Last time we looked at a good number of thrift shops here in Los Alamos. Most of the items in those shops focuses on clothes or home goods. But if you’re looking to accessorize your closet on a budget, there are a couple of stores around town you really need to check out!
Seeking Chameleon
Located in White Rock at 35 Rover Blvd, Suite H, Seeking Chameleon is the sort of store you want to budget some extra time to enjoy. The store has everything from vintage items like jewelry and art to handmade crafts, antique collectibles, and everything in between. They also do some reselling, which is a really cool way to not only find some fabulous things for yourself, but a way to repurpose things you don’t need anymore. I hear so often from folks who are moving that they have collectibles or knickknacks that they don’t necessarily want, but they aren’t ready to pitch in the trash yet either. One of the most enjoyable things about buying and reselling is that one person’s discard might be someone else’s treasure of a lifetime.
When it comes to Seeking Chameleon, those items might even be vintage toys! Sometimes it’s fun just to shop old toys even if you’re not looking to purchase. And if you’ve ever wanted to get a great gift for a hard to shop for person, try a toy they might’ve longed for in the past. Talk about nostalgic moments! So whether you’re looking for antiques or unusual glass items and art supplies, stop in White Rock at Seeking Chameleon and have a look around.
The Cricket Window
If you’ve never visited The Cricket Window, it might be due to their previous location being somewhat out of the way. However, the new store (pictured above) at 2101 Trinity Drive, is just across the street from Ashley Pond. This new first floor location provides more room and good light for customers to see the merchandise and there is a LOT to see!
While The Cricket Window is less thrift store and more vintage antiques, artistic gifts, and functional decor, they also offer a rather unique and wonderful service to the community; estate sales. There is no doubt in my mind that more than one of you know someone, are related to someone, or have experienced what happens when one of our local Los Alamos residents has been in their home for a good 40+ years. The sheer amount of stuff accumulated in that amount of time is daunting! And yet, most of that stuff isn’t useless, it’s just too much. As you can see in the photograph below, The Cricket Window has a knack for organizing that stuff, identifying the gems, and tagging the entire sale in a way that makes potential buyers able to find what they want and feel confident in their purchases.
So the next time you’re telling yourself there’s nowhere to shop in Los Alamos, don’t forget the thrift and vintage shops! We have some great stores here locally that could really use our support. And when you’re ready to jump into life here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I love to chat Los Alamos and real estate. So when you’re ready to buy or sell here in Los Alamos, don’t forget I’m your hometown Real Estate Broker!
Spring is finally here and whether you’re looking to shop for some fun spring items, find a place to donate your old spring items, or swap one for the other, Los Alamos has you covered!
Casa Mesita
Casa Mesita has been here in Los Alamos for a lot longer than you might think. The thrift store is an entirely volunteer managed and run organization that supports several charitable projects. Projects range from a group home for at risk girls to providing household goods, clothing, and other goods to those in our county displaced by fire or other personal disaster. The group home first began in 1972 and the thrift store began soon after.
Casa Mesita has been located in more than one spot here in Los Alamos. In the seventies and eighties it shared space with the Performing Arts Center and the home of the Los Alamos Little Theater. Later the store moved to MariMac Plaza where we’d once had a pet store. Since September of 2020, Casa Mesita has been located at 1370-B Central Avenue just down from Subway.
The store really has a lot of interesting items to catch the eye. Even better, they welcome your donations around the back of the building. The staff asks that you call 505-662-7235 and make an appointment to drop off items.
Boomerang
In November of 2022, Boomerang celebrated it’s eighth year here in Los Alamos. The Consignment and Resale shop is located at 1247-A Central Avenue in the same building as the Los Alamos Daily Post and the Karen Wray Gallery. If you’re looking to trade your stuff for something new and exciting, Boomerang is the place to go. Because so many of us are eager to trade the old for the new, Boomerang has a fantastic selection of designer and vintage clothing you might not find elsewhere. In addition, they offer furniture, books, DVDs, and even VHS tapes (for that classic feel!).
In 2021, Boomerang added the Gaia Gift Shop to their space. The gift shop has a variety of new items that appeal to tourists looking for snarky, science themed souvenirs and fun tie dye merchandise. Owner Anna Dillane is great at helping folks find a comfortable price for their consignment items and the knowledgable staff can assist anyone in putting together the perfect outfit for their next social event. Call the store at (505) 662-1479 for more information on hours and consignment.
