Los Alamos Homecoming 2024 is underway and as the entire district has been dressing up and finding weird non anything-but-a-backpack things to carry their school stuff in, I thought it might be an interesting moment to look back at some of the first “public” schools in our town’s long history.
Truly, the major theme in the history of Los Alamos is education. It’s been the most consistent topic of concern in this town from the time before we WERE a town. I think one of the things I find most interesting about Los Alamos and school is that our first public school was the WPA Sandoval County Elementary School. WPA stood for Works Progress Administration. This program built almost 6000 schools during the 1930s as part of The New Deal public works program designed by Franklin D Roosevelt. The idea was to revitalize American job prospects through education, nutrition, access to academic and health testing (think basic vision and hearing tests) and also through nutritional lunch programs in schools.
Not that the kids of the Los Alamos Ranch School employees and the Pajarito Plateau weren’t educated prior to the 1930s. Several of the local families who were employed by the ranch school would take turns educating the children who lived in and around the area. But sometime between 1931 and 1935, that changed with the arrival of the Rousseau family.
AJ Connell hired business manager Fred Rousseau in 1931. Fred worked for Connell to manage the business side of LARS. But Fred’s wife, Edna Rousseau, was a schoolteacher. Connell asked Edna to take up a teaching position in the little stone schoolhouse located to the west of Ashley Pond and the Big House. Connell renovated the original Master Cottage, Master Cottage #1, for the Rousseau’s to live in, and the school building was newly built once she arrived on the scene.
The schoolhouse was located in the general vicinity of what would eventually become Central School during the Manhattan Project, (more about life at Central School in a future post!). The little stone schoolhouse was a rectangular building which had a little basement where a wood stove was managed by older schoolboys to provide heat during the winter so the poor students didn’t freeze!
The one room could be divided into two by a pleated divider, (sounds familiar to some of us!) and so there were two classrooms. Edna Rousseau was eventually joined by Amador Gonzales to teach grades 1-8. Records and reports from adults who had attended the school suggest there were around 20 students per year give or take a few.
A good number of the kiddos attending public school were Hispanic. Fermor and Peggy Church’s three boys attended as well as the youngsters of a few other Anglo families living on the plateau.
School was not only reading, writing, and mathematics. Former students remember play practice and performing A Christmas Carol for the holidays. Amador Gonzales taught the students to cut wood and build birdhouses. There were arts and crafts projects, woodburning, and music class with rattles and tambourines. During the cold weather, physical education exercise would be held indoors and some students remember playing pin the tail on the donkey when it was too cold for outdoor recess!
Interestingly enough, most young people at that time don’t recall a great economic hardship happening in 1929. Life at the ranch school was stable and in some ways, idyllic. The school was self sufficient at that time, providing for itself, living off the land and the work of the residents and employees.
Though the ranch school wasn’t bursting at the seams, they had enough students paying $2400/yr for tuition to support the families working on the plateau and sending their children to the public school. Tuition at the school for one student for one year was actually double the yearly salary of most of the employees! And yet, if you think on it, the employees and public school kiddos were fed and housed and part of a community that WAS the Los Alamos Ranch School. It’s a very familiar sort of pattern for most of us who grew up here.
Growing up Los Alamos seems to be a unique experience no matter when it happens! I consider myself blessed to have been a part of this community and I absolutely love talking Los Alamos History and Housing with anyone who is willing to have a chat! So when you’re ready to be a part of our community on the Pajarito Plateau or you’re ready to sell your current Los Alamos property and find another, give me a call! I’d love to chat with you!
I believe that I’ve been aware to some degree of the Big House as part of the Ranch School’s history. For many folks who grow up here and often take a lot of the history stuff for granted, it’s easy to believe that somehow the Big House became Fuller Lodge. However, it may surprise some or most of you to discover that the Big House actually morphed into the Post Office. With some significant changes going on in between, of course!
When the Los Alamos Ranch School was moved out to allow the Manhattan Project to move in, the Big House was acquired along with the Master Cottages, Guest Cottage, outbuildings, Ashley Pond, livestock, farm equipment, and everything else needed to run a ranch or a ranch school, although not so much a scientific facility!
Because of the lack of space in the early years of the Manhattan Project, the Big House actually saw quite a lot of historic action. It was the only building with a space to hold scientific staff meetings. Robert Serber first briefed the early project members on the basics of nuclear weapons in the reading room of the Big House. At one point in a lecture, Serber used the word “bomb”. Only a moment later, a handwritten note from John Manley suggested a substitute word. From that time on, the device became known as the “gadget”.
Eventually, the Big House became housing for unmarried staff members and guests. Sleeping quarters were the main need at the time, so the Big House was modified and the bathtubs were removed. Bathrooms and beds were numbered. Lodgers at the Big House would be given a bed and bathroom assignment. These periodic guests read like the who’s who of science at the time. Otto Frisch, Johnny von Neumman, Richard Feynman, and Klaus Fuchs were some of the important minds to enjoy a stay at the Big House.
The ranch school’s beautiful common room dominated by the central fireplace became a popular hangout after working hours. The post chaplain had an office on the first floor and a matron headed up the whole operation. The ranch school’s library became the public lending library complete with books stamped U.S.E.D (This stood for United States Engineering Detachment which is quite hilarious if you think about it!). There was a pool table, a ping pong table, couches, chairs, and games.
The Big House continued to host visitors and guests to Los Alamos until it became certain that Los Alamos was going to be a permanent place. The Big House was only a short distance from Fuller Lodge, but it wasn’t in such great shape by the post war years. According to the AEC records at that time, the Big House was being slowly destroyed by termites and was a fire trap to anyone who stayed there. The residents of Los Alamos were opposed to the demolition of the old building.But in the end, a project to construct a modern “shopping center” in Los Alamos required the use of the land where the Big House sat.
In the spring of 1948, The Big House was razed in order to make way for Central Park Square. The former site of the tennis courts and athletic fields of the Ranch School became our Post Office, Small Business Center, and now what is essentially the location of our local nightlife.
