20th Street in downtown Los Alamos was renamed Bathtub Row in 2007. Courtesy photo
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
Although another Los Alamos once existed in northeastern New Mexico and a town by that name is still on maps of California, northwest of Santa Barbara, I think that I’m safe in saying that we are the only place in the United States with a street named Bathtub Row. (Of course I checked on Google!) However, there is a Bathtub Rock Road in Greensboro, VT, and a Bathtub Trail in Berlin, NH.
One might make a fairly good guess at the origin for the Greensboro road and perhaps come up with a possible explanation for Bathtub Trail, but people with no knowledge of our Los Alamos would ever guess the origin of the name Bathtub Row.
Older residents of the Hill have heard the story that dates back to the Manhattan Project days, but newcomers may enjoy learning how our Bathtub Row earned its name and why it is one of the truly prestigious addresses in America.
According to Kay Mark, wife of Manhattan Project scientist Carson Mark and one of the authors of Standing By and Making Do, “Los Alamos centered about the commissary and old buildings which once composed the Los Alamos Ranch School.”
Those building were Fuller Lodge, the Big House, the Arts and Crafts building, and the cottages that had been occupied by the school’s masters and the chief mechanic. The Big House was torn down after World War II, but the other structures still stand in the center of our town, comprising our historic district.
During the Manhattan Project, the log and stone houses were “given to directors of various kinds,” according to Mark. Among such prominent people were Robert Oppenheimer, Cmdr. William “Deak” Parsons, Edward McMillan, Kenneth Bainbridge, and Sir James Chadwick of the British Mission.
The homes from the Ranch School era were roomier than most of the government housing being built, but they also had an amenity that was available nowhere else on the Hill. They had BATHTUBS! During the war years, production of bathtubs was cut back because iron was used in their construction, and iron was needed for the war effort.
Only showers were installed in the government housing being built in Los Alamos. Thus, the rare bathtubs were looked at as a luxury item.
Jean Bacher, wife of physicist Robert Bacher, related a story that illustrated the importance of the coveted bathtubs. Skiing was a popular diversion on weekends, but couples with children needed to find a babysitter in order to get away and enjoy a day on Sawyer’s Hill.
“Babysitters were eternally scarce,” she pointed out, “and on Sundays were almost nonexistent, unless one lived on Bathtub Row and could offer a tub as bait!”
Rumor has it that a bath was even auctioned off at a party held in one of the log and stone houses. In Craig Martin’s book, Los Alamos Place Names, he notes, “Alice Kimball Smith, wife of Manhatten Project scientist Cyril Smith, is credited with coining the term that has stuck to the master cottages to this day.
In what Laura Fermi, wife of physicist Enrico Fermi, dubbed a ‘stroke of wit,’ Smith called the Ranch School houses Bathtub Row.” After the war, town planners gave names to all of our streets and changed the familiar Bathtub Row to 20th Street, although few people ever used