The Big House

The Big House. Los Alamos Historical Walking Tour. The Los Alamos Ranch School dormitory, known as the Big House because it was the largest building on the Pajarito Plateau, stood near this site from 1917 until 1948. Students slept on unheated, screened porches no matter what the weather. The dorm, with its unusual upright log construction (architect unknown), contained study rooms, a library, and classrooms., During the Manhattan Project, it housed some of the first scientists to arrive here, who shared its one bathroom. The radio station KRS, also located in the Big House, was hard-wired directly into people's homes to keep it from being broadcast over the airwaves. The Atomic Energy Commission tore down the Big House in 1948 to make way for the Community Center, now Central Park Square., Below: Los Alamos Ranch School (LARS) riders outside the Big House in 1921. Right top to bottom: A group of young women visit a Ranch School Summer Camp house party in 1922; A LARS building project in 1924 with the Big House in the background; Manhattan Project era cars parked outside the Big House. (photos courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society), Pick up a copy of the Historical Walking Tour Guide at the Los Alamos History Museum, Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos Nature Center, any of the Visitor Centers, or one of the visitor guide kiosks around town. Download one by scanning the QR code, or go to visitlosalamos.org.