Kendra Ruminer's Two Cents of Real Estate

Take A Peek At Los Alamos, New Mexico

Tag: Los Alamos (Page 5 of 14)

Changing Perceptions in White Rock

November 10, 2023 /

In the last few blog posts, one of the underlying talk points is the point system that governed early housing life here in Los Alamos. Your family’s point value was determined by the number of Laboratory/Zia employees in your household, years of service, salary, and in some cases, your importance to the overall mission. Whether we realize it or not, importance to the mission is still a critical piece of life in Los Alamos. In the next few years, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that “Industrial Crane Operator” carries more value than “Physicist”!

Not long after private lots on Barranca Mesa were sold to the public and homes were in the process of being built, the housing office here in Los Alamos was frantically trying to keep up with the needs of our growing community. Craig Martin gives the statistics in his book, Quads, Shoeboxes, and Sunken Living Rooms.

7,532 names on 61 separate housing lists for the Laboratory alone. This didn’t include Zia employees, which accounted for everything else from gas attendant to maintenance crews. Folks on the list were current employees of the Laboratory asking for larger or better housing. The longest list had 390 names of folks requesting the Group 16 three bedroom single family homes. (We’ll talk more about these popular dwellings in a future post)

To give you an idea of how unbalanced the supply and demand was, there were 13 Group 13 single family homes on the Laboratory’s housing allotment and 312 people on the waiting list for that home.

Most of the housing available to newcomers were one bedroom apartments in the old Sundt buildings. It certainly wasn’t a popular option for a family!For the first time in Los Alamos, new hires were not guaranteed housing and it was suggested they seek housing in the Espanola Valley or in Santa Fe.

This situation doesn’t actually seem that outrageous to our modern minds. Getting hired at LANL doesn’t imply in any way that you are guaranteed to get a house. But our modern housing situation was a direct result of the dispersal of government homes. As I mentioned in a previous post, this was the number one reason Norris Bradbury spoke out so often against the disposal of government owned housing here in Los Alamos.

What I sometimes find so interesting about the history of our development as a community is that certain local perceptions of neighborhoods in Los Alamos stem directly from this point system.

White Rock has one of those long standing neighborhood perceptions. White Rock was originally a Construction Camp. You can read more about its history HERE. Because of the high point value required to “buy into” housing on Barranca Mesa, the perception at the time was that only “rich” or “scientific staff” could live up there. This also gave rise to the perception that the development of a new, post Construction Camp White Rock in the 1960s was for the lower income or less project connected personnel.

An acquaintance of mine who built a beautiful new home on Bryce Ave in White Rock back in the mid seventies still remembers feeling as though the residents on “the Hill” looked down on the residents of “White Rock” in more ways that just geography. It’s entirely possible that a good deal of this perception was due to the fact that in the 1960s and 70s, there were many Laboratory and Zia employees who had great difficulty forgetting that White Rock was no longer a Construction Camp designed to house temporary workers. Today, living in White Rock and working at LANL means you get a head start to the guard gate just past the State Rd 4/Grand Canyon intersection!

Likewise, Barranca Mesa has long been a very desirable location here in Los Alamos. Many long time residents still consider it a “really expensive neighborhood”. Yet there are plenty of neighborhoods that have larger, newer, or more expensive homes. Plus, if you’re considering commuting issues, the drive from White Rock to the center of town vs the drive from Los Pueblos to the center of town takes just as long. And White Rock is much closer to LANL than Barranca or North Mesa!

The beautiful home pictured here is near the end of Los Pueblos and is quite some distance from both LANL and downtown amenities. It was also built more than forty years after development of Barranca Mesa began.

In our current market, two of the most sought after neighborhoods in Los Alamos are Pajarito Acres and La Senda, both located in White Rock. These country living estates were popular first with equestrians, but now appeal to anyone who wants a bit more privacy on a roomy lot with incredible views!

I’ll be talking more about the development of Pajarito Acres and La Senda in the coming weeks. Until then, think about your perceptions of your neighborhood here in Los Alamos. What have you heard or experienced that might be a leftover of the past? And when you’re ready to buy or sell a home in any neighborhood here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos real estate with you!

The “Needy” & “Greedy” Remodels

November 2, 2023 /

Most of us are familiar with the concept of remodeling our home. Even when I help clients find their “dream home” I hear them talking eagerly about making changes. Here in Los Alamos, the ability to remodel or change your living space is what makes life possible in a place where moving to a home with different features or amenities isn’t always possible. So what would life in Los Alamos be like if you were unable to do a minor remodel or weekend project to improve your space?