The Shop on the Corner
Located in the church basement just across Canyon Road from the Griffith Gymnasium parking lot entrance, the Shop on the Corner is a thrift store selling gently used clothing and household items to benefit community members in need. Not only do they have a handy donation box outside the shop, they donate their proceeds to multiple charitable community organizations in and around Los Alamos. For a better idea of the shop’s mission, check out the website here. The hours are also on the website, but the shop is most frequently open on Wednesday mornings. They also offer hours on the second Saturday and the third Tuesday of every month in an effort to accommodate work schedules that don’t permit Wednesday shopping. If you’re looking for a new place to browse, you should definitely try this local shop.
The United Church Thrift Shop
The United Church Thrift Shop is operated by the Women’s Christian Service Society (WCSS). Located at 2525 Canyon Road at the United Church, the shop’s limited hours mean the early bird often catches the worm. They have quite a large selection of items and the shop operates off of mostly local donations. They accept donations of gently used and clean clothes, linens, housewares, jewelry, shoes, toys and children’s books. Donations may be dropped off any time at the bins near the door at the lower level of Craig Hall. Proceeds from the shop go to mission projects supported by the WCSS. You can find more information on the church website.
Are you surprised yet by the number of thrift stores we have here in Los Alamos? Or maybe you’re a savvy thrift shopper and you’re thinking to yourself that I’ve missed a few. I have missed a few important thrift shops here in Los Alamos. So check the blog next time for info on a few places that lean more toward vintage and shabby chic while offering some unexpectedly awesome services. And if you’re ready to buy or sell real estate here in Los Alamos, then give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate broker and I’d love to chat with you about living in Los Alamos!
According to Mappit.net there are 45 books set in and around Los Alamos. That might not surprise you given the enormous amount of war history centered in the Secret City. But the list doesn’t include only biographical or historical accounts of things that actually happened. There are some really great historical fiction books by local authors and of course, a notable coming of age book that used to be considered too “adult” for readers under 15. And there are even quite a few books I’ve read that didn’t make the Mappit list. If you’ve read a good book about or set in Los Alamos, please feel free to add it to the comments or post it to my wall on Facebook. I’m always looking for recommendations! And for the time being, here are some interesting books you might want to check out!
So pick up one of these books and enjoy getting a different view of our wonderful city! And when you’re ready to buy and sell real estate here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat about Los Alamos with you.
On March 5 of 2022, Los Alamos lost a member of our community who had far more impact that a lot of us probably ever realized. It’s been nearly a year since the passing of Roger Waterman. If you haven’t been part of this community for long, you might not realize the enormous impact that the Waterman family and their company TRK Management have had on the Los Alamos landscape. But as I was passing by the now empty lot where the Hilltop House Hotel used to stand, I was thinking about all of the other creative and sometimes bizarre building projects around Los Alamos that happened because of the Waterman family creed: conceptualize, reuse, repurpose, recycle, move, and move forward (all for the good of the town).
The Hospitality Business
In a previous post, I talked about the history of the Hilltop House. This one structure has been the talk of the town decade after decade as it was recycled, expanded, renovated, moved, renovated again, and then eventually abandoned. But this property wasn’t even the first creative use of building materials the Waterman family brought to Los Alamos. And it is only one example of the Waterman Family’s successful hospitality based businesses.
Their first local business was the Los Alamos Motor Lodge at Trinity and 15th Streets. The motor lodge is still there, but it now houses Trinity Urgent Care and a smattering of local office and retail space. In fact, if you consider the motor lodge concept from the seventies when you look at the narrow parking set up, it might make a whole lot more sense! But to get the whole picture, you need to know that those buildings weren’t built on that site. They were purchased in Western New Mexico and moved up to Los Alamos. In later years, that would become one of the things the Watermans were known for: picking a building up off its foundations and moving it to a new location.
The Waterman family also “built” and maintained the White Rock Motor Lodge, which has since become the Hampton Inn. The original structure was one story of repurposed buildings moved from a demo job on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. But that was the way the Watermans like to do things. Reuse, repurpose, recycle. Some of you might remember the original White Rock Motor Lodge. It was one story to begin with. But then – because this was something else the Watermans were known for – they jacked up the first story and built a first floor underneath. The motel later became known as the Bandelier Inn in the nineties before eventually being torn down.
These Group 18 homes began life in 1957 looking much the same as mirror images of each other. During renovations a first floor was added to the home on top, the carport was enclosed, and a beautiful deck and exterior front door were added. Notice the similar window patterns on both original first floors.
