Kendra Ruminer's Two Cents of Real Estate

Take A Peek At Los Alamos, New Mexico

Tag: Los Alamos Local (Page 8 of 16)

Small Town, Even MORE Schools!

January 26, 2023 /

In my last post, I barely scratched the surface of where, why, and how our schools here in Los Alamos have evolved. If you didn’t catch that post, please click back and take a look. I won’t recap here, mostly because there are A LOT of schools left to cover!

Something that has always puzzled newcomers to town is the placement of our elementary schools. Sometimes their locations make sense. For example, Barranca Mesa Elementary serves residents from both Barranca and North Mesa. Yep. Those areas are certainly on the “far edge” of town and nearest to that elementary school. But why would the only Middle School in the county be in that area too? Honestly, I began my exploration of current and past schools because I was curious, and because I get asked about schools a lot. It’s almost the first question parents ask when they’re looking at a potential home purchase. So, continuing from my last post, I thought I’d focus solely on the elementary schools for a moment.

Mountain Elementary

The third elementary school built after Central School outgrew its ability to educate grades 1-12, Mountain was named by the AEC because… (drumroll, please) it’s closer to the mountains than the previous two school buildings. Mountain Elementary was built in 1950 and was the only “original” elementary school that did not eventually have a satellite school, but more about that in a moment.

Aspen Elementary

Aspen Elementary was number four. Built in 1951, it was named for the popular Aspen trees visible from the schoolyard. If that seems a bit odd in modern times, it might be that you never had an opportunity to view the fall colors from Aspen’s parking lot prior to the Cerro Grande fire. The name was actually one of the school’s most distinctive features. It was the first school named for a local plant species, a trend which would continue. Aspen was also one of the first elementary schools to receive a much needed construction overhaul. If you’re wondering what it looked like before, take a look at the other schools built in that general timeframe and you can probably get the correct idea.

Pajarito Elementary School

Built in the late 1950s, Pajarito Elementary school is located at the “top” of town on Arizona Avenue. The school building has been an office complex for far longer than it was a school. If you look at an aerial photo of the building, it’s possible to see why it was chosen for downsizing. The school was built during a population boom, but did not have the capacity to make it useful for that purpose in the long term. Why didn’t they build it bigger to begin with? During that time period, it wasn’t as much of a concern that all of the students assigned to an elementary school be at the same building. If they could find two classrooms here and eight there and maybe the rest at the main building, that was just fine.

Barranca Mesa Elementary

Even though the first homes went up on Barranca Mesa in 1958, the elementary school did not become approved by the AEC until the second group (subdivision) of homes on Barranca Mesa was well underway. The first students attended classes at the elementary school in 1962. The elementary school looks significantly different these days after undergoing a dramatic renovation in 2020. Considering the dates of their initial construction, it isn’t surprising that Barranca Mesa and Pinon were nearly identical in architecture.

Photo of the new construction walkthrough in 2020 courtesy of LA Daily Post

Pinon Elementary School

By 1963, the student population of White Rock Elementary was bursting at the seams. The AEC decided to build a much larger, modern school on the other side of White Rock. Of course, the name Pinon came from the rather excessive population of Pinons in the White Rock area. Realistically, Pinon was built to accommodate a large number of students. As Mirador expands, Pinon is once again absorbing a large number of students, a situation that will be addressed with the exciting new school remodeling plans underway in our district.

Chamisa Elementary School

Even with the addition of Pinon School in 1963, the new building wasn’t able to keep up with the exploding population of White Rock in the sixties. By the mid 1960s, the AEC was in the process of turning over a good number of public services to civilian control. The last thing that the AEC did for the Los Alamos Public Schools prior to turning responsibility for the district over to LAPS, was to build Chamisa Elementary School. The new school went up on the grounds of the former White Rock Elementary School, which is why many locals remember Chamisa as older than Pinon. According to Craig Martin, the first principal of Chamisa wanted to call the school Chaparral Elementary, but the AEC decided that Chamisa was more appropriate due to the enormous presence of Chamisa shrubs in and around the White Rock area. Even in their final moments, the AEC stuck to their naming formula!

Photo courtesy of the LA Daily Post

Satellite Schools

You don’t have to look far into Los Alamos history to see the enormous ebb and flow of our population. I spoke in my last post about the incredible way that our schools have tried to accommodate the student population without making it necessary to bus our kids outside the county. In the beginning, this had a lot to do with the nature of the “Secret City” mentality. As I mentioned above in my discussion of Pajarito Elementary School, sometimes students are educated in whatever space can be utilized for that purpose. Throughout the years prior to a stabilization in the population sometime in the seventies, the schools would often find or build “extra”space for learning environments. This need gave rise to “satellite schools” in the fifties. There were “officially” five of these schools, and most are still being used as “school” facilities.