That’s probably a difficult concept to imagine. Sure. Plenty of folks live in rented housing. Either they’re living in a temporary location and don’t want to commit to a purchase or they’re saving up a down payment or waiting for a raise or a promotion so that they can purchase their own home. When we rent, we’re often in apartment complexes where we can’t paint the wall or a rental home where the landlord is ultimately responsible for changes and remodels or updating.

But what if there was absolutely NO possibility of EVER purchasing your own home or changing your space? In the early days of life in Los Alamos, even the furniture belonged to the Zia Company!

We’ve talked some about this in the past. I think it’s difficult to imagine what it was like in those days simply because our modern minds can’t grasp it. In 1954 Norris Bradbury spoke out against the “disposal” of government housing in Los Alamos because his number one concern was how the Laboratory would be able to remain fully staffed if they lost any of the pool of homes. Hanford, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee had gone through similar issues with privatized housing, but there were alternative housing options for Laboratory employees in the surrounding areas. Here in Los Alamos, that’s always been a difficult fact of life and continues to be one today. There’s just not enough land to build on!

The issue of privatized housing or the disposal of government owned homes was permanently tabled in 1954. However, by 1957 the Laboratory staffing was being deeply affected by a high number of employees leaving their jobs while citing “lack of opportunity to own their own home” as the number one reason for leaving Los Alamos. Who could blame them? In the 1950s especially, home ownership was the biggest part of the American Dream!

Plans were moving forward to allow private citizens to own homes on Barranca Mesa, but this didn’t alleviate the housing pinch for everybody. In my last blog post I talked about the point system and how the number of points your family had determined whether or not you could even apply to purchase a private lot on Barranca Mesa. To say nothing of the enormous cost of building your own home from scratch!

To try and bridge this gap, Los Alamos got its first remodel opportunity since the government owned homes were placed on their foundations. It was actually a sound plan for both parties. Back then, if you moved houses in Los Alamos, Zia Company moved you. You can imagine the costs associated with moving people across town on an almost constant basis. With this in mind, the Atomic Energy Commission agreed to pay for certain modifications to the existing housing. After all, if residents were happy with their current homes, they wouldn’t need to move. Less cross town moves means less money spent on moving expenses.

The first remodeling contract provided funds to add one bedroom and one bathroom to 30 existing homes. There were quite a few rules though. A resident couldn’t request a fireplace, a carport, or the movement of existing walls in their remodel requests. Of course, the housing office was swamped with requests for just those things and so very much more!

The AEC managed to squeeze their budget to provide for another 80 home remodels. This time they allowed two bedroom additions. However, residents who had their homes remodeled had to agree to remain in that home for two years. The exception to this rule was if a larger home came available within that timeframe. But if you added two bedrooms to your existing two or three bedroom, the likelihood of a house bigger than four or five bedrooms coming available was almost nil. Certainly a family might have had to pass up a nicer home of a similar size, but that was the risk you took when you agreed to the remodel terms.

Over 500 residents made requests for remodeling projects in their existing homes. The budget initially accomodated the first 30, and then an additional 80, and finally 4 remodel projects that ran the project money dry. 500 requests, but only 114 accepted. Still, it was a huge improvement and it did alleviate some of the housing crunch issues.

According to Craig Martin’s book, Quads Shoeboxes and Sunken Living Rooms, the residents called the list of proposed modifications the “Needy & Greedy Additions”. This name was meant to be ironic.

If your family had four or more children, your request was made because you were “needy”.

If you were called “greedy”, it wasn’t because your requests were outrageous. It was because you were making reasonable remodeling requests in a place where you couldn’t take on even the simplest DIY project on your own.

Unfortunately, as you might have guessed, the 114 remodeling requests were given to those with the most housing points. The final project converted many Group 11 three bedroom homes into five bedroom houses, added one or two bedrooms onto several Group 12 four bedroom homes, and many interior walls were removed from Group 13 single story duplexes to turn them into five bedroom single family homes. Given that, it became very clear that the remodeling project was geared more toward helping larger families get housing space that had room for their expanding needs! As I’ve said before, families tended to be pretty large in the 1950s. Can YOU imagine cramming a family of six into a two or three bedroom home? Yikes!

Regardless of whether or not you want to remodel your existing home or you love it the way it is, I’m sure we can all agree that living in Los Alamos is an adventure! When you’re ready to buy or sell a home here in this unique community, give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with you!

How Many Points Do YOU Have?

October 17, 2023 /

Most of us like to believe we have choices when it comes to our living space. We have choices regarding what the inside of our space looks like. Sometimes we can choose furniture, paint colors, knickknacks, rugs, and other details. Where the apartment or house is located perhaps, or how large of a space you want to rent or purchase. In most cases, these things are determined by the amount of cash you can afford to spend on your space. But what if it had nothing to do with buying power at all? What if the living space you were allocated was entirely dependent upon how valuable you were as an employee?