The Motor Lodge wasn’t the only building that Waterman opted to lift in order to double its size. There are also several distinctive homes in the neighborhood around Oakwood Loop and Myrtle Street that began as typical one story homes. At some point during the nineties, these homes were also lifted so that a footprint sized first floor could be added. Roger Waterman’s comment to another local contractor was that it was far easier to build a floor than a roof!
As I stated in my previous post about the Hilltop House, when the gas station moved from the front of the building beneath the restaurant to the end of the property near Central Ave, the former one time cafe and short time real estate office was separated from the other portion of the building and moved from Los Alamos to Rover in White Rock where it is still a part of Herman’s Automotive.
If you want to see this building now, take a trip down Rover and you’ll find it tucked into the corner of the property and still housing the office of Herman’s Automotive.
While that might seem more than a little ambitious, it’s not nearly the largest building here in Los Alamos to be picked up and moved off the hill. In the late 1980s, the Los Alamos Christian Church on East Road decided it was time to replace their fellowship hall and auditorium. Instead of demolishing the current building, Waterman suggested recycling the structure by moving it someplace else. The original building had been a dormitory during the early years of Los Alamos. The former dormitory looked very much like the women’s dormitory still located near Peach Street which was recently acquired by the Los Alamos Historical Society.
former women’s dormitory
The church building was sold for one dollar to another church community in the Chama region and moved out of Los Alamos. The cost of moving the building was $100,000. Not a small amount of money by any stretch in the late 80’s, and yet the project made the cost of a “new” church building entirely doable for both church communities. One church saved on demolition costs and the other on building costs. And that was what Roger Waterman and his family found so very satisfying.
Ironically, the new auditorium designed and built by Waterman for the Los Alamos Christian Church and Waterman’s later Bradbury Science Museum look oddly alike in some ways. Most of the similarities can be attributed to architectural trends of that era, but both buildings certainly have presence.
TRK Management
If you know anything about commercial real estate management, you might be familiar with TRK. However, you might not recall or ever have known what TRK stands for. It’s deceptively simple. Bob and Alice Waterman, the first Watermans to settle here in Los Alamos, had three sons. Ted, Roger, and Kent. This wasn’t the first clever business name in the brothers’ history. Their first home building operation in the 1970s was called Namretaw (Waterman spelled backwards). TRK building and later management is still a successful company here in Los Alamos to this day with several commercial and residential complexes in their holdings. TRK currently owns and manages the Bradbury Science Museum building which houses the museum, offices for LANL contractors such as N3B and Compa, Yuan’s Noodle House (did you know Subway started out there?), and even the new offices of Los Alamos Family Council.
In later years, Roger Waterman was heard to comment on the sad shift of construction that makes it no longer feasible to recycle and reuse buildings due to simple labor costs. I think a good number of us would like the idea of adding a piece of history to our current home by recycling beams or metal or repurposing old wood. Perhaps there will be another shift in that direction in the future. Or maybe we will come up with new and creative ways to tip our hats to the old when building the new. Either way, I’d love to discuss housing in Los Alamos with you! Give me a call when you’re ready to buy or sell real estate here in Los Alamos. After all, I’m your hometown real estate broker!
Most of us know of Ashley Pond. And no. Douglas isn’t his lesser known brother. If I asked you to meet me at the Los Alamos Ice Rink, you’d probably know exactly where I meant. But have you ever wondered why the Ice Rink is located in the bottom of Los Alamos Canyon?
There are always more than a few urban legends here in Los Alamos about where things are and how they got their names. I’ve talked about things like Peggy Sue Bridge and the Denver Steels neighborhood. In fact, I recall speculating with friends that the canyon bottom location of the Ice Rink is perfect because it’s so much colder and shadier down there than other places in town. Everyone knows if you want to cool off in summer you head down to a canyon bottom to take advantage of the lower temperatures. Why wouldn’t that indicate a great place to stash a slab of frozen water?
Where Did it Come From, Where Did it Go?
The search for ready water sources has always been part of life on the Pajarito Plateau. Prior to the Cerro Grande Fire, back to when I was growing up here in Los Alamos, we took the Los Alamos Reservoir for granted. We would hike or drive up the rocky road with friends. Once at the reservoir we could fish or swim and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere. For a long while post fire, the reservoir was closed to the public. Even now, it’s open to foot traffic, but driving up isn’t an option. There have been clean up efforts going on to bring the reservoir back to its former status.