Canoncito School

Craig Martin describes this very first satellite school as an overflow of Canyon Elementary’s population. The structure used had originally been built in 1947 as a laundromat and was repurposed into two classrooms in 1956. The building only had room for first and second grades. Las Cumbres currently occupies the original Canoncito School. However, just around the corner on Canyon Rd, Canyoncito Montessori is now a private pre-K school here in town.

Little Valley School

Little Valley was a satellite school of Mesa Elementary and also part of the high school at one point. If you went to LAHS fifteen years ago or more, you’ll remember the Little Valley building as L Wing. The building is technically down the hill and across Orange Street from the high school at the “head” of “Olive Street”. Olive Street is a trailhead these days and “L Wing” now houses the Family Strengths Network, which means it’s doing very much the same thing it always has.

Little Poplar School

Little Poplar was named for its parent school, Aspen Elementary. An Aspen tree is a variety of poplar after all. Little Poplar was located on 36th Street. It’s likely that whatever building housed this satellite school was either lost during the fire or was torn down to make way for housing.

Little Forest School

Little Forest is now a privately run daycare and preschool, but the building began life as a second satellite school for Aspen Elementary. One look at the current building and you can see striking similarities between it and almost all of the original school buildings here in Los Alamos. Little Forest was named for the surrounding pines which were far thicker in that area.

Little Sagebrush School

If you’re getting into the rhythm of naming schools, you’ll probably already guess that Little Sagebrush was a satellite school located in White Rock. The school actually served the original White Rock Elementary School prior to Pinon Elementary being built. A good number of you might remember a Montessori school in White Rock called Sage Cottage which unfortunately did not survive the pandemic. I’ve not dug any further into a connection between the names, but a connection is entirely possible. Sage is a common plant on the Pajarito Plateau, which is why the AEC chose the name for Little Sagebrush in the first place. The building did not survive the expansion of White Rock in the sixties.

If you’re still a bit turned around trying to see how all of these schools fit together to fill the educational needs of a growing Los Alamos, check out their locations on Google Maps. And if you’re still wondering how our secondary schools fit in, check back next time. I’ve finally made my way through the primary schools to the point where Middle School and Junior High meet High School and the Freshman Academy. And if you’re ready to move in or out of our amazing school district, give me a call! I’d love to talk education and housing in Los Alamos with you.

Small Town, Lots of Schools!

January 18, 2023 /

It isn’t difficult to understand the importance of “schools” when thinking about the history of Los Alamos. The reason Los Alamos exists as it does today is largely due to the Ranch School already occupying the Pajarito Plateau. The Fuller Lodge complex was quite literally the “first” school “building” in Los Alamos. This actually suggests education in Los Alamos goes back farther than science, research, or development.

The ranch school offered young men an education that most of us today would consider on par with one of the wilderness style programs often associated with troubled kids needing a boarding school with limited access to technology and modern comforts. Back then, the Los Alamos Ranch School developed work ethic, tenacity, and a can do attitude that was considered necessary for success in life.

The last class of students at the Ranch School finished their studies and left the mesa in January of 1943. The town of Los Alamos appeared as a jumble of hastily renovated or fabricated buildings within days and weeks of the students’ departure. A short while later, families of the technical and scientific staff arrived on the mesa. The ranch school was gone, so where did these kiddos go to school? The history and development of our nationally recognized school district might surprise you.

Photo of Ranch School students in front of the Oppenheimer house courtesy of Los Alamos Historical Society archives

Log Cabin Education

The first “school” serving a handful of children occupying Los Alamos in mid to late 1943 was located in what Craig Martin calls a “log structure” attached to the Guest Cottage. Considering just how rural most of America still was in the early 1940s, this wasn’t unusual. In fact, lessons taught at the log cabin school were probably pretty high quality for the same reasons we experience high quality education in our district now. Educated scientists, engineers, and skilled technical staff weren’t shy in demanding good education for their offspring.

Central School

Students weren’t educated in the log cabin for very long. The Manhattan Project build a school on the west end of the current location of Mesa Public Library. On a map, it appears in the area of where Circle Drive is currently located. The school was just that: “Los Alamos School”. It’s location on the opposite side of the mesa from the technical areas was chosen for safety reasons. “It was built in rows of rooms, each one a level below the other and connected by steep walkways (Martin, 1998).” It’s strange, but when I read Craig Martin’s description of Central School, it reminds me a lot of the High School building prior to it’s renovation.