I think it’s still a bit sad that the Big House had such a large part of our history and didn’t manage to hang on long enough to become part of our current downtown historic district. But, it’s certainly true that our Post Office and Central Park Square are a huge part of what we consider Downtown Los Alamos. And that wonderful Central Avenue district is where Trick or Treat Main Street and Los Alamos Halloweekend will be happening next month!
When you’re ready to talk about real estate in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m a Los Alamos girl with a longtime interest in Los Alamos History and Housing. I’d love to talk to you about your home!
In Los Alamos, the phrase “life in the Big House” never referred to life in jail. The Big House was actually the first “school” building constructed by Ashley Pond. The idea was to create a dormitory with space for classrooms and pretty much everything else the students would need beyond the ranch outbuildings, cabins, and barns which had already existed on the Brooks’ Ranch.
At the time, Los Alamos’ “Big House” was essentially like a traditional Spanish jacal. Enormous logs were used and set up right in a vertical pattern instead of a horizontal one. The vertical logs were easier to place when you were creating a two story structure. Can you imagine how much power it would take to hoist one of those enormous Ponderosa Pines up to a second level? Back in 1916 on the Pajarito Plateau, there were easier ways to build structures and the locals knew it.
The original version of the Big House had two levels and 30 rooms, including a wide sleeping porch that accommodated all of the students and the masters too! In spite of it’s modest cost at $20,000, the Big House had a surprising amount of modern luxuries. There was a telephone line and indoor plumbing. Classrooms occupied most of the first floor, but the ground floor also boasted a common room, a kitchen, and a dining area.
In a strange twist, the second floor was entirely taken up with “private” accommodations for the boys. Each boy had his own space furnished with a place to study, relax, and personalize as he wanted. In fact, personalizing the spaces was such a focus on the “dormitories”, that awards were given out each month for the most interesting furnishings.
So, you could study, read, hang out, nap, or decorate your room. But… you were not permitted to sleep in it. In fact, if you look at the archive photo of the two boys in scout uniforms “studying” in their room, it looks very staged. Especially when you notice the bed looks incredibly uncomfortable!
The school kept growing so the Big House had to get bigger. Only two years after original construction began, AJ Connell had the Big House remodeled. The sleeping porch got some screens and became a bit more weather tight, (can you imagine how frigid it would’ve been before that addition?). And some space was added on the third floor via the addition of dormers on the sloped roof. One of the unmarried masters moved up to the third floor apartment, but he was still required to sleep on the porch.
The common room downstairs was where the evening’s entertainment was to be had. This common photo we see of the boys listening to Connell reading was taken in front of the fireplace in the common room. There was a pool table, ping-pong, a library of books, games to play, and even a record player in case you wanted to check out the latest tunes.
By 1935, Connell’s Ranch School brochure bragged that, “the Big House is thoroughly modern with steam heat, electric lights, and an ample number of showers and baths. The large living room on the first floor affords a comfortable place to study, read, or play. A massive stone chimney, with a fireplace on either side, rises in the center of the room. The younger three-quarters of the school, and two masters, live in this house. The boys’ rooms, used only for dressing and arranged for two boys each…Sleeping porches are used the entire year. They are actual sleeping porches, not just additional rooms, and give ample protection from the occasional storm…In this building are also three classrooms, a well-appointed dispensary, and the Director’s and faculty offices”.
By 1942, the Big House had sprawled into a structure fully capable of housing most of the school’s activities, students, and masters. Of course, the oldest boys occupied Spruce Cottage, which we’ll explore in another post. Some of the masters married, had family, and moved into Master Cottages. But for the most part, the Big House was the heart of the school. If you’re wondering where on earth this enormous building is today, we’ll talk about the Manhattan Project years next time!
I suppose if you take a peek at the dorm rooms pictured above, you can just about make a case that we should go back to that sort of housing arrangement for our summer students! Or, you can give me a call and talk housing in Los Alamos! I’m a hometown broker who loves to take a peek into real estate in Los Alamos. So when you’re ready to buy or sell your home in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat with you!
In the mid 1930s, AJ Connell released a brochure for the Los Alamos Ranch School entitled, “The Guest House”. In Connell’s mind, it was good for the parents of his ranch school boys to come and visit their children. It might be suggested, as is supported by the historical information, that AJ Connell wasn’t exactly comfortable being around the fairer sex.
Because most of the parents coming to visit were from the East Coast, they tended to stay for longer stretches of time. A week or even two wasn’t an unusual duration for a stay. Considering travel options available at the time, no wonder the families came to visit for longer than a weekend! Modern travelers complain about a two hour layover in an airport! And don’t even get me started on the crazed inconvenience of driving an hour or two by good road in a modern automobile to get to an airport!
Connell maintained that “a boys school” was too cold of a place for parents, especially mothers. So, with that in mind, he built a guest house. But… the guest house wasn’t the original intention of the building. Nope. It goes a bit further back than the 1930s.
School Nurse & Matron
It didn’t take long for AJ Connell and the all male staff at LARS realized they would benefit from having a woman around. (Ahem, isn’t that what USUALLY happens?) Keep in mind this was a good ten years before AJ brought his sister May up to the Pajarito Plateau to live in Master Cottage #2.
With boys engaging in far more than just classroom instruction and living incredibly far from home, it was soon necessary to hire a nurse and a matron. Sometime after 1918, Connell arranged for the construction of a rustic cabin for his school nurse and matron. Connell often suggested that he wouldn’t “coddle” a woman employee at his school. However, I do find it fascinating that instead of hiring a nurse AND a matron, he rolled it into one job and decided a single female on the property could do two jobs. Hmm.
With that in mind, the rustic cabin was a 20ft by 20ft log structure on a native stone foundation. The walls were unfinished pine slat siding and the roof had a pyramid like cap on it. It had a small porch on the east side supported by two sizable Ponderosa logs and had plenty of windows to let in light. The nurse/matron’s living quarters occupied the back room and the front of the building served as the infirmary. A single central wood stove kept the cold at bay in the cheery cottage.
Miss Genevieve Ranger moved into the infirmary likely sometime in 1922. I cannot even begin to imagine what that would’ve been like for one lone young woman to be responsible for a pack of men and boys. She was known to keep a dog with her for company.
