If you didn’t grow up in the Secret City, or even if you did and you lived elsewhere for any period of time, you might have lived in a land of subdivided neighborhoods, streets laid out in straight lines, and homes with spacious floor plans that include things like “bonus rooms”. That organized feel probably continued into towns full of strip malls, restaurants, and expressways crowded with cars.
You might have noticed already, but in case you hadn’t:
Los Alamos isn’t really like that.
Here’s the thing. A large part of the character of Los Alamos is in the curving streets, houses set at weird angles to the road, and even in the bizarre and seemingly unimaginative naming of the neighborhoods and housing styles.
“Sheridan developed Los Alamos’s first master plan between February and June 1946. His long-range goal was to completely rebuild the town by removing wartime housing and replacing it with modern neighborhoods. Incorporating the latest ideas in city planning, Sheridan drew detailed plans for the town’s first new housing area. the houses were varied in style, size, and placement on the lots. “Naturally curving streets” fit the contours of the land. Crescents and cul-de-sacs branched from a horseshoe-shaped arterial road, which offered limited access to the neighborhood. The curves increased privacy and eliminated the unattractive straight rows of houses found in other parts of town, as well as decreasing the speed of traffic through the residential areas.” from Craig Martin’s book Quads, Shoeboxes and Sunken Living Rooms.
Whenever you’re tempted to get frustrated with the narrow, curving streets, the seemingly inconceivable numbering system of houses, or even the lack of updated housing to purchase, consider the following.
This town was supposed to be difficult to navigate. Hello? Secret City. Los Alamos was chosen because it was remote and isolated. Feel nauseated by your efforts to navigate that U-haul up the mountain? Don’t forget that the original contractors were trying to drag prefabricated houses by truck over barely developed roads from the nearest railway station (which was in Lamy). The first construction crews had to build the road before they could even start the project!
This is an old town. Not old in the sense of being around since the American Colonial period. (By the way, that’s why Boston is so difficult to navigate in a car. The positioning of the buildings predates automobiles.) Los Alamos is old in the sense of a place that has been constantly occupied by a growing population that has always exceeded the town’s ability to sustain it. The town itself has gone through numerous reorganizations and several natural disasters. It has been stretched, pinched, razed, burned, and in some cases moved (the original wartime era building of The Christian Church was sold and moved off the hill in the 80’s). The “town planning” has been done and redone as trends come and go. And yet what was, and sometimes still is, considered a “company town” is still alive and kicking.
Our neighborhoods, North Community, Western Area, Eastern Area, etc. were named by the Atomic Energy Commission. The uniqueness lays in the fact that everything here was once government owned and government built. You think finding a house is difficult now? Back in the day, houses were assigned by a points system and regulated by a housing commission not unlike military housing. Your address was determined by the number of people in your family, your salary, your tenure, and sometimes by how important you were to the laboratory.
Which brings me to the secret language of housing here in Los Alamos County. “Is that a Group 11 or a Group 13?” The funny thing is that it seems strange to identify a home based upon its floor plan or the order in which it was built and yet those subdivided neighborhoods do the same thing. “Is this a Mallory or a Hilary? Are you in Aberdeen Platt One or Aberdeen Villas?” Floor plans and elevations are often given names to make them more attractive or easier to remember for consumers.
If you head to White Rock and take a look around you’ll find that those home designs originally had names like Valle Grande and neighborhoods were called things like La Vista and Mountain Meadows. It was simply more sensible for the Atomic Energy Commission to continue where the Army left off. Hence Group 11 and so on until we reach the end of the government’s involvement in Los Alamos housing around the Group 17 A and B timeframe.
As much as the homes in the Los Alamos County housing market might not look as posh and modern as those you find in a subdivision in Rio Rancho, remember that our homes are a snapshot of history. They are laden with the character that is the backbone of this community. Sure. They’re often “weird”. They can lack some of the modern amenities. And sometimes you’re going to get a glimpse of decades worth of someone else’s DIY can-do ingenuity.
But that’s part of the charm.
If you really want to understand the housing market and the culture of housing here in Los Alamos County, check out the Los Alamos Historical Society’s page. You can find a copy of Craig Martin’s book about housing in Los Alamos. It might be just the ticket to give you a whole new appreciation for being part of this wonderful place. And when you’re ready to shop for the perfect Group 13, an Original Western, or even that Valle Grande model in White Rock, give me a call. I’d love to talk Los Alamos housing with you!
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