Central School courtesy of Craig Martin

Central School got its name when Los Alamos outgrew it. The name came from its location in the center of town. Central School remained in use both prior to and after the war years. Once it was determined that Los Alamos would remain in use after the war, the Atomic Energy Commission began building additional elementary schools and Central School housed high school students until the current high school location was built in 1949. By 1966, Central School was outdated and no longer in use. It was torn down and the building materials were repurposed for other projects as often happened in those days.

Mesa School

If you’re not a history buff, you might have heard locals mention Mesa School, but probably have no clue where it was located. Mesa School was the first of two new elementary education facilities built here in Los Alamos in the late 1940s. The remains of Mesa School are now part of UNM-LA. If you consider the history of housing expansion in Los Alamos, Mesa School’s location near Western Area makes an awful lot of sense. In fact, it would be rather handy to have an elementary school in that area now. Considering the UNM-LA campus dates back to 1956 with the inception of the Center for Graduate Studies, its likely that Mesa School transitioned to its new “higher educational purpose” at that time.

Canyon School

The second of the new elementary schools here in town, Canyon School was located on the other end of Central Avenue near the intersection of Central and Canyon. The school was named for its close proximity to Canyon Rd and to Pueblo Canyon. For the record, this total lack of imagination in naming things around Los Alamos was an active choice by the Atomic Energy Commission. It has been suggested that the naming scheme might have been impacted by security concerns. Names reflected locations as a method of helping with navigation around town without the need for street signs. During a lull in enrollment, Canyon School was converted to Canyon Complex and now houses offices for professionals instead of schoolchildren. Canyon School isn’t the only school in the Los Alamos District to end up as office buildings, but more on that later.

From the side, it’s rather obvious that the Canyon Complex is a school building. The complex front which faces the new roundabout has had a nice facelift.

White Rock Elementary School

Remember that White Rock began as a construction camp for non cleared workers at the Laboratory sometime in 1947. The camp was essentially independent of Los Alamos, which meant it required its own school. While the school was called White Rock Elementary, it is very likely that the structure served anyone without another school to attend until much later. In the original master plan for expansion of White Rock in the 1960s, an elementary and a junior high were located just off Sherwood Blvd with a senior high school proposed to be built on the other side of town. None of those plans came to fruition however, and the original White Rock Elementary served students until construction of Pinon Elementary in 1963.

As we come to the end of this post, you might be wondering how we can dive into the history of schools in Los Alamos while barely touching on any of the familiar schools our kids attend today. Well, stay tuned! Perhaps the one thing we don’t appreciate enough is the sheer flexibility of our school district. So many towns with similar isolated locations with variable populations gave up on the notion of being able to educate their young people without the help of larger populations in other towns and cities. Los Alamos has never done that. In spite of some enormous ups and downs in population, resources, and changes in educational trends and requirements nationwide, our schools strive to exceed expectations in every way possible.

So check back next week for more information on schools here in Los Alamos, past and present. And when you’re ready to talk housing in the Los Alamos School District, give me a call. I’m your hometown real estate broker!

Declutter Your World in 2023

January 6, 2023 /

Here we are at the beginning of another New Year. Happy 2023 to all of my friends and neighbors here in Los Alamos. I’m wishing all of you the best of everything for 2023. But as I am trying to remember to put a 23 instead of a 22 in all of my paperwork, I’ve also been doing some thinking about resolutions for the coming year.

Now, I’m not a new year’s resolution person strictly speaking. I believe that statistically, most new year’s resolutions fail by mid to late February. If you look up these statistics, there are all kinds of suggested reasons for this. But the most reasonable one I’ve heard is that a lot of new year’s resolutions are either too grandiose, too non specific, too big of a change all at once, or the person setting the goal simply doesn’t understand the process of making a change.

That doesn’t mean we wouldn’t benefit from taking a look at what we’re doing and striving to make it better in any and every way possible. If you were to Google “real estate market predictions for 2023”, you’d see multiple sources suggesting a slow down in home sales. Most national real estate sources are telling folks that they expect a more than two percent drop in home sales for 2023, which would make this year’s numbers the lowest in 9 years. But it’s important to remember that Los Alamos has so many other unique variables that we don’t necessarily follow national trends.

In fact, the home market here in Los Alamos is rather encouraging. We have continued construction going on in White Rock’s Mirador subdivision. Some of the latest homes they’re building not far from State Road 4 are both spacious and beautiful in their classic Southwestern designs.

The development at Arkansas Place has creaked back into motion with building supplies on site and workers moving full speed ahead. And if you haven’t checked out the new apartment complex going up just below the hospital, you should! It’s going up quickly and will offer spacious modern apartments to help ease the housing crunch.

So many housing projects are underway in Los Alamos!