What you might not know is that the reservoir was developed by the occupants of the ranch school. To be fair, they were only continuing the work of settlers who had long been in the area. Homesteaders on the plateau had built a series of low dams throughout the canyon to create ponds large enough to supply nearby cabins. The ranch school boys worked to enlarge the reservoir and eventually used a huge pipeline to run water to a holding tank down by the Big House. The overflow from the tank went into the nearby depression that had been a traditional spot for water to collect. The depression became Ashley Pond. But Ashley Pond wasn’t the only pond created by the dams in Los Alamos Canyon.
Back to Douglas Pond…
We remember stories of ranch school boys skating on Ashley Pond. You’ve probably even seen old black and white photos of the boys skating in their camp shorts! But Ashley Pond wouldn’t be useable all that often for skating thanks to its location.
Hockey on Ashley Pond
In 1937, boys from the ranch school did some digging on the deepest of the small ponds created by the dams in Los Alamos Canyon. Nearby homesteaders had always used this particular pond for ice skating, but the ranch school boys really put in some extra effort. A couple of the boys even asked their folks to help out. The parents of Donald and William Douglas donated funds toward the skating pond project and that got the boys calling their new skating venue “Douglas Pond” in remembrance of the people whose cash helped buy supplies.
Over the years, Project Y improved the reservoir to help provide for a steady water supply to the Manhattan Project, but they weren’t about to overlook Douglas Pond. The original Manhattan Project staff needed diversions like golf courses, ski hills, theaters, and of course ice rinks!
Throughout the Years
The original Douglas Pond was actually about 100 yards from its current location. The rink was really popular with residents of Los Alamos in the 1940s, who created a Los Alamos Skating Club. The club operated the rink for over 40 years before Los Alamos County stepped in to run the operation. The rink is currently the only land in Los Alamos Canyon not owned by the Laboratory
The rink’s first Zamboni was a rather historic piece. It toured with the Ice Capades in 1952 before being purchased from the Iceland Skating Arena of Albuquerque in 1961. The old Zamboni survived a garage fire in 1971. Popular legend has it that Zamboni operator Ted Dunn actually ran into the burning building to save his precious machine. A machine that now resides in the US Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Outdoor Life
Here in Los Alamos we have hockey teams of all ages competing in the regional hockey league. The ice is set upon a concrete pad with refrigerated piping allows the ice to remain consistent and frozen even when the outside temps soar into the 70’s during our variable winters. The availability of ice allows hockey season to thrive for families participating in the league. And during the warm months when the ice is gone, the rink is used for our local Roller Derby League. Yes. In case you didn’t realize, Los Alamos has a crazy awesome group of roller derby players from all age and skill levels.
Our Ice Rink is NHL Regulation Size
Kids and adults alike enjoy the public skate sessions regardless of skill level. The rink offers skate aids for those who need a little help getting used to the ice. It’s a fun place to gather in an atmosphere unlike anything else you’ll see here in New Mexico. The Los Alamos Ice Skating Rink is the only outdoor ice rink in the state of New Mexico. Not really a surprise if you stop and think about it, but how awesome is that? Just one more totally unique thing about Los Alamos!
In fact, if you’re looking for something cool to do, check out the county Parks & Recreation website for the latest goings on at the Ice Rink. And when you’re ready to join the community on the hill, give me a call! I’d love to chat real estate in Los Alamos with you!
In my last two posts, we’ve been looking back at the development of educational facilities here in Los Alamos. In the last few years we have seen the addition of a beautiful new field house for our high school sports teams as well as the renovation and reconstruction of multiple schools in our district. But how did a small town built quite literally at the end of the road create facilities to educate a population from Kindergarten through 12th Grade? After all, it isn’t unusual for small towns to offer elementary education and then ship kids to a larger, neighboring town for high school.
Anchor High School
At the midpoint of the 1943-44 school year, an eight room school building was constructed west of the current Mesa Public Library location. It was initially called Los Alamos School and included space for all grades. From 1944 to 1945 high school students attending Los Alamos School were said to attend Anchor High School. In 1945 the name was changed to High School Alpha. Craig Martin suggests in his research that this was due to a need to “make it less identifiable to the outside world”.
While this might seem odd to some of us. The Anchor Ranch area is now TA-8. The ranch was taken over by the Manhattan Project in 1943 and eventually became the Anchor Ranch Proving Ground. Prior to that, the homestead had been established in 1901 and was eventually purchased by a family from New York who hired a man to run the ranch and care for a handicapped son who had been sent to live there. Any mention of Anchor High School might well have given away the location of then Project Y. Can you imagine what maintaining secrecy with high schoolers would have been like if they had social media in those days?