The records seem to be a bit vague on the exact timing of this building’s construction as the infirmary is listed in some sources as dating to 1918. Mary Byers states in her Historical Society work that the cottage was completed in 1922, which is when it started showing up in ranch school photographs. Regardless, the building has been the longest regularly occupied and used structure in Los Alamos. Built (for sure) in 1922, it has remained in use from then until today and will likely remain in use for the foreseeable future as it now houses the Los Alamos History Museum!
In 1924, Miss Ranger experienced some health problems that caused her to leave her post at the ranch school. Connell somewhat reluctantly admitted the school would benefit from having a nurse AND a matron in residence as there were an awful lot of men and boys around. The infirmary was conveniently close to shops, farm buildings, and the Big House, but it was two small in its current configuration to support two females occupying it.
in the winter of 1925, Connell asked the ranch school carpenter, Pedro Gonzales to add two rooms onto the infirmary. A second entry provided a private entrance to a new apartment at the west side of the building. The pyramid style roof was upgraded to a standard, two pitched roof and the new improved infirmary was ready to go.
Well…at least for a few more years.
The Guest Cottage Years
When Fuller Lodge was completed in 1928, Connell moved the nurse and the matron onto the second floor. This provided an opportunity to develop the former infirmary into guest quarters for families wishing to visit their children at the ranch school.
Where Connell might not approve of “coddling” the school nurse or matron, he finally did acknowledge that the families he was hoping to entice into sending their boys to school probably needed more than a “rustic cabin” during their week long stays.
Pedro Gonzales was tasked once again with a ranch school remodel. I find this rather an interesting parallel to what so many of my local friends and clients have done with their Los Alamos homes. Apparently the local contractor having to go back six different times over the years to remodel the same house for a different tenant or even the same tenant has been going on since the 1920s!
Gonzales did beautiful work transforming the infirmary into a more traditional and attractive mountain style log cabin with horizontal beam sills and stone fireplaces in a very familiar pueblo style. Hardwood floors covered with bright Navajo rugs. The apartment on the east opened onto Miss Ranger’s sunny porch. The west facing apartment exited to an outdoor sitting area that included a lovely landscaped courtyard view.
Connell’s Guest Cottage was such a raging success that he had to add more apartments in 1935. As with many ranch school renovations or new builds in the 1930s, Connell called on John Gaw Meem to design the new addition in stone. Meem created a lovely set of one bedroom apartments, each with a private bath and shower!
Hot water was carried through iron pipes from Fuller Lodge. Interior walls were plastered. The furniture and artwork was locally sourced and the brochures claimed the largest apartment came with “a native corner fireplace”. The cost of a stay in the Ranch School Guest House was $6 per day. I cannot begin to imagine what it would’ve been like to take a vacation to the wild west at your son’s boarding school!
Project Y Years
During the Manhattan Project, the Army Corps of Engineers remodeled the Guest Cottage into private accommodations. The stone half of the structure became the Blue and Brown Rooms. General Leslie Groves had priority on the Blue Room whenever he was in town. Richard C Tolman, Groves’ scientific advisor, occupied the Brown Room during his stays. The rooms at that time included a bedroom and bathroom with an office. Each unit had its own bathtub, making the Guest Cottage a definite part of Bathtub Row.
The wooden half of the Guest Cottage was remodeled into a single apartment with a combination bedroom and living area, bathroom, and also a small kitchen. Ernest and Peggy Titterton, part of the British Mission, occupied this “East Room” during their tenure in Los Alamos. Having come from war ravaged Britain, the Tittertons very much enjoyed being part of a thriving and safe small town atop a high desert plateau.
Mr. Titterton was an accomplished pianist who was often found at Fuller Lodge playing to a crowd. Ernest not only covered the classics, he was also good for jazz and popular tunes. Ernest and Peggy loved Friday night dinners at the Lodge when thick steaks were on the menu for a single dollar. It seems only fair that Ernest Titterton enjoyed his stay in Los Alamos as he was the individual responsible for the historic task of triggering the world’s first atomic explosion at Trinity.
The Hotel Years
After the war, the AEC once again remodeled the Guest Cottage about the time Fuller Lodge became a “modern” hotel. I think many of us forget that was a thing! The hotel served the needs of the fledgling Scientific Laboratory, which meant the Guest Cottage wasn’t needed to house visitors anymore.
The original structure of the infirmary on the east side of the building was converted into a two bedroom apartment with a small living room and even a carport on the back! The space was occupied by the Ralph Carlisle Smith, Assistant Director of the Laboratory who remained from 1946 until 1952. Smith was a military document expert who was a blatant history nerd and adored living in the oldest structure in Los Alamos.
When Smith left Los Alamos, the Fuller Lodge Hotel manager and his wife moved in. Robert and Mary Martin enjoyed life in the Guest Cottage. Mary felt certain that some of the hand carved chests and rustic bedroom furniture had been made by the ranch school boys in the Arts and Crafts Building. The Martins occupied the building until the AEC began to dispose of their housing and structures in Los Alamos and the Lodge closed as a hotel.
The Museum Years
Through hard work on the part of local residents, history buffs, and lovers of all things Los Alamos, the AEC dispersal included turning over Fuller Lodge and eventually the Guest Cottage to Los Alamos County in order to be used as a community center of sorts. Not long after, on July 23, 1968 the Los Alamos Historical Society signed a contract with the county to lease the Guest Cottage for the purpose of a history museum. On July 28, 1968, the Los Alamos History Museum opened to the public.
The Guest Cottage’s transformation from empty and worn out apartment of many configurations to museum was an incredible labor of love. The procedure pictured below of raising the building in order to create a new foundation is similar to the necessary work that needs to happen to the Oppenheimer House. Techniques have changed since July of 1968, but the costs have become exponential! To learn more about that effort, click HERE.
The museum is still in operation today! If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit and tour the interesting items on display then please do! I’m so grateful to the Historical Society for their help in putting these posts together and to the archive for their photo galleries. I’m not a historian, I’m a real estate broker. But I love this town and I find the history of our community absolutely fascinating! So when you’re looking for someone to geek out over how cool your house in Los Alamos is, give me a call! I’d love to talk buying and selling Los Alamos Real Estate with you!
