In my last two posts, we’ve been looking back at the development of educational facilities here in Los Alamos. In the last few years we have seen the addition of a beautiful new field house for our high school sports teams as well as the renovation and reconstruction of multiple schools in our district. But how did a small town built quite literally at the end of the road create facilities to educate a population from Kindergarten through 12th Grade? After all, it isn’t unusual for small towns to offer elementary education and then ship kids to a larger, neighboring town for high school.

Anchor High School

At the midpoint of the 1943-44 school year, an eight room school building was constructed west of the current Mesa Public Library location. It was initially called Los Alamos School and included space for all grades. From 1944 to 1945 high school students attending Los Alamos School were said to attend Anchor High School. In 1945 the name was changed to High School Alpha. Craig Martin suggests in his research that this was due to a need to “make it less identifiable to the outside world”.

While this might seem odd to some of us. The Anchor Ranch area is now TA-8. The ranch was taken over by the Manhattan Project in 1943 and eventually became the Anchor Ranch Proving Ground. Prior to that, the homestead had been established in 1901 and was eventually purchased by a family from New York who hired a man to run the ranch and care for a handicapped son who had been sent to live there. Any mention of Anchor High School might well have given away the location of then Project Y. Can you imagine what maintaining secrecy with high schoolers would have been like if they had social media in those days?

Los Alamos School became Central School in appx 1947

You might recall that it was only in the post war time that the Atomic Energy Commission decided to keep Los Alamos and develop it into a research town of sorts. To support a growing population, the AEC began building schools. You can read more about the development of elementary schools HERE. But Los Alamos School didn’t become Central School until Mesa and Canyon Elementary Schools were built in the late 1940s. Students from grades 7-12 remained at Central School until secondary schools could be constructed.

Pueblo Junior High

You probably know the first Junior High School here in Los Alamos as Pueblo Complex. It’s been Pueblo Complex since its closure in 1984 due to a population decline. Sports teams have continued to use its terraced fields and offices occupy old classrooms. The sprawling building also houses High Flyers Gymnastics, LAHS Cheer, and NJROTC physical training and drill team. From its construction in the school building boom of 1947-1949 until the closure in 1984, it was the first “middle school” here in Los Alamos. At that time, Junior High included 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. After that, students moved on to the high school. Some newcomers to the area find it strange that here in Los Alamos we have never included 6th grade in middle school or junior high as they do in many other districts. Who knows, that might be a wave of the future here in Los Alamos as our population continues to grow.

This might be the part most easily seen from Diamond Drive, but the school building is actually enormous!

Cumbres Junior High

If you don’t remember, the current Los Alamos Middle School began life as Cumbres Junior High in 1962. Cumbres Junior High also hosted grades 7-9 and was one of the last schools built prior to the AEC turning over control of the schools to LAPS. The school was built on the site of an old Army Radio Post which was placed on the highest point atop the mesa. Cumbres means “summit” in Spanish, a name that makes sense when you view it like that. The school district currently owns the site of the middle school and the open tract of land between the Ball Fields and the school which has so recently been a topic of conversation here in town.

LAMS Before…

When district enrollment dipped in the early 1980s, LAPS made the decision to keep the newer Junior High Building in operation. Absorbing the students attending Pueblo Junior High must have been quite a task! This was partly accomplished by sending ninth graders to the high school. Both Junior Highs were officially “closed” and Los Alamos Middle School was “opened”. Since the eighties, the middle school has been renovated again into a multi story structure to serve the growing needs of our community.

LAMS Now…

Los Alamos High School

As with anything here in Los Alamos, we have to consider any dates we find on the Internet regarding the beginnings of our town more than a little approximate. If you search on Wikipedia for the year in which Los Alamos High School was founded, it says 1946. It’s a year that isn’t even backed up entirely by the description and history they have of our school.

This is how I remember it! The building in the center of the photo was the main office. Library on the right and Civic Auditorium on the left out of sight.

As I said above, Anchor High School began in the 1943-44 school year. While it went through two name changes and several buildings, it was the beginning of our high school here in Los Alamos. The first official high school building was built in 1949. This is when the high school students moved from Central School/High School Alpha to their new building. In 2010 construction began on the current facility, which is a stunning building with plenty of amenities to offer state of the art learning.

A view of a remaining part of the old E Wing building from the new building.
Back in the day this would have been a view from E Wing toward the main building. Almost reverse from the photo above!

To be honest, its almost mind bending for some of us LAHS alumni to enter the new facility. For one thing, the library entrance looks rather the same, but from an entirely wrong perspective. It’s disorienting in some cases because in the old building, the library was unattached except by covered walkway. For those of you who never walked the halls in the old days and for those of us who try to understand how the new works with the old parts still remaining, you might enjoy the photo below. fbt Architects includes this on their website. You might want to take a look at their photo gallery and read the wonderful write up they provide about the project.

There is absolutely no doubt that the schools here in Los Alamos are a big part of what makes this a great community for families raising children. In my first paragraph I posed a question about how such a small and even secret community ever managed to develop such a district. Truthfully, the answer lies mostly with the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Department of Energy. In the early days and on to modern times. As late as the 2008-2009 school year, 22% of the school district’s budget came from DOE. Prior to that, AEC and later DOE subsidies covered a third of the district’s budget. Regardless of how we might feel about this, the fact remains that it is a key part of the development of such a wonderful learning environment for our kids.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down the educational memory lane. It’s been educational and fascinating for me as well! I love Los Alamos and I’m proud to be part of the LAHS alumni and your hometown real estate broker! Give me a call and let’s talk real estate in Los Alamos. Whether you’re buying or selling, I’d love to hear from you!