Towards the end of 2022, I talked about several other potential developments going up around town. None of this suggests that the market here in Los Alamos will be anything other than steady, which is encouraging to all of us. If you already own a home, your house will be likely to retain its value and maybe even show an increase. LANL is still hiring and has plans to continue doing so. We have an incredible amount of community projects happening around town, events to enjoy, and so many outdoor activities to look forward to. 2023 is going to be a great year!

If you’ve already got your dream home, or even if you’re not planning to stay in your current home forever, 2023 might be the year for you to experiment with a few of the other trends sweeping our culture and our country.

The No Spend Challenge

More than a few folks have talked with me about this idea, which can be as complicated or simple as you might like. The idea being to challenge yourself to spend only what you need to pay your bills and cover necessary costs of living. That’s an interesting idea, isn’t it? From a home standpoint, perhaps it would be smart to identify renovation projects or things you would like to change about your current home, and then look for ways to decrease surplus spending on life’s little luxuries.

Challenge yourself to go without Starbucks, or your Friday night wine tasting, or whatever you think you could “give up” for a defined amount of time in order to decrease spending and increase saving. Then, come 2024, hit that remodel with your savings and really bask in the satisfaction of knowing you worked hard to make something happen for you and for your family!

The Great DeClutter Event

Has anyone else noticed the enormous rise in storage facilities? It seems like enormous controlled climate storage facilities are going up everywhere! Homes in other regions are getting bigger, with more storage for the serious increase in the amount of stuff Americans are collecting.

Does your garage or basement look like this?

Here in Los Alamos, we don’t typically have a ton of storage in our homes. Maybe 2023 could be the year to not just declutter the unnecessary stuff you already have, but to stop buying more stuff you don’t need. Try looking around your home and identifying boxes that might be taking up space in your storage area. Look for items you don’t use.

If you haven’t looked in a box for more than six months, experts suggest you honestly don’t need what’s in the box. Gather those boxes and unused items in a space like your garage or your driveway. Open each one and take a quick look to make sure there’s no personal information, papers, documents, etc. Then just put the box or item in the car and donate it. The idea is to put yourself in a position where you don’t have the time, the energy, or the space to go through those boxes and activate any emotional attachments to the items. Sentimentality has its place, but you need room for new memories and experiences. That can’t be done if you’re keeping everything!

Your space COULD look like this!

When it comes to Internet shopping and Amazon in particular, challenge yourself to leave items in your shopping cart for at least 24-48 hrs before you purchase. Don’t impulse buy. Take the money you would’ve spent on things you don’t need and either pay down an existing bill or put it in a savings account. By the end of each month, each quarter, or all of 2023, you might be shocked at the amount of savings you have to apply to something you really, really want and need.

No matter how you decide to challenge yourself for the upcoming year, I hope you find enjoyment and satisfaction in life. And if 2023 is the year you decide to buy or sell real estate in Los Alamos, then give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’d love to talk housing in Los Alamos with you.

Survive Christmas Break in Los Alamos!

December 23, 2022 /

Well, the first week of Christmas Break 2022 is nearly gone. We might not have had piles of snow to play in, but the weather has certainly been cold! If you’re beginning to worry that your kiddos are in danger of being bored next week, here are a few things you might want to check out here in Los Alamos!

The Ice Skating Rink

The Los Alamos Ice Skating Rink was opened in 1936 to help satisfy our town’s craving for a variety of winter sports. At this time, our rink is the only refrigerated, NHL regulation outdoor ice rink in New Mexico. You can check out their hours HERE, or call ahead to make sure there are no scheduled hockey games that might interfere with your visit.

The Ice Rink is tucked beneath the Omega Bridge on the canyon floor where the temperature can plunge to nearly ten degrees lower than the rest of town. They offer skating lessons for those who might need some help and hockey leagues from PeeWee all the way through Adult if you want to really immerse yourself in the activity. Skate rental is available and even if everyone in your party isn’t itching to get out on the ice, the winter scenery in the canyon is worth a visit and a short walk.

The Leisure Lagoon is NOW OPEN!

After much waiting and delays, the new Leisure Lagoon at the Aquatic Center is open for enjoyment! Between December 20 and January 3, this new feature at the Aquatic Center is open from 11:00am to 3:00pm during regular pool hours. If you want to plan your trip, give the Aquatic Center a call at (505) 662-8170. The new lagoon has a beach play area, a lazy river, and a 2 story water slide! A trip over to enjoy this new indoor activity could be just the thing to bring some warmth to the cold days of winter break!

The Los Alamos Youth Activity Center is Open!

Though the Youth Activity Center serving kids 3rd-8th grade has been closed this first week of holiday break, they will be open during week two for an adjusted schedule. Please feel free to call them at (505) 662-9412 beginning Tuesday December 27 for more information on hours. Even if your kiddos are not regular attendees of YAC, you can do a drop off next week as a visitor. Any kiddo who is either enrolled in the LAPS school district or a resident of the county is eligible to attend at no cost to the parents. The YAC is managed and staffed by the Los Alamos Family Council through grants from Los Alamos County as a service and safe space for kids in the community!