Many of us know the name Peggy Pond Church. Margaret “Peggy” Pond was the daughter of Ashley Pond. She grew up on the Pajarito Plateau from the time of her father’s Pajarito Club venture. By the time she married a Los Alamos Ranch School Master, Fermor Church, she was already on her way to becoming a well known poet and author. Given Peggy’s long time love affair with the region and Fermor Church’s important role at the school, it’s no wonder they immediately settled down to life at the ranch school.
The “First Family” at LARS
The couple was married in 1924 and spent their honeymoon at Camp May. You can read more about that HERE. It’s probably no surprise that the couple was expecting a baby fairly quickly. They’d been happy at the school, but the need for a family home quickly rose to the top of the couple’s list of wants. With help from Peggy’s parents, they decided to build their own home.
There was no doubt that AJ Connell wanted to keep Fermor Church as a Master at the ranch school. With this in mind, Connell allowed Peggy and Fermor to build a small cottage at the far north boundary of the school, “inside the fence”, but far enough away to give the impression of privacy.
While the cottage destined to become “Master Cottage #3” did not originally belong to the ranch school, it sat on property which did. Connell requested that Fermor Church do a complete survey of the school grounds in order to clarify the legality of the situation. The photo below, (courtesy of the Los Alamos historical Museum Archives), is the first formal map of the Ranch School.
In early 1925 construction began on the cottage that Fermor Church designed for what was to be a decent sized family. By fall of that same year, Peggy and Fermor moved into Master Cottage #3 with their brand new baby son, Theodore “Ted” Church. Peggy loved life on the plateau. She once wrote that there was “only a stand of young pine trees between us and Pueblo Canyon…made it seem almost as though we had the world of mountain and mesa to ourselves”.
A Change in Protocol
Master Cottage #3 boasted a living room complete with a beautiful stone fireplace, two bedrooms, and a modest kitchen. The Church’s home had one more bedroom than the average ranch school dwelling, but that’s not what actually set it apart.
Master Cottage #3 was the only Master Cottage that had its own dining room. Connell wanted all masters to take meals with the boys. That had included married masters and their wives until Peggy and Fermor added Ted to their family. The need for a private family dining room in the Church’s Cottage made sense, no matter how strange it might have seemed at the time.
In 1928, Fermor and Peggy added a second story to their cottage when their second son, Allen, arrived. By 1932 the cottage still felt as though it needed more space so the Churches hired John Gaw Meem to add a stone living room to the northeast corner of the cottage. With another fireplace, a vaulted ceiling, and Meem’s typical exposed beams, the attractive space was completed just in time for the arrival of Hugh Church. Peggy and Fermor named John Gaw Meem his godfather. A fitting tribute to the talented architect.
Eventually the boys grew into active, rambunctious boys which made their mother’s writing quite difficult to accomplish in such a busy household. Fermor snagged some lumber left from a LARS building project and constructed a small writing cabin for his wife on the edge of Pueblo Canyon. The rough cabin had room enough for a wood stove and she spent many happy hours finding inspiration through the window of her “office” just a short 15 minute walk from her busy cottage.
By 1940, two of three Church boys were students at the ranch school and the once busy cottage was quiet. Peggy and Fermor moved out of Master Cottage #3 and back into a master’s apartment at the school. The savvy couple traded the cottage (which they still owned) to the school in order to cover their boys’ tuition. Cecil Wirth and his expanding family moved in for a few years before business manager, Fred Rousseau’s family occupied Master Cottage #3 until the Manhattan Project came to town.
Square Dances & Saturday Night Parties
Master Cottage #3 became T-110 during the wartime. Navy Captain William “Deak” Parsons, his wife Martha, and their two daughters moved into the cottage and remained the only residents until the postwar years. Deak and Martha loved hosting square dances in the Churches spacious living room. Eventually the cottage became the place for large Saturday night get togethers. It’s said that Kitty Oppenheimer didn’t enjoy hosting large parties in her home so Martha Parsons was only too happy to sponsor the weekly social event.
When the Atomic Energy Commission took over in 1947, post commander Lt Col Herbert Gee occupied Master Cottage #3. That didn’t last long however, and in 1948 Duncan and Hilda MacDougall moved into Master Cottage #3. MacDougall had worked as a liaison between his home Laboratory in Bruceton, Pennsylvania and Los Alamos during the war. This position required him to make frequent visits to Los Alamos and he chose to settle here with his family during the postwar years.
MacDougall served as the Associate Director for Weapons, and eventually became responsible for the Central Computing Facility and laser research. The MacDougalls remained assigned to Master Cottage #3 until the AEC’s dispersal of real estate in 1968. The MacDougalls opted to purchase their long time home at that time. Master Cottage #3 continues to be privately owned and enjoyed as a family home to this day. Something I’m sure that Peggy and Fermor Church would approve of!
Nothing represents the ebb and flow of Los Alamos more than the incredible history of our Master Cottages. Fermor Church was an educated man. In fact, he came from Washington, Connecticut and was recruited to the Los Alamos Ranch School after graduating from Harvard University. He fell in love with the Western spirit, with being a cowboy, and with a girl named Peggy Pond. He built his log cabin on the Pajarito Plateau just as the rest of the original buildings here in Los Alamos were built for a similar purpose. But as we’ve seen, these cottages became so much more. Now they are a chunk of real history still sheltering local residents of Los Alamos with a passion for history and the beauty of life in Los Alamos.
There’s no doubt that life in Los Alamos is packed with history and plenty of opportunities for adventure. Thanks again to the Los Alamos Historical Society for their valuable knowledge, the wonderful books, photos, maps, and other archive materials, and for their preservation of our history! And when you and your family are ready to talk real estate buying and selling in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl and I love to talk housing in Los Alamos!
Even award winning author, Judy Blume knew about Bathtub Row. Her 1982 book, Tiger Eyes, was set in Los Alamos. The main character, Davey, meets a friend named Jane who lives in an old house on “prestigious” Bathtub Row. In the story, Davey spends the night with Jane in the cottage on the Row and the author spends a great deal of time describing the claw footed iron tub in the bathroom. Davey chooses to take a bath in the infamous bathtub during her night’s stay in order to say she’d had the experience.
