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.