While the YAC’s county contracted hours for this holiday break did conflict rather confusingly with the Laboratory’s closure schedule, it might just be a blessing in disguise! How wonderful might it be to drop the kiddos off and enjoy a few hours of blissful mom and dad time? The YAC has a crazy variety of things to do. Everything from air hockey and video games to cotton candy and popcorn machines for special occasions. Games, movies, and supervised outdoor activities guaranteed to wear your kids out! The YAC has even managed to acquire a food dehydrator to experiment with making fruit roll ups and other interesting projects!

No matter how you decide to enjoy the second week of this year’s holiday break, get out and enjoy what our amazing community has to offer! I hope to see you around town and as always, when you’re ready to talk real estate in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate broker and I love to chat housing in Los Alamos!

Get On Screen in Los Alamos!

December 17, 2022 /

You might look at my title and feel the urge to roll your eyes. Get on screen? Really? Isn’t the average person always on a screen these days? But when I say on screen, I’m not actually talking about watching endless loops of TikTok videos on your phone or tablet. I’m talking about being in the video.

These days, being in the video can mean a lot of things. Decades ago, before there were videos at all, being on screen meant you were on live television. And that’s how Public Access Channel 8 started out in the seventies. It might surprise some of you to find out that we have a television station here in town. But in the tradition of Los Alamos having a little more than anyone ever thought possible, we do. Public Access Channel 8 is located at the community center, in the basement on the Fuller Lodge side. I sometimes wonder if any community center has hosted such a diverse array of organizations. How often do you see a museum, a visitor’s center, a Youth Activity Center, a YMCA Teen Center, and a Public Access Television Channel share a facility?

Public Access Channel 8 has been a 501(c)3 non-profit since October 9, 1981. The first agreement between the Los Alamos County Council and PAC8 is dated October 31, 1979. But that’s the first formal agreement. An additional agreement to operate cable access services is dated January 14, 1982. PAC8 has been broadcasting County Council and other county committee meetings since long before live streaming internet was a thing!

Throughout their long history with our community, PAC8 has offered young people a place to get experience in the creation of television media. A lot of you might be aware of a good number of LAHS graduates who got their start here locally and then moved on to acting, script writing, and movie production. But there are also more than a few remarkable individuals who grew up here and began distinguished careers in the PAC8 control room. In one notable case, broadcasting Los Alamos County Council meetings gave way to highly successful talk shows, and eventually the Emmys!

But times, they are always changing! These days, PAC8 has really grown in what they offer. If you’re a local business looking for advertising ideas, PAC8 offers commercial videography and editing services. The Executive Director of PAC8 is also a FAA licensed remote pilot. That means the organization can offer drone videography and photography services. PAC8 has even taken that a step further and is offering classes in drone operation to the community!

In fact, the current menu of services offered at PAC8 is what made me think of this post during the holiday season! I was reminded of old home movies thanks to Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. While Clark Griswold is trapped in the attic wearing clothes pilfered from a storage trunk, he passes the time watching old home movies. How many of those old movies exist in our basements, attics, and storage units? Whether they’re on reels or VCR tapes, how cool would it be to save them for embarrassing posterity on a thumb drive? What about your old vacation and holiday photos? Would you like to have them on that thumb drive too?

PAC8 offers media transfer services along with videography services that make getting modern, shareable video files of your special events easy! Just visit their website for a full menu of services and pricing. If you take a look at the rest of their website, you’ll find a variety of videos uploaded to YouTube. Everything from Homecoming Parade footage to recordings of the Los Alamos Living Treasures presentations. Honestly, if you want to see a strikingly comprehensive snapshot of events throughout the last several years of Los Alamos, you really need to take a look at the productions page at PAC8.

Starting in April of 2023, you can check back to see a listing of the classes they’ll be offering over the summer. Everything from drone operation to basic video production. If you spend some time watching the videos on the production page, you might run across some successful student projects from past classes. You never know, your kiddo might become the next big indie film producer thanks to a summer class you signed them up for on a whim. Stranger things have happened here in Los Alamos!

In the meantime, if you’re looking to talk real estate and not video production, give me a call! I can take some pretty good videos with my trusty smartphone, but I love to talk real estate in Los Alamos and I’d love a chance to chat with you!

Happy Holidays!

Tis The Season For Giving!

December 9, 2022 /

There’s no doubt that the holiday season has traditionally been a time of giving. Never has this been more important than now. We are busier and more overcommitted than ever these days. Perhaps the best way to count your blessings this season is to help others in need.