Los Alamos School became Central School in appx 1947
You might recall that it was only in the post war time that the Atomic Energy Commission decided to keep Los Alamos and develop it into a research town of sorts. To support a growing population, the AEC began building schools. You can read more about the development of elementary schools HERE. But Los Alamos School didn’t become Central School until Mesa and Canyon Elementary Schools were built in the late 1940s. Students from grades 7-12 remained at Central School until secondary schools could be constructed.
Pueblo Junior High
You probably know the first Junior High School here in Los Alamos as Pueblo Complex. It’s been Pueblo Complex since its closure in 1984 due to a population decline. Sports teams have continued to use its terraced fields and offices occupy old classrooms. The sprawling building also houses High Flyers Gymnastics, LAHS Cheer, and NJROTC physical training and drill team. From its construction in the school building boom of 1947-1949 until the closure in 1984, it was the first “middle school” here in Los Alamos. At that time, Junior High included 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. After that, students moved on to the high school. Some newcomers to the area find it strange that here in Los Alamos we have never included 6th grade in middle school or junior high as they do in many other districts. Who knows, that might be a wave of the future here in Los Alamos as our population continues to grow.
This might be the part most easily seen from Diamond Drive, but the school building is actually enormous!
Cumbres Junior High
If you don’t remember, the current Los Alamos Middle School began life as Cumbres Junior High in 1962. Cumbres Junior High also hosted grades 7-9 and was one of the last schools built prior to the AEC turning over control of the schools to LAPS. The school was built on the site of an old Army Radio Post which was placed on the highest point atop the mesa. Cumbres means “summit” in Spanish, a name that makes sense when you view it like that. The school district currently owns the site of the middle school and the open tract of land between the Ball Fields and the school which has so recently been a topic of conversation here in town.
LAMS Before…
When district enrollment dipped in the early 1980s, LAPS made the decision to keep the newer Junior High Building in operation. Absorbing the students attending Pueblo Junior High must have been quite a task! This was partly accomplished by sending ninth graders to the high school. Both Junior Highs were officially “closed” and Los Alamos Middle School was “opened”. Since the eighties, the middle school has been renovated again into a multi story structure to serve the growing needs of our community.
LAMS Now…
Los Alamos High School
As with anything here in Los Alamos, we have to consider any dates we find on the Internet regarding the beginnings of our town more than a little approximate. If you search on Wikipedia for the year in which Los Alamos High School was founded, it says 1946. It’s a year that isn’t even backed up entirely by the description and history they have of our school.
This is how I remember it! The building in the center of the photo was the main office. Library on the right and Civic Auditorium on the left out of sight.
As I said above, Anchor High School began in the 1943-44 school year. While it went through two name changes and several buildings, it was the beginning of our high school here in Los Alamos. The first official high school building was built in 1949. This is when the high school students moved from Central School/High School Alpha to their new building. In 2010 construction began on the current facility, which is a stunning building with plenty of amenities to offer state of the art learning.
A view of a remaining part of the old E Wing building from the new building.Back in the day this would have been a view from E Wing toward the main building. Almost reverse from the photo above!
To be honest, its almost mind bending for some of us LAHS alumni to enter the new facility. For one thing, the library entrance looks rather the same, but from an entirely wrong perspective. It’s disorienting in some cases because in the old building, the library was unattached except by covered walkway. For those of you who never walked the halls in the old days and for those of us who try to understand how the new works with the old parts still remaining, you might enjoy the photo below. fbt Architects includes this on their website. You might want to take a look at their photo gallery and read the wonderful write up they provide about the project.
There is absolutely no doubt that the schools here in Los Alamos are a big part of what makes this a great community for families raising children. In my first paragraph I posed a question about how such a small and even secret community ever managed to develop such a district. Truthfully, the answer lies mostly with the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Department of Energy. In the early days and on to modern times. As late as the 2008-2009 school year, 22% of the school district’s budget came from DOE. Prior to that, AEC and later DOE subsidies covered a third of the district’s budget. Regardless of how we might feel about this, the fact remains that it is a key part of the development of such a wonderful learning environment for our kids.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down the educational memory lane. It’s been educational and fascinating for me as well! I love Los Alamos and I’m proud to be part of the LAHS alumni and your hometown real estate broker! Give me a call and let’s talk real estate in Los Alamos. Whether you’re buying or selling, I’d love to hear from you!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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