Los Alamos in the 1950s and 1960s was a very different place to live. Not only were you renting a home, but you had almost no choice in which home you rented. Your housing was assigned. There was very little opportunity to change that assignment. And the dream of home ownership was practically unattainable. In wasn’t until the tail end of 1956 that any of the powers-that-be in Los Alamos even addressed the idea that some of their employees might want to own their own home and permanently settle in Los Alamos. By the end of 1956 the AEC was considering releasing land in order to promote the building of privatized housing in Los Alamos. In December of 1958 the first deed to a lot on Barranca Mesa was finalized and by the early 1960s, homes were being built in this “new subdivision”.

Again, it’s very difficult to wrap a modern mind around what was happening. Let’s say you and your family of six were living in a three bedroom duplex somewhere in town. You and your spouse both worked for LASL or Zia Company. You have four kids and you’d love to have a larger home for your growing family. What were your options? Could you apply to the housing office for a four bedroom home? What if you and your spouse decided you’d rather purchase your own home? Could you simply apply to the housing office to purchase a lot and build a new home on Barranca Mesa?

The answer is mostly likely, no! There were very few four bedroom homes in Los Alamos at that time. And even if you wanted to purchase a home, your options were limited by the same factors.

In order to qualify for the right to even be placed in the lottery to be drawn to purchase a private home lot on Barranca Mesa, you had to have enough “points”. The point system is something that completely governed housing in Los Alamos. It’s something we struggle to understand now, but at the time it was created, it was considered a fair way to distribute resources. And here in Los Alamos, housing has always been one of the most limited resources!

According to Craig Martin, “the first version of the point system boiled a complex problem down to mathematical efficiency: One point was given for each dollar of monthly salary and two points were awarded for each month of tenure the worker had with the employer.”

After the first year the point system was in effect, it was tweaked to cap the number of points per year that could be accumulated at 24. Everyone’s points were recalculated each year on February 2. (What an interesting Groundhog Day tradition, right?) So how did having lots of points get you a better housing situation?

There were dozens of housing waiting lists at any given moment. Each home in town was categorized by type and size and those categories then maintained a waiting list. A family could put their name on as many waiting lists as they qualified for. If a house in any category became vacant, the list for that type and size of home would be consulted and the next person on a list was notified. Certain homes had more exclusive waiting lists, which required a family to have a minimum point value in order to be added to that waiting list. This minimum point value also came into play when the lottery for privatized housing was created. In addition, only “project connected personnel” were allowed to apply to purchase a lot on Barranca Mesa in February of 1958.

Sounds a bit frustrating, doesn’t it? That means if you were that six person family desperately wanting to move into a larger home, you were probably going to wait on one of those lists for a very long time. Statistics from the original construction suggest that there were 157 four bedroom units in all of Los Alamos and only 24 of those were single family homes. The rest were Group 12 Duplexes. 21 of those duplexes had a two bedroom unit on one side and a four bedroom on the other side. There were 56 Group 12 duplexes with a four bedroom unit on both sides. If you consider that there were a lot of families with more than two children in the 1960s, it wouldn’t take long for those larger units to be in high demand. Especially since homes in the 1950s and 60s did generally not boast multiple bathrooms, living rooms, entertainment areas, or dens. That meant your family of five or six would pretty much be on top of each other all the time!

If you look at Los Alamos today, there’s no getting around the fact that trying to find and maintain living space when you’re not at all connected to a LANL is difficult! So how on earth did teachers, nurses, trash collectors, and the guy who runs the sandwich shop find a place to live back in the “old days”? Well, they were all employed by Zia Company and therefore had points. Their rent was also based on their salary. This was the only way that Los Alamos could function.

A grade school teacher might be critical to the mission since no self respecting physicist would move their children to a town without a school, but teachers don’t generally make a salary anywhere near that of a physicist. Therefore, your point value determined which housing you were offered. But the rent was entirely based on your wages. In a previous post, I talked a little more about rent in Los Alamos. You can check it out here.

When it comes to privatized housing, we’ve come a long way here in town! If you’re ready to buy or sell your private residence here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who enjoys chatting about housing in Los Alamos and I’d love to talk about your housing needs!

Upcycle Los Alamos

October 7, 2023 /

The word “upcycle” is a word you hear a lot these days. It’s become trendy to salvage furniture or building supplies, renovate and refurbish, and eventually turn trash into beautiful new furnishings and art. It might surprise you to know that Los Alamos has been upcycling since the very beginning.