Re/Max First is partnering with LA Cares to collect food and personal care items for the holiday food drive. LA Cares is a non profit organization serving over 60 families per month with supplemental items that help bridge the gap between available income and basic needs. LA Cares also helps local residents with utility payments when necessary, and can sometimes help identify other resources to assist during a crisis. The organization is entirely volunteer run and even provides food pantry delivery services for those who cannot get out on their own.

This year, Re/Max First will donate up to $1000 for food pantry items brought to our office at 116 Central Park Square between December 1 and December 22. One item donated to the food pantry through our office will equal one dollar in cash for LA Cares to help with other needs here in town.

LA Cares and Re/Max would ask that you take a look at the list of items requested and check it twice before donating! While cleaning out the pantry is always a great idea no matter what time of year it is, the food pantry cannot use items that are expired. There are also a variety of other non perishable things that aren’t needed and might surprise you. I know I was surprised, and also thankful for the heads up!

If you’d like a bit more information about the Food Drive, here’s a link to Carol Clark’s informative write up in the LA Daily Post. Los Alamos is a wonderful community with so much to offer residents. It’s wonderful to have an opportunity to give back and help those around us who might be struggling this holiday season. Please stop by anytime during business hours, 8:30AM – 5:30PM Monday through Friday, and drop off your items. We’re at 116 Central Park Square and we’d love to wish you a Happy Holiday! Or if you’d like to make a cash donation to LA Cares this season, contact them at (505) 661-8015 for more information.

And as always, when you’re itching to talk real estate in Los Alamos, give me a call! Los Alamos is the place I call home and I’d love chat with you about housing here in town. Let’s make this holiday season warm and merry for the entire community!

Gifting Art in Los Alamos

December 2, 2022 /

Gifting art in Los Alamos isn’t actually a difficult task. For a town that was put on the map for science related reasons, we have a long history of incredible artistic talent. So as we come into the holiday season and you start looking for unique gifts, you might be surprised to find that perfect present in an unusual spot!

The Karen Wray Gallery

Located at 1247 Central Avenue in Suite D-2, the Karen Wray Gallery is currently hosting a Group Art Exhibition. The exhibition runs through January 2, 2023, but this could be a wonderful way to get out and experience local art in an unexpected way.

The Gallery offers art from local artists in mediums covering everything from digital reproductions of original paintings (Giclee), to ceramics, furniture, glass, and of course – plenty of prints and paintings! Karen Wray offers art by well known local artists Secundino Sandoval and Keith Kelley as well as newer artists just waiting for you to discover their work. You can check out the gallery website HERE to plan your visit, or you can view gallery offerings and order online. And if you’re looking to surprise a hard to shop for person in your life, consider a gift certificate. The gallery offers workshops and art classes for adults to fit every ability and interest level. You could be unlocking the inner Picasso in your loved one’s life this holiday season!

Fuller Lodge Art Center

There’s really no way to put everything the Art Center has to offer in one small blurb. Back in 1967, The Los Alamos Arts Council was established to promote civic engagement in the arts. Over the years, they’ve offered camps for kids, art classes for the community, music, folk art awareness, and everything in between. Since the Arts Council joined with the Fuller Lodge Art Center, visitors and residents in Los Alamos can enjoy year round themed art exhibits that cover nearly every medium.

If you’re searching for a unique “little something” for that special someone, you might try the Art Center’s Gift Shop. The shop is located in historic Fuller Lodge directly across the street from Ashley Pond. The picturesque shop is almost worth photographing just to provide some ambiance to go with your choice of gift!

Little Studio on the Mesa

If you haven’t yet discovered this amazing venue in White Rock, I can only suggest that you check it out as soon as possible. The studio is located in a small, triangular building across the street from Smith’s in White Rock at 113 Longview Dr. Sometimes Google maps gets a bit confused, but you can get all the info you need HERE. No appointments are necessary and their programming looks like a parents’ dream!

But Little Studio isn’t just for kids. Parents are welcome to bring kiddos along as they experiment with fused and stained glass projects or pottery painting. Or parents can leave their kids at home and hit the twice monthly Paint Night @ the Tub when the Studio goes on the road to Bathtub Brewery for a fun night of art and conversation. Punchcards are available and leading up the holidays you can enjoy ornament painting, card making, and a fascinating pre-K activity called “Elf Yourself”.

So as you round out your holiday shopping list and get ready to enjoy the season, make plans to visit our unique businesses here in Los Alamos that showcase some serious artistic talent on the hill. And when you’re ready to shop homes in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat real estate with you.

It Used to be Cool, I Swear!