The cottages of Bathtub Row aren’t all the same, nor were they built at the same time for the same reasons. The existence of ANY cottages speaks to the success the Los Alamos Ranch School was experiencing. There were certainly some small additions over the years and the Lodge handled a good deal of the school needs. But when AJ Connell paid off the school’s mortgage in 1931, he decided his venture had finally become prosperous enough that it was time to hire a business manager and make some improvements to the school that wouldn’t be a total loss in case of fire.
Sound familiar? In a prior post about Master Cottage #2, I mentioned that the original “Director’s Cottage” at the ranch school burned to the ground in the winter of 1931. How that must’ve been a blow to AJ Connell! Pay off a mortgage. Cottage burns to the ground. Talk about one step forward and two steps back!
The original cottage of the Los Alamos Ranch School was a rather modest structure built entirely of wood planks. The mountains behind have so many more trees than the view we enjoy today, but the shape of our Los Alamos “skyline” still packs the same dramatic punch!
The photo above is from Craig Martin’s and Heather McClenahan’s book, “Of Logs and Stone”. If you haven’t picked this up, you really should! You can find it on the shelf at the Los Alamos History Museum with a dozen or more resources focused on Los Alamos and our unique history.
AJ Connell didn’t actually occupy the Director’s Cottage for very long. The cottage was built in 1923 and he lived there until 1928. The structure was just northwest of the baseball diamond, which meant long foul balls often smacked the roof. Not that the baseball skills of the Ranch School students were responsible for AJ Connell deciding to move out. It was more that the school was growing and teachers were needed. To make room for more staff, Connell moved into a tiny third floor alcove in Fuller Lodge. The room had a slanted roof and provided Connell with a cozy bedroom and sitting room which he utilized in all but the hottest month of summer. Imagine that the next time you’re sweltering in a non air conditioned home here in Los Alamos!
Lawrence Hitchcock and Art Chase occupied the “Director’s Cottage” until it burned in 1931. The Duck Pond, (Ashley Pond) was the main water source for the school. During a good winter, the pond would freeze solidly enough to cut into blocks of ice to be stored in the Ice House and even solid enough for the boys to play hockey. This meant it wasn’t going to help the poor “Director’s Cottage” when it caught fire. The wood structure smoldered until it was nothing but ash as the boys created bucket brigades to bring water from a nearby canyon to douse the flames.
May Connell was said to watch the flames at the “Director’s Cottage” from her cozy “Master Cottage #2”. It’s also suggested that she made mention that a certain corner of that cottage seemed to smolder all through the night and into the next day. The school masters never told May the reason. Evidently, Hitchcock, Art Chase, and Fermor Church had been storing a 30-gallon key of corn whiskey in the cottage to let it age. They’d been hoping to sell big when the cost of whiskey skyrocketed after prohibition ended. Apparently, some things in Los Alamos NEVER change. I’d like to point out that Miss May had no idea what those men had been up to!
With the “Director’s Cottage” gone, it was time for Connell to make a new plan for master cottages, guest houses, and other expansive projects to grow the school he loved. “Master Cottage #1” soon replaced the burnt out shell of what had been and eventually became the Hans Bethe House. But more on that next time… And when you’re ready to join our community here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I love Los Alamos and I’d love to talk real estate in Los Alamos with you!
Last time we explored the original purpose of the Oppenheimer House as a Master Cottage for the ranch school. The first occupant was May Connell, a native New Yorker, also an artist who wanted for her cottage a stone room with enormous windows, light, and warmth. When the Los Alamos Ranch School became home of the Manhattan Project, a very different young woman chose Master Cottage #2 as her home.
When Robert and Kitty Oppenheimer came to Los Alamos, they had the first choice of housing for several obvious reasons. There is plenty of speculation on why Kitty chose May Connell’s cottage as her new home on the Pajarito Plateau, but the primary reasons are probably the most practical. Number one, the house was of a good size for their family. Number two very likely centered on May Connell’s beautiful studio windows. The light in the house was always quite lovely in comparison to other homes on Bathtub Row at that time and still remains so to this day.
The Oppenheimers did not settle into May Connell’s little cottage without needing a few renovations. Some folks might’ve imagined that the glass enclosed sleeping porch would’ve needed attending to, but Kitty and Robert never seemed to mind that feature. It was the lack of a formal dining room that just didn’t go with the Kitty and Robert’s love of entertaining guests in their home as a method of stress reduction.
In order to give the cottage enough space for Robert and Kitty’s love of entertaining guests and social engagements, the Army remodeled May Connell’s modest eat in kitchen into a dining room. A new kitchen was added to the west side of the cottage, and Robert did most of the cooking in this newly renovated room! According to Of Logs and Stone, Robert’s fave dishes to make for family and friends were spicy, exotic offerings from all over the world.
One of Kitty and Robert’s big traditions was to entertain new arrivals to Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project in their home on their first night in town. The night always began with dry martinis, generally two per person, before sitting down to a wonderful meal and conversation. Many times the guests wouldn’t anticipate the effects of strong dry martinis on the body at high altitude and visitors had trouble walking back to their lodgings at the end of the night. I suppose in that way it was good to have everything close at hand in those days!
Once the war years had passed and the Oppenheimers returned to California, Eric and Eleanor Jette were assigned to live in Master Cottage #2. In the winter of 1945-1946, before the Jettes moved in, the Army finally added a second bedroom onto the west side of the cottage. It’s so hard to believe that until that time, the house only had May Connell’s glass enclosed sleeping porch. If I suggested to any of my clients that a family of four move into a home with nothing but a sleeping porch for a bedroom, they’d likely tell me “no thanks”!
After the bedroom was completed and the Jette’s took possession, it’s said that Eleanor Jette was thrilled at the prospect of a bath. Each of the Master Cottages was originally equipped with a cast iron bathtub complete with claw feet! The tub in Master Cottage #2 had tiger feet at its base. Remember that at the time, Bathtub Row got its name because these were the only bathtubs in Los Alamos. Once iron became scare in the war, the US Government changed regulations regarding construction. Bathtubs weren’t plastic back then. They were all made of cast iron, which meant they became contraband during the war years!