Not long ago, I received a message from a local gentleman offering a wonderful memory of growing up here in town. He spoke of the mid 60’s when he was six years old. He recalls his father and a group of men who were employed at the National Scientific Laboratory helping to build houses on Barranca Mesa in the evenings after work. There had been several contractors building homes on Barranca Mesa since December 8, 1958 when a resident named George White became the first private home owner in Los Alamos. With street plans and neighborhood plots designed by Stanley and Wright, the building project was full steam ahead by 1964.

Our storyteller went on to say that contractors purchased salvaged materials from laboratory buildings located near the site of the present Justice Center. He and his brother, along with several of the other workers’ children, were part of the crew paid a penny per brick to dig through rubble. The brick was then upcycled to build several lovely brick homes in the vicinity of Los Pueblos and Zuni. These homes are still providing warm, comfortable living spaces today!

Much of the bricklaying on those Los Pueblos homes was done by our storyteller’s father. His family intended to purchase one of the homes. However, financial issues involving their previous home in Pennsylvania, steel mill strikes and closings, caused his family to choose an uncompleted home in the newly redeveloped White Rock instead. A few years later our storyteller then became part of the first class to attend Chamisa School in White Rock.

Craig Martin tells of other homeowners on Barranca Mesa who placed bids on both the B-Building and the Los Alamos Ranch School’s Ice House. These buildings had been used in the 1940’s to assemble components of the atomic weapons. The group of industrious homeowners used hand tools, determination, and their personal pickup trucks to upcycle lumber, flooring, plumbing, lights, and wiring to use in the building of their new homes. In theory, you could identify these homes by backtracking property records. Martin names the original homeowners in his book, “Quads, Shoeboxes, and Sunken Living Rooms” as James Bridge, John Lundren, Bruce Morrison, and Dale Holm. Holm was a well known housing activist who had been instrumental in the AEC’s decision to privatize housing in Los Alamos.

It’s such a cool thing to imagine pieces of historic Los Alamos buildings being upcycled to create homes for our residents! The building of Barranca Mesa was part of the AEC’s response to what was referred to at that time as the “critical housing shortage”. As I remind folks on a regular basis, there have been very few times in the history of Los Alamos that we haven’t experienced a major shortage of housing. And as twisted as it sounds, it can be considered a good sign. Our community is growing and expanding. People are excited to move here and become part of the local landscape. We’re growing! And when you’re ready to grow with us, give me a call! I’d love to chat Los Alamos with you.

Central Park Square

September 25, 2023 /

Central Park Square has been a lot of things over the years. The name “Central Park Square” emerged in 1998 when local developer Tom Netuschil gave the Los Alamos Community Center a facelift. Until that time, Los Alamos had never actually had a “Main Street”. Simply because of location, Central Avenue has always been “Main Street”. But Netuschil’s efforts to re-energize our downtown shopping district have become a rather important moment in our local history. Now a part of the New Mexico Main Street and National Main Street America movements, Los Alamos Main Street hosts community focused activities all year long!

But what was Central Park Square before 1998? While it might surprise you, some folks speculate that our Los Alamos Community Center, built by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1947, was one of the first “mall like” shopping centers in the country. The AEC owned and operated the Community Center in those days.

One might suggest that the building of the Community Center was what made Los Alamos “official” in some capacity. Remember that prior to this point the community itself was somewhat temporary. A good number of buildings you still see around town, (including homes), were created with the goal of either tearing them down or moving them elsewhere. Yet here they stay. This is something I often find impressive when I see the creative ways members of our community have refaced, renovated, and upcycled these structures!

Our beautiful US Post Office was a big part of the Community Center. With it’s unique, stylized Thunderbirds, it’s a rather eye catching centerpiece. There was a bigger picture that we often don’t recall though. While the Manhattan Project was still hush-hush, folks were receiving mail at the address, PO Box 1663. The current post office was built on the former site of the Los Alamos Ranch School Trading Post. Thinking about that causes some rather mixed emotions. The history nerd in me wishes the old Trading Post was still exactly in the same spot and operating as a sort of pit stop on the Los Alamos Living History tour. But the current post office has an equal amount of nostalgic value as a childhood memory.

The Mesa Public Library had been operating in the former Central Cafeteria building since 1950. The old cafeteria was in dire need of repairs and updating. During the construction of the Community Center Complex, the library was given a facelift to match our snazzy new post office, and the rest of this new “mall” began to take shape.

Given the number of changes the Community Center and downtown Los Alamos has undergone in the last several decades, it might be difficult to visualize where things were then, and where they are now. This annotated image should help a little.

