Bathtub Row

Bathtub Row. Los Alamos Historical Walking Tour. When the top-secret World War II Manhattan Project took over the Los Alamos Ranch School, housing for the hundreds and then thousands of people pouring into town was limited. The army constructed dormitories and apartments; it brought in trailers, Quonset huts, and other portable homes; and officials constantly struggled to meet the housing demands. The log and stone cottages on this tree-lined street had been home to the Ranch School staff and proved to be the nicest living quarters in the community. The highest level scientific and military personnel on the project, including Laboratory Director Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer and base commander Col. Whitney Ashbridge, lived in the homes-the only ones in town with bathtubs. Bathtubs were made of cast-iron in those days, and iron was needed for the war effort. All living quarters built by the Army came with showers-no tubs. In a stroke of wit, Alice Kimball Smith, a history teacher at the high school and wife of a prominent Manhattan Project metallurgist, named the street Bathtub Row. The name stuck. In 1944, Ken and Peg Bainbridge hosted a party in Spruce Cottage to celebrate I.I. Rabi receiving the Nobel Prize in physics. Party goers played roulette for a chance to take a bath!, When the Atomic Energy Commission took over Los Alamos in 1947, Bathtub Row was officially dubbed the very boring name: 20th Street. The bathtubs were still important, though. In the early 1950s, the pastor of the United Church and his wife lived in one of the Bathtub Row houses known as the Arts and Crafts House. As young women moved to Los Alamos to teach and work in the community, they were often housed in the women's dorms. The pastor's wife, aware of the difficulties of dormitory life, invited the women over to enjoy a bath on occasion., Finally, in 2007, at the urging of Los Alamos Historical Society President Larry Campbell, Los Alamos County officially renamed the street to what everyone in town called it: Bathtub Row. County workers installed the signs to prove it. According to Google Maps, this is the only Bathtub Row on the planet., Below left: An aerial photo of Bathtub Row as part of the Los Alamos Ranch School. The house located at the center at the bottom is the Oppenheimer House, with The Big House to the left, and Fuller Lodge at the top near the center, circa early 1940s; Below right: Ranch School boys with pet bears, circa 1919, Right top to bottom: Spruce Cottage through horse ears, circa 1920s; Ranch School boys with fish outside the Baker House, circa late 1930s: The Arts and Crafts cottage, circa 1930s; (Photo courtesy Los Alamos Historical Society); Bathtub Row as 20th Street in the early 1950s. (Photo courtesy The United Church), 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.