Poor Eleanor Jette, finally getting to use her bathtub at Master Cottage #2, had to wait a bit longer when the pipes froze on the night she tried to take a bath in her new housing! The poor woman had to wait a week for her hot bath as the water remained frozen for an entire week and the Army had to bring truckloads up the mountain to keep the town supplied. Can you imagine? Nowadays we’re all feeling abused if the county takes more than a few hours to repair a water outage caused by broken or leaking pipes.
Eric and Eleanor Jette occupied Master Cottage #2 until 1947 when they moved to the Pojoaque Valley. The house was occupied by Frank and Betty Hoyt until the late 1950’s when Bergen and Helene Suydam got the luck of the draw and had the opportunity to choose Master Cottage #2 as their assigned home in Los Alamos. Helene Suydam once told a friend that they were 3rd or 4th on the housing list and only got assigned to the house because they had one more “point” than the other couple tied for their spot on the housing list of Los Alamos. (Housing Points and List information can be found HERE)
The Suydams loved their cottage on Bathtub Row. Helene Suydam used to tell folks that though she never met the Oppenheimers in person, but she once spotted Kitty Oppenheimer and Dorothy McKibbin walking up to Master Cottage #2. Helene speculated that Kitty was showing Dorothy where the Oppenheimers had lived while occupying the Pajarito Plateau during the war years.
The Suydams loved their cottage home and purchased it in the 1960s when the Laboratory offered housing for private ownership. Bergen Suydam worked in T Division until his retirement in 1986 and both he and Helene remained the home’s owners until 2003. The Suydams had long recognized the historical importance of Master Cottage #2 to Los Alamos and the history of the Pajarito Plateau. This led them to the decision to create a living trust agreement with the Los Alamos Historical Society in October of 2003.
This living trust provided a way for the society to preserve the home while the Suydams still maintained the right to occupy their long time home in Los Alamos. A grant from Save America’s Treasures allowed the Historical Society to stabilize the foundation of Master Cottage #2 and they held a dedication ceremony in 2004 when the bronze plaque was unveiled on the cottage. The commemorative plaque celebrating the most historic resident of Master Cottage #2 was the beginning of the home’s “official” handle as “The Oppenheimer House”. Even though it’s called “The Oppenheimer House”, it is still May Connell’s studio window that gives the home much of it’s character and class.
The Oppenheimer House is still in dire need of some serious renovations. In fact, the Historical Society and the Museum have a fund going for folks to contribute to this effort. There are some serious issues with the structural integrity of the home that need to be addressed soon lest it crumble into nothing more than a cool memory of times long gone. The house itself is a bit of a bridge between the different historical identities of Los Alamos itself, which makes it worthy of restoration. I’d encourage you to check out Master Cottage #2, the last house on Bathtub Row, and the scene of so much history here in Los Alamos! Take a drive past, drop by the museum, and have a peek in the windows to get a glimpse into a very real past.
As always, I want to give credit where it’s due! Thanks to the Historical Society, the History Museum, and their wonderful staff for their help on my exploration into The Oppenheimer House! Please stop by sometime and chat with the knowledgeable staff and see the wonderful museum and shop full of books, gifts, and facts about Los Alamos through the years! And when you’re ready to become part of our community here on the Pajarito Plateau, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who LOVES the funky and often unique bits and pieces about real estate in Los Alamos!
So much of our local Los Alamos history sits suspended between two very distinctly different times and also vastly different uses of the property and structures. When we look at the tourists slow rolling down Central Avenue, we tend to imagine they’re here because of the Oppenheimer film. They stop at the Bradbury and then walk up the street to take pictures with the “two old guys” captured in bronze and posed between Central Ave and Fuller Lodge before wandering over to Ashley Pond.
But the coolest place in town to visit is the History Museum tucked behind the Lodge in what was once the Guest Cottage of the Los Alamos Ranch School. And no feature of the History Museum and Bathtub Row is as historically versatile as what we now refer to as the “Oppenheimer House”. Or rather, the beautiful home and studio that AJ Connell once built for his sister, May.
The Cottage that May Designed
While we often love to focus on the rigorous outdoor education of the Ranch School Boys, (don’t make me get out my boys-ice-skating-in-shorts photo!) Pond and Connell wanted a well rounded education for their students. Ranching, riding, livestock management, engineering, science, and practical skills were always encouraged. But in 1929, AJ Connell brought his sister Mary K “May” Connell to the Pajarito Plateau. May was a New Yorker. She was born and raised in the city, and was talented in music and art. A successful artist before she came to New Mexico, May had no intention of giving up painting, singing, or playing music. With that in mind, AJ Connell built his sister a beautiful new cottage. Officially known as Master Cottage #2, May’s requests and ideas changed the flavor of the school buildings for good!
Craig Martin’s and Heather McClenahan’s book, “Of Logs and Stone” remembers May Connell writing about her Los Alamos Ranch School home many years later. May stated, “My house was built by my brother, AJ, for me. He was the architect. As it was to be my studio, my brother and I talked over the studio plans. I was and am responsible for the rock walls”.
The natural rock walls inside the studio/living room of Master Cottage #2 are one of the most beautiful features of the residence even today. As you can see in the photo of May’s studio above, the rock walls are both unique and yet symmetrical. They seem to draw the focus in the room to the beautiful windows which provided light and inspiration for May’s paintings.
Master Cottage #2 was the only cottage that boasted a “vaulted” ceiling. A stone mason, Marcos Gomez of Alcalde, NM, spent more than a year building the rock walled living room of Master Cottage #2. The walls were 14 inches thick, considered an “economic thickness” at the time, and were built without the use of a level. Gomez had a natural ability to place the rocks by eyesight in such a way that they were both unique and yet level enough not to create problems in fitting the roofline or other features.