Something this image shows that I’m certain plenty of folks in town have forgotten, is the Concrete Caves. These old dormitories lingered long into the nineties as studio apartment complexes. Beginning in 1993 with the construction of the current Bradbury Science Museum at the corner of Central Avenue and 15th Street, the Caves were torn down to make way for the modern buildings we now see everyday.

If you’re still confused by the enormous green lawn between the buildings, this further addition was made by Netuschil during his renovation.

The thoroughfare between Central Ave and Nectar Street has several parking lots and a small memorial tree where they intersect. If you look at that small street on Google, it isn’t named. Addresses on that street are referred to as Central Park Square, but the street isn’t a street. At least not officially. And years ago it was a lovely expanse of green grass with sidewalks stretching from building to building. I must say, the thoroughfare and parking lots are far more useful than the grass. Parking in that area of town certainly appreciates the space!

Some of the recreational amenities that were included in the Los Alamos Community Center Complex were a bowling alley, a movie theater, and plenty of restaurants and shops. If you’re feeling a bit critical of what’s on offer these days, let’s not forget that for a good portion of the late eighties and early nineties, our business district wandered over to Trinity Drive. Also remember that the AEC owned and operated the downtown area for a very long time. The recreation committee subsidized businesses or activity centers in order to keep the scientific and support staff happy in this remote community. I often remind folks who are both new and longtime residents that our community growing pains are unique in many ways. A company town struggling so hard to be anything but. And despite both internal and external setbacks, we are thriving in our own way!

When you’re ready to join our community, give me a call! Whether you’re buying or selling real estate here in Los Alamos, I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’d love to chat with you!

P-333 Chapel – Los Alamos, New Mexico

September 13, 2023 /

I’ve lost count of the number of times a new-to-the-area client has commented on the number of active churches here in Los Alamos. It might surprise you to discover that the first church established here in Los Alamos is still operating in their original building. Of course, that building wasn’t constructed on the site where it stands, but isn’t that the origin of a lot of buildings here in Los Alamos?

During the war years when the Secret City was still very much a hush-hush place of people who lived and operated under the alias PO Box 1663, folks gathered and worshipped in various locations. By 1947, the town promised to become an actual town and the residents approached General Leslie R Groves about adding a chapel to the Los Alamos landscape.

A suitable building was located in Santa Fe. The structure had once been an Army Chapel, but had been used as a hospital during the war. It was moved thirty-five miles to it’s current location on “the Hill”. “On November 6, 1947, the ecumenical venture was formally chartered under the leadership of Rev. Abram Sangrey and endorsed by the Federal Council of Churches. One hundred and eighty-six residents signed the original membership role, and it grew both in numbers and in spiritual development” (LA Daily Reporter). The original church organization was heavily influenced by the “church union” movement of the 20th Century and continues with that mission today.

The United Church is located at 2525 Canyon Road in the same spot where the Chapel was placed in 1947. The church has expanded and added new buildings, but the original structure was designated a Los Alamos Historical Landmark in 2022 and is open to the public on weekdays from 9AM-3PM.

Are you ready to become part of our community here in Los Alamos? Give me a call! I’d love to chat real estate in Los Alamos with you.

Blast From the Past – Western Area

September 7, 2023 /

As I mentioned several posts ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire several postcards featuring scenic views of Los Alamos from the early years. Several of these absolutely fascinate me for multiple reasons. I thought I would share several and see if any of you have similar thoughts or reactions. Check out this one:

Of course, once my mind moved beyond the picturesque 1940’s era snapshot of what appears to be a beautiful neighborhood in a quaint mountain town, I began to wonder what on earth would make a simple photo of Western Area housing into the sort of thing you’d choose as a postcard?

The description on the back of the postcard reads: “Residential STREET SCENE at Los Alamos, New Mexico, the atomic research center.” The street pictured is Trinity Drive, not far from the Trinity/Diamond intersection.

To a modern mind so used to communicating via text, email, social media, and with the ability to send realtime digital pics to anyone on my contacts list within seconds, a postcard of a residential street seems, well… boring! But I suppose if I consider for a moment some of the pics I take with my phone and send off to friends and combine that with a decades ago mindset, it’s really not surprising that this would make the postcard rack. Perhaps to visitors, housing for the scientific staff responsible for atomic research is a novelty! Rather like buying a postcard featuring a giant sunflower when visiting Kansas.

My next thought? Holy cow! The neighborhood trees have grown taller and the mountains are awfully bare since Western Area was first developed! And The first houses were ready for occupancy in 1947. It was no wonder that Craig Martin credits the Western Area the housing development with “halting the exodus of the scientific staff in the summer of 1947”. The original Western Area three bedroom single family home was the nicest housing option ever to appear in Los Alamos.