November 19, 2022 /

There’s no doubt that aging causes us to think this phrase, if not say it, far more often than we’re comfortable with. As I was driving past the now almost completely leveled Hilltop House Hotel, I couldn’t help but wonder if those residents in town who have been so adamant that the place needed to go realize that the Hilltop House really did used to be cool.

Believe me, I’m not arguing with the necessity of tearing it down. The place had become what developers sometimes call a “money pit”. A property that required so much in the way of renovations as to make it financially unrealistic to do anything but tear it down. Not to mention it’s location. This is quite literally the first thing of Los Alamos that many of my real estate clients see. But what if that view had been much different than it has been for the last decade or so? What if it had looked like this?

Perhaps that’s what I’d like the latest batch of Los Alamos transplants to understand. When folks first came to town in the seventies and eighties, the Hilltop House really was welcoming. In the seventies you might have met a friend (or even your Realtor!) at the Hilltop Coffee Shop. By 1979 you’d have been meeting your Realtor at the Real Estate Associates office, which went in where the coffee shop was.

Remember phone books? How about those big names in Los Alamos real estate?

The Real Estate Associates office was eventually moved away from the Hilltop House property. If you’d like to take a peek at it now, you can. In White Rock. The office portion of Herman’s Auto Body might look somewhat different than the rest of the setup. Probably because it began life as the Hilltop Cafe & Coffee Shop!

Once the addition of the second story restaurant was added by 1981, life’s special events were hosted in the Hilltop House Restaurant, later reborn as the Trinity Sights Restaurant. Bridesmaids in frou-frou dresses whirled around the floor with groomsmen wearing matching cummerbunds. Or if you grew up locally here in Los Alamos, you might remember taking your mother to the Mother’s Day buffet at Trinity Sights. This was a premier place to experience Prime Rib Sunday as well.

The view from the Hilltop House Restaurant was always stunning!

What so many of us don’t realize is that the Hilltop House is literally soaked in Los Alamos history. The hotel itself was built by the Waterman family. Most of us are familiar with Roger Waterman and TRK Management, but we might not know that the Watermans had quite a long history of hotel and hospitality in Los Alamos. Wendy Hoffman wrote a lovely article in the LA Daily Post earlier this year about the creativity the Watermans brought to their construction business. But if you look at the overhead beams in the photograph of Trinity Sights above and think to yourself, “hmm, how very church like!”, you’d be absolutely correct. Waterman salvaged those lovely beams from a church demo project elsewhere in New Mexico and thought they might make a very classy edition to the restaurant upgrade.

Photo from spring 1999 with the new Conoco station visible on the right.

I don’t think we often appreciate the amazing flexibility of the Hilltop House. At one point a movie production company approached the hotel about needing rooms for production crew. At the time the 42 room hotel couldn’t have handled that many people. But quick thinking on the part of the Watermans utilized salvage from other projects to expand the hotel to 92 rooms. The restaurant was enlarged because the existing cafe wasn’t enough to provide for such a large number of guests, and with a lot of can do attitude the hotel made it work!

Hilltop House Annex ~ The building’s facade was intentionally matched to the existing hotel.

This wasn’t an unusual occurrence for the Hilltop House. In the mid eighties, the hotel acquired what was called the Hilltop House Annex at 464 Central Avenue. These apartments were furnished and maintained as an extended stay facility for those who needed a place to call home while shopping for a permanent residence, or those who were here in Los Alamos on business for more than a short stint. As a Realtor in the here and now, I certainly wish there was a similar set up now! The annex is now a standard apartment building, but still looks much the same as it did when the Hilltop House ran it.

Roger Waterman pictured in front of the Hilltop House

When Roger Waterman was asked about his feelings on the demolition of the hotel he’d spent so much of his life building and re-imagining, he was practical. He was quoted by Wendy Hoffman as suggesting, “It’s outside of the market, on the edge of town, and there’s nothing left worth salvaging. It would face some remediation issues, so if it can be replaced with something else, that’s OK.” Roger Waterman went on with pride to mention the hotel’s more than thirty years of being an integral part of the community here in Los Alamos.

I’d like to thank the Historical Society for the use of their archive photographs, most of which come from the Waterman collection. You can find even more information about the Hilltop House’s long history here in the archives. Also feel free to check out Wendy Hoffman’s article on the Waterman connection to the Hilltop House here. If you have any additional memories of the Hilltop House Hotel, the restaurant, the flower shop, the gas station, or any other of the dozens of pieces of Los Alamos that have existed at the Hilltop House, feel free to share them in the comments!

And even though my real estate office at Re/Max Associates isn’t located in that cool location at the Hilltop House, come and have a chat when you’re ready to talk real estate in Los Alamos! Give me a call anytime. I’m your home town real estate broker and I love to talk Los Alamos!

Get Dramatic in Los Alamos

November 12, 2022 /

If you’ve never visited the Los Alamos Little Theater, this might be the year to give it a try. If you act quickly, there are still a few tickets available for Clue. This stage adaptation of the popular movie starring Tim Curry and based on the board game would be a fantastic way to enjoy the dramatic talents of your local friends and neighbors!

It’s not unusual for a small town to have a dramatic society, club, or gathering of locals who just enjoy the heck out of a stage production. But most drama clubs don’t have an origin story quite like ours. Meaning that their production history likely doesn’t include Robert Oppenheimer on stage. (It was a non speaking role, but still!)

When you think about scientists from a multitude of backgrounds gathered together with the purpose of research and development on a scale never before attempted, you might assume any drama happening was of a suspenseful and Hollywood thriller like origin. But there was a common theme between the scientists, civilians, and military personnel living in the Secret City back in the 1940’s. They wanted to enjoy life. They built ski hills, golf courses, rifle and archery ranges, and horse stables. They created mountaineering clubs, explored the terrain, started choral societies, bands, orchestras, and danced every chance they got.

There’s just something exciting about going to the theater!

The Los Alamos Little Theater (LALT) began as a drama club sometime in 1943. According to the LALT’s own history, the first group consisted of military personnel, civilians, and scientists who had some or no experience with stage acting. One might even suggest they were just looking for something fun to keep them occupied in their off hours. They would send away for dramatic plays or scripts and then act them out for each other.

In the beginning they couldn’t decide what to call themselves. It was agreed upon that the “Drama Club” sounded childish. By the fall of 1943, the “Little Theater Group” was formalized with a board of directors. Members paid 25 cents each month to support the group with the hope that they would eventually be self sustaining through ticket sales and contributions from the public.

The first production was Right About Face. It opened on January 8, 1944. The cost was 35 cents for civilians and 20 cents for soldiers and WAC. The ticket price got you a seat for the stage production, refreshments, and admission to the dance held afterwards. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

Later ticket prices were 50 cents for the stage production and dance, or just 15 cents if you only wanted to dance. The first seven productions took place during the war. Oppenheimer’s non speaking role was in Arsenic and Old Lace. In the first 26 years of operation, the Little Theater Group performed an incredible 125 productions in venues all throughout the Secret City.

By 1971, Los Alamos County was considering the demolition of its Recreation Hall on Nectar Street. The building had originally been designated the East Cafeteria during the war. Fortunately for the Little Theater Group, the county fully supported their desire to take over the building and convert it into a play house. The county even gave the group the $6000 that had been allocated for demolition costs to use in their renovation. And THAT was when the Los Alamos Performing Arts Center was born.

Since the creation of the PAC in 1971, the Los Alamos Little Theater has put on over 230 productions. You can see a full list of their dramatic presentations on their website. Some of these presentations were collaborations with the Los Alamos Light Opera or the Santa Fe Community Theater. And every year on Halloweekend you can enjoy a fully interactive version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show starring your friends and neighbors from around town.

If you’ve ever been interested in drama, it might be time to check out the LALT. Volunteers are always welcome. Whether you crave an opportunity to be on stage or you enjoy the action behind the scenes, this could be the niche you’ve been looking for here in Los Alamos. And when you’re ready to join our unique community, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with you.

A Few Notes About Our Fall Market

November 2, 2022 /

There is no doubt that the world feels a little nuts right now. The holidays are coming up fast. The time change FINALLY happens this coming Sunday on November 6. Between interest rates and inflation, you might feel as if your head is spinning trying to keep up!

When it comes to the real estate market, there are all kinds of assumptions being made too. If you’ve considered buying or selling your home in the next few weeks or months, you might even wonder if you missed your window. I assure you, that isn’t the case at all!

Fall is SO beautiful!

In spite of the economic changes going on, the real estate market is still in good shape. Homes are still selling and home prices are remaining steady. In September 2022, I unexpectedly had my best month ever. In light of these facts, let me share a few important things to remember.

In spite of what you might have heard:

Home prices remain steady and consistent.

A few homes are staying on market “longer” than they were during the previous two years, but this is actually “normal”.

No change in the market has actually happened, nor does the data suggest there is a change happening soon.

The fall season and the holidays are ALWAYS slower in the real estate market. Things will pick back up in January of 2023 just as they do in January of every other year.

Heading out to watch the Toppers can be a fun fall activity too!

Something else I like to remind folks is that just because your neighbor’s or your friend’s home sold for X price in Y number of days does not have any impact at all on what might happen with your home. If you really want to know a good sales price for your home and how many days on market you might expect before you get an offer, call your broker and ask! It’s like looking for any other data. Go to the source to get good information. I’d love to chat with you about your home. Give me a call when you’re ready and we can talk real estate in Los Alamos!

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