May Connell’s warm hardwood floors matched the hand hewn overhead beams and the woodwork around the windows and doors. The stone room was considered the centerpiece of May’s home and she spent her months teaching voice, music appreciation, and painting to the ranch school students while enjoying the view from her windows. A view which was much different to what later occupants of Master Cottage #2 would’ve seen. The photo below shows Master Cottages #2 & #3 against a dramatic backdrop of Ponderosa Pines. If you look long enough at that photo, I’ll bet you recognize the shape of the mountains in the background. There are less trees post fire, but the shape is still the same!
I found it interesting that part of AJ Connell’s willingness to indulge his sister’s desire for the natural rock walls involved rising concerns about fire. Connell’s own “Director’s Cottage” burned to the ground in 1931. At that time, if a structure caught fire and the Pond was iced over, water had to be lugged up from one of the canyons! While we no longer have to carry water up to the plateau from the canyon below, fire is a concern that many of our local residents share and a strong reason why you see so much stucco around Los Alamos!
All ranch school students and masters were expected to sleep on a porch. The sleeping porch below was on the Western side of Fuller Lodge and slept most of the ranch students.
May Connell’s cottage was no different! The Master Cottages provided “luxurious” glass windows on their sleeping porches, but even a glass-enclosed sleeping porch must have been an adventure for city born May Connell.
The original Master Cottage #2 was about 1200 sq ft total. It included a small kitchen behind the studio, a sitting porch in front that opened directly into the stone room, and the small sleeping porch off the rear of the house.
May occupied the cottage until the late 1930s when the school masters began to marry and have families and staff space became a hot issue. (Does that sound familiar to anyone?) Tom and Anita Rose Waring occupied Master Cottage #2 until the Wirth’s needed the space a few years later and the Warings had outgrown the cottage. Every resident who occupied the beautiful cottage with it’s North facing windows and stone room grew very attached to the view and the welcoming warmth that Master Cottage #2 became known for.
Several years later, in 1943, another young wife came to the Pajarito Plateau and occupied Master Cottage #2. Some say she and her husband are the most famous residents to call Master Cottage #2 home. And just as many folks believe the view and the warmth of the stone room to be the reason why sometimes “moody” Kitty Oppenheimer chose this for her home in Los Alamos.
We’ll talk more about Master Cottage #2’s biggest claim to fame next week. Until then, you should know that while you can visit the interior of the Hans Bethe House, the Oppenheimer House (Master Cottage #2) isn’t open to the public just yet. There are structural concerns and worries over restoration and preservation for the moment. In fact, this is a BIG THING here in Los Alamos that far too many people haven’t yet heard about!
I’d encourage all of you to go over and have a peek through the windows of this amazing piece of history. And while you’re there, check out the restoration fund being organized by the Los Alamos Historical Society. This week we focused on the beautiful and peaceful space built for May Connell. Next week, we’re going to talk about the power couple Robert & Kitty Oppenheimer and Master Cottage #2’s contribution to the war effort!
I’d like to thank the Los Alamos Historical Society for their archive photos, and the wonderful staff for their help exploring the Oppenheimer and Hans Bethe houses. In the meantime, if you’re looking for a home in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’ve got some beautiful listings just waiting for the right family. I’m a hometown girl at heart and I love every quirky bit of past, present, and future Los Alamos. Whether you’re buying or selling, I’d love to chat Los Alamos real estate with you!
Someone let me borrow a fascinating item the other day and I thought this information might be interesting to some of you. Not to mention the photographs…
This 52 page informational booklet was given to visitors in 1978. This particular booklet is dated March of 1978. As you can see below, the heading is “Welcome to Los Alamos…” The image is an aerial photograph looking westward across the Pajarito Plateau to the Jemez Mountains.
I do find the blurb on the inside flap of this booklet quite interesting. This booklet says it is designed to answer most of the nontechnical questions that visitors ask. As a point of contact for plenty of newcomers to the area, I couldn’t help but wonder what visitors back in 1978 wanted to know. Turns out, not much has changed!
The booklet opens with a brief history of the area. Brief, because they start with, “About 12 million years ago,” and cover archeological information from that time to the Los Alamos Ranch School by the end of page 4. By the way, there is ONE SENTENCE about the Ranch School in this booklet. If you’ve been a member of our community for any length of time, you’re probably already aware of the strange absence of the ranch school’s history here in town until the Los Alamos Historical Society and community members interested in the earlier history of the Pajarito Plateau got active in research and sharing this information with the locals and visitors alike!
The very tiny photo above was included in the visitor’s booklet and comes from a book by General Leslie Groves written in 1962 and titled, Now It Can Be Told. I can’t help but wonder if the purpose was to draw comparisons between the cramped appearance of “downtown Los Alamos” prior to 1948 and the photo below of the Municipal Building and Ashley Pond that appeared on the opposite page. From cramped, wooden “barracks-type structures” to sweeping green lawn and a “modern” (by 1970s standards) civic setup.
The next seemingly big concern of visitors and potential Laboratory employees was what Los Alamos could offer you to do. This certainly hasn’t changed over the years, but I did very much enjoy the old photographs of some of our most popular amenities, so I’ll share them with you!
First on offer, of course, was the opportunity to ski! Check out this photo of the Pajarito Ski Area, still operated in 1978 by the Ski Club. Keep in mind that just behind the Ski Area you see the Valle Caldera. The Caldera was closed to the public at that time due to private ownership. Many locals can recall pausing atop the ski hill for a dramatic view of the Caldera, which you just couldn’t see driving past on State Road 4. There used to be a lot of wistful sighing from hikers, snowshoers, and cross country skiers who would’ve loved the chance to explore the Caldera.
The caption of the photo below actually reads, “While you are here you can play golf…”. These days we expect many small towns to have golf courses. The oldest golf course in New Mexico is the 9 hole course at the Lodge at Cloudcroft, which sits at 9000 ft elevation and has been in operation since 1899. Today there are approximately 97 golf courses in New Mexico. Only 29 of those are municipal golf courses like ours. And back in the seventies you wouldn’t have seen many golf courses at lower elevations due to irrigation issues. It isn’t difficult to imagine how intriguing it would’ve been for visitors and newcomers to play a few rounds of golf with dramatic, natural terrain and views that would probably be downright distracting!