Looking at both of these images, there seems to be so much space in the neighborhood! The original plan was to have ample open space and what appeared to be continuous green yards with no barriers. The needs of growing families almost immediately got in the way of that particular master plan. You can see several fences in this image. In those days, you simply had to apply to the Zia Company to put up a fence at your address. So one might suggest it didn’t take long for that wide open space to be disrupted by fencing in favor of keeping kids and dogs at home.

It’s still a gorgeous neighborhood, isn’t it? We all know the flat roofs became an issue. And who can forget the strange kitchen sink issue on the first few “model homes”? But the more I looked, the entire neighborhood began to look so very wrong in these photos. Which brought me to my next “hmmm” moment.

I went back to my Field Guide to Los Alamos Housing and re-read the section on Western Area again. That’s when I realized that in 1948, the housing shortage which had been so briefly addressed by the completion of this new and gorgeous Western Area neighborhood, once again became a major concern for the AEC. At that time, the notion of bridging Pueblo Canyon with utilities was considered a financial non starter. The solution? Squeeze another 150 homes into the Western Area neighborhoods.

Modified Westerns were built between existing homes, at the end of cul de sacs, and all up and down Fairway and Ridgeway, which hadn’t existed until that point. Can you imagine living in that beautiful, brand new neighborhood for a year and then being informed that part of your lot was about to be taken away in order to cram another house in between you and your neighbors?

The Modified Westerns offered much less in the way of amenities than the Originals. No carport or fireplace. No block and stucco this time. Only wood frame was offered. Rooms were 25% smaller and one resident stated in December of 1948 that, “a Christmas tree, a child’s play pen, a few pieces of furniture and a large dog literally filled the living room”.

But it was a roof over their heads, and here in Los Alamos, that means something! If you’re looking to change the roof over your head, give me a call! I love talking real estate in Los Alamos. I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’m always ready to put my knowledge of this wonderful and unique town to work for you and your family!

Our Amazing Libraries!

August 24, 2023 /

Thanks to the new Oppenheimer movie, Los Alamos memorabilia is a hot item on E-bay. A lot of this memorabilia includes postcards. I have to say that these are So. Much. Fun! While brainstorming ideas for this blog, I ran across a beautiful and very dated postcard photograph of the Post Office and Mesa Public Library circa 1945. It got me thinking about our two public library branches. Both are beautiful and modern. They offer our community a huge number of amenities and access to an enormous collection of information and artwork. So, how did this very small, remote town come to have such a great library system? The history might surprise you!

The First Library in Los Alamos

Considering the gathering of so many scientists, engineers, and pioneers of academia here in the early days of Los Alamos, it can’t be a surprise that creating a library became such an important task.

According to Lisa Bier’s research in “Atomic Wives & the Secret Library at Los Alamos”, the first librarian was Charlotte Serber, wife of prominent physicist Robert Serber. She was an unusual choice because she wasn’t a librarian at all. The history suggests that Oppenheimer chose her specifically because she wasn’t a librarian and therefore wouldn’t have the same hang ups about library protocol. It makes a lot of sense if you consider the haphazard and often slapped together quality of the Secret City during the early days. There probably wasn’t much time for protocol.

The original library materials had to be ordered, but could not be sent directly here. All mail to residents of Los Alamos was forwarded through a single post office box in Santa Fe. PO Box 1663 is still Triad’s LANL operating address today. In fact, many residents five to six generations back who were born in Los Alamos had PO Box 1663 on their birth certificates!

Library materials were ordered and borrowed through UC Berkley and numerous other scientific organizations. Over 1200 hardcover books and full runs of 50 different periodicals made the list.

But the coolest part of the library story illustrates the difficulty of keeping things secret. At one point, an investigator from Los Alamos was sent to Santa Fe to discover how random Santa Feans had gotten the names of some of the most secret and famous residents of Los Alamos. Turns out that these scientists and engineers had gotten library cards to the Santa Fe Library in their own names in order to borrow books! The books would be sent via mail. Can you imagine how strange it must’ve looked to the post office to have all of these books, periodical journals, and scientific research journals plus something like 250 copies of the Sears Catalog among other regular mailings. It would’ve been pretty obvious that there was something special going on in PO Box 1663!

This desire for secrecy prompted the security service to hang around in Santa Fe spreading misinformation about what was actually going on in Los Alamos. The “official version” was that we were making electric rockets up here. Eventually, as you might imagine, the Manhattan Project wasn’t able to be kept a secret anymore.

LANL Research Library

Of course, that original library is long gone. The current LANL Research Library is located on the main campus of LANL here in Los Alamos. It’s near the Otowi building and is able to accessed by the general public during regular business hours. As you might expect, not everything available to badged LANL employees is accessible to Average Joe, but just being able to go in there and see the building and some of the historical information housed there is worthwhile! If you do happen to work for LANL and have a badge, you can access the library 24/7. It’s an amazing collection of periodicals, technical papers, records of experiments, and books from every possible corner of the globe on any number of topics!

Mesa Public Library

The main branch of our local library is pretty recognizable to folks as they head toward the former location of Central School. Though the school was actually located more in the vicinity of Circle Drive, the library is just a little further up Central Ave with the main driveway entrance being just across from the Justice Center.

What a lot of folks don’t realize, is that the Mesa Public Library has tons of art on display and cataloged for educational use. Depending on the circumstances, some of the art can be checked out like a book. The gallery displays works from many well known contributors to the art world. The downstairs often offers kindermusic classes, story time, and any number of other kid friendly local activities.

The upstairs area of the modern library has rooms which can be reserved for meetings, group events, and other gatherings. There is no fee for local clubs or groups. You just need to chat with the ladies at the desk.

Of course, the first Mesa Public Library was part of the original Central Park Square Complex. The library was initially funded as a subscription library in 1943 by 70 local families who each donated $5. By 1945 it was free and open to everyone. In the image below, the library is on the right, but you can’t tell how far it extended. As I recall, the library building occupied all of the space between what is now the corner you can see in the image, and the jewelry store on the opposite corner. There were always stores fronting the parking lot at 15th and Central Ave. It really does give me a sense of nostalgia to see this photo image. I’ll talk more in another post about Central Park Square in general.

White Rock Branch Library

The first branch library in White Rock was opened in 1985. It was located in a small section of the White Rock Community Center on Longview Dr. The space still hosts the White Rock Senior Center, but in 2015 the county built a fabulous library on the corner of Sherwood Blvd and State Road 4 directly across the highway from the White Rock Visitor Center. If you’ve never been to the White Rock Branch Library, it’s worth a visit just for the spectacular views from the windows. Handily enough, the library is right next to the White Rock Youth Activity Center which offers kiddos 3rd-8th grade the opportunity to go back and forth depending on what activities they want to participate in. If you haven’t visited, make a plan to do it soon!

Regardless of whether or not you love books, it’s hard to deny the value in our local libraries. It’s just one more amazing thing about life in Los Alamos. When you’re ready to make the move, give me a call! This is a great time to sell real estate in Los Alamos County and a popular time to join our community. I’d love to talk to you!

Main Gate Park

August 12, 2023 /

There’s no doubt that the Oppenheimer movie has generated some additional tourist traffic this season. With all of the extra questions folks have been asking about the “old days”, I thought it might be interesting to dig a bit into the spot where traffic up the hill literally stopped. The Los Alamos Main Gate.

Main Gate Park

You’re probably plenty familiar with this local location. There’s a small, sparse campground there. The building with the facade on it is actually bathrooms. And none of this blocks the road or prevents any kind of traffic from passing through. In fact, if you just look at Main Gate Park and the tower on the other side of the road, it’s difficult to visualize exactly how the old front gate worked.

The Missing Pieces

So many times when we see historic images of the Main Gate, this is the image we see. An old car parked in front of a tiny building that very much resembles the bathrooms we have today. This historic photo from 1943 is certainly accurate. However, the background is entirely wrong. It appears that the clapboard building is on a skid that allows it to be moved around. It was likely in the middle of the street, which makes a lot of sense in 1943. But in the beginning, they thought there would only be a handful of scientists and some support staff. You might say that things quickly got out of hand and required a “main gate upgrade”.

The biggest missing piece of the original setup is actually the Petree Garden Center. As it is today, someone added more windows because it was a restaurant for a good many years. But when Los Alamos Landscaping purchased the building several years ago to become their garden center and a base of operations, I got the opportunity to take a peek at some of the still existing and rather ancient parts beneath the building that show it was very much part of the old main gate.

What structures, you ask?

The main “structure” that remains is an old tunnel that goes beneath the road and was used to access the tower on the opposite side of the road. The tunnel has some interesting graffiti. There was a youth group using it as a “hang out” at one point. Structurally speaking, it’s likely still sound. However it hasn’t been updated with any new wiring or safety egress for a long time so it is considered “closed”.

If you put the pieces together, this is what the gate looked like during most of the Manhattan Project.

This image is from a very old postcard. It shows how the Main Gain at Los Alamos used to appear when it was functional and the Secret City was closed to all but authorized personnel. The location makes quite a bit of sense really. Can you imagine what the view is like from that tower?

Since we’re talking about the Main Gate, I thought I’d toss in this postcard image as well. The photo is of the curve just past the Totavi gas station at the bottom of the hill. At that time it was called the K-195 highway. Some of you might remember when it looked like this. I suspect when the city was still closed, the road was much narrower and probably not paved. The ride up to the Main Gate must have been a nail biter for folks who’d never experienced mountain driving! It’s still that way for some visitors even though the locals tend to drive the thing like NASCAR.

If you’ve got additional information about our Main Gate, please feel free to leave it in the comments! I’d love to hear your thoughts. As always, I try to be thorough in my research, but there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle of Los Alamos and sometimes they don’t always fit together to make the same story. I’m a third generation Los Alamos resident and I love the history of this amazing place! If you’re ready to be part of our community, give me a call. I’d love to talk real estate with you!

Groups For Your Kids

August 7, 2023 /

Moving to a new town is stressful for the entire family. A change of pace. A change of scenery. New friends. Losing regular contact with old friends. Leaving your clubs, social groups, coaches, even having to change your hair or nail salon. These are experiences that we don’t often realize affect us deeply when we move. Even a cross town move can be stressful that way. Perhaps you were incredibly close to your “old neighbors”. Sure, you guys still live in the same town. But without that proximity, it’s likely that the relationships will undergo a significant change.

One of the best things about Los Alamos is the huge amount of groups, clubs, activities, social venues, and things to do. I can actually imagine readers scratching their heads as they read this. I’m not fibbing, folks. Really. There are TONS of things to do in Los Alamos if you make the effort to connect. So, as we begin a new school year, let me throw out a few things that belong on a FAQs list for Los Alamos.

“Do people really allow their unsupervised children on the city bus?”

Some of this answer is dependent upon the level of responsibility and independence in your own kiddo. But really, the answer is YES! Our Atomic City Transport system is really easy to utilize and it’s free. You don’t need tokens or a bus pass. Whether you’re local or not, you just climb on and ride to your destination. You can also get the phone app for the ACT that will help you navigate routes or show you exactly where “your” bus is. If you’re worried about your kiddo getting off at the wrong stop or not knowing how to navigate a change of bus, try riding the route with them a few times until they’re comfortable. Yes, it’s more effort on your part in the beginning. But having a kid who can get themselves places using public transportation is an amazing bonus later on!

“My child has difficulty making friends or becoming part of a “group”, how can I get them involved?”

Los Alamos Little Theater and the Los Alamos Light Opera often have parts available for budding youth actors. Reach out to them via their websites for more information. While the Derby Dames don’t have spots available for young players, the YMCA has a Jr Roller Derby Team. You can get more info about the Los Alamos Cherry Bombs on the YMCA website.

If your child is more interested in outdoors, Los Alamos has you covered! We have active Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, United States Pony Club, and 4-H. If your kiddo is passionate about any of the activities offered through these organizations, reach out and talk to the local community. Even if you don’t have livestock or your own “pony”, that doesn’t mean you can’t participate. You’d be surprised how often there are folks willing to share their resources.

“Where do kids “hang out” in Los Alamos?”

This is a bit more complicated of course. You’ve probably noticed that kids in Los Alamos hang out pretty much everywhere! But if your kids are new in town and looking for a spot to meet up, you might try the Activity Centers.

Both the Teen Center and the Youth Activity Center are located in the Community Center building next to Ashley Pond. The Youth Activity Center is operated by Los Alamos Family Council and welcomes kids 3rd thru 8th grade. The YAC was created as free service to the community and provides a safe space for kids to hang out after school and on holidays. The Teen Center is for high schoolers only. It’s operated by the Family YMCA.

The emphasis of both Activity Centers is on safe, clean, and respectful fun. The Centers often offer Art Groups, planned field trips, fun activities, and plenty of games of every shape, size, and variety. The Teen Center often offers opportunities for “after hours” activities. Teen Center employees host an Auto Meet in the Ashley Pond parking lot on Wednesday evenings for teenagers who want to talk cars. The group welcomes anyone whether they have a car or only wish they did.

I could probably go on and on about the fun things to do here in Los Alamos. As we move toward fall and back toward winter, the awesome seasonal activities will once again be in full swing. Skiing, Ice Skating, and even Snow Shoeing! But for now, I’ll leave you with these ideas and wish your family the best school year yet!

As always, when you’re ready to be part of our community here on the Hill, give me a call. I’m your hometown real estate broker. I’d love to chat about real estate in Los Alamos with you!

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