least six past and future Nobel Prize laureates at a time for meals. Apparently Otto Frisch of the British Mission loved to eat breakfast at Fuller Lodge just to watch the sun come up over the Sangre de Cristos.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing going on at Fuller Lodge during Project Y. The Pajarito Room saw just as many dances, gatherings, celebrations, and public meetings as it did during the Ranch School years! Even the Town Council used the Pajarito Room as their chambers during some evenings.

Enrico Fermi allegedly square danced one evening at Fuller Lodge and could not be convinced to join the dance until he had memorized with mathematical precision every one of the moves he would need to perform. Can you imagine trying to square dance with a boatload of mathematically gifted individuals obsessed with the geometrical “correctness” of the movements? I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall on those nights! While our brains probably cannot see a night of square dancing as “trendy” and “exciting”, the square dance was to turn of the century America what the Minuet was to Regency England. All the rage! And sincerely a better way to get to know a potential new friend than a bunch of instant messages from a dating app…

The Army didn’t modify Fuller Lodge very much during the Project Y years. The biggest renovation was to create guest quarters where the infirmary had been. The post commander requested sleeping and bathing areas in the space. The most interesting feature of this upgrade was a quirk in the plumbing which required the toilet to be in a rather peculiar position. Guests had to actually step up to the toilet, which was located on a platform. This particular accommodation eventually became known as “The Throne Room”. The picture below shows exactly why, and the sign was for laughs as it would be unusual for anyone to suggest a meeting in the bathroom!

Happy 2025 Los Alamos! Take a drive by Ashley Pond and Fuller Lodge while the wonderful holiday lights are still lit up in the evenings and enjoy this amazing landmark of the Pajarito Plateau. And when you’re ready to buy or sell your property here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who would love to chat about living in Los Alamos with YOU!