The photo of the skater made me chuckle as it truly appears they cleared enough snow from the ice on Ashley Pond to have her pose there for a lovely photo op. I’ll admit to not having quite enough time to research the status of the Los Alamos Ice Rink in 1978. It’s possible the rink was undergoing renovations at the time the booklet was being put together even though it appears on the included map in the current position. There are an awful lot of old stories floating around town about skating on the pond in the early years. I’ve even heard folks talk of fishing, swimming, and even boating in Ashley Pond prior to the late eighties. So if you’ve ever paddled or skated your way across Ashley Pond, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!
After things to do in town, potential employees and visitors to the Laboratory were curious about what made the Los Alamos Laboratory special. Since supercomputing was just becoming the new hot thing in the seventies, the following photos of the Laboratory’s Central Computing Facility were offered up, most certainly for bragging purposes!
Back when the Laboratory still had family days, (circa 1980s?) I can remember getting a peek at the CRAY computers, which seemed to look a bit like a spaceship to a kiddo at that time. I think all of us knew they were “expensive” and computers were said to “fill a whole room”. But these photos look to my modern mind like rolls of ribbon and fabric at Hobby Lobby, a room full of strange washing machines and dryers, and a kiosk with seats around it. Hmm.
Because the idea of “expensive” in 1978 always makes me curious what that kind of money would look like in today’s economy, I asked Google what a single unit cost in 1978. The answer was in the ballpark of $7 million dollars per machine. Los Alamos had at least seven of these.
In 2024, that $7 million dollar price tag would be $34,576,843.80.
According to the booklet, “While you are here you can play golf, ski, raft down the Rio Grande, hike, fish, and camp, swim and bowl, play tennis, go to museums, attend colloquia, fiestas, Indian dances, and the Santa Fe Opera, tour ancient ruins and modern towns and cities, shop for sand paintings, pottery, jewelry, and hand woven rugs and blankets, and see some of the oldest buildings in the United States.”
Oddly enough, none of that has changed since 1978. What has changed are the expectations and standards of the general public. Folks used to come out here for the outdoor life, for the distinct seasons, for the opportunity to experience dramatic terrain and see a glimpse of wild animal life. So perhaps Los Alamos hasn’t really changed, which is sometimes what we both love and don’t love about it! When you’re ready to join our community, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who loves to talk Los Alamos Real Estate. And I’d love to hear from you!
Happy Fourth of July week everybody! It is so hard to believe that July is already here and the summer is practically halfway over. As many of you know, the Fourth of July is always celebrated here in Los Alamos, but it’s sometimes difficult to figure out exactly what those celebrations will look like. Because there is one significant change this year, I wanted to give folks an important heads up.
For many of the long time Los Alamos locals, we’re used to thinking North Mesa for the Los Alamos Fourth of July Celebration. I can remember gathering at the ballpark or even on the field in front of the Middle School in the old days. Kids would do sparklers and eat junk food while parents enjoyed a day off relaxing with neighbors and friends until the fireworks began. But for a good number of years now, private fireworks aren’t such a great idea and the big display has been moved to Overlook where there is just more space for our booming population to gather and dance to the music!
Overlook Park
The venue for this year will once again be Overlook Park in White Rock. However, if you didn’t know, the Overlook Park complex is undergoing some significant renovations. Because of this, there will be NO PARKING for any of the public unless you have a handicap requirement. This is a change from previous years. Even though you could ride the ATC shuttle, folks were still using some limited parking options. Now the county is saying there will be NO public parking beyond handicap. All parking areas are reserved for vendors and activities. So please check out the county website HERE for a phone number or email if you’d like more info about the parking situation. The county is still advertising shuttle access from the White Rock Visitor Center and from Sullivan Field with regular shuttles beginning at 3PM.
4th of July Spectacular Event Schedule: 4:00pm – The Los Alamos Community Winds 5:00pm – DJ Optamystic 7:00pm – Prince Again 9:00pm – Drone Show 9:15pm – Fireworks Display
Come Support the Local Elements and Enjoy the Guest Performers!
The festivities kick off at 4:00PM with the Los Alamos Community Winds. Don’t miss out on this wonderful local non profit which provides such beautiful and sometimes traditional Fourth of July music. Involving the Los Alamos Winds gives us the opportunity to mix a bit of old school Norman Rockwell style patriotic medleys with some new and innovative sound. You can read more about the Winds HERE!
DJ Optamystic might not be well known, but this Northern New Mexico DJ has been building a following of innovative sounds and effects and is likely a good choice for a time slot when folks are looking to grab some food, talk with friends, wander the booths, and just enjoy the atmosphere. You can find more about DJ Optamystic on the artist’s Facebook page HERE.
Prince Again is a Los Angeles based tribute band showcasing the music and style of one of the most interesting musicians in American pop music culture. While the music of Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince for some of us), might not be your regular jam. But it certainly sounds like a fun way to belt out lyrics that almost everyone knows in a venue where even the headliner is just an opening act for the main event.
I’m not going to pretend I had any clue what a “Drone Show” was when I first saw this on the schedule. But I checked out the Sky Elements website HERE and I have to say that I’m rather intrigued! It almost looks like a marching band performance if all of the band members were small, LED equipped aircraft. Kind of like modern technology meets Gandalf’s fireworks from Fellowship of the Ring. I think this is going to be a cool way to celebrate the Fourth of July with color and lights and music! But maybe with slightly less fire danger? Certainly seems like a good idea!
And don’t forget our Los Alamos Kiwanis Club who will be providing the fireworks display again this year! Most of us don’t realize just how often our lives are impacted by the Kiwanis Club. You can find them on Facebook HERE. They provide the See’s Candies fundraiser at the holidays, sponsor fundraisers for wildland firefighting efforts, and touch the lives of our students through the Key Club. Check them out and then enjoy the beautiful fireworks this coming Fourth of July!
So this week as we’re reminding ourselves that rain is good, remember that this wet weather is actually the BEST way to start the Fourth of July Celebrations here in Los Alamos! Grab your camp chairs, pack a cooler, and head for the closest shuttle pick up and join your nearest friends and neighbors for a wonderful afternoon and evening of local color and entertainment! And when you’re ready to make Los Alamos your home, give me a call! I love Los Alamos and I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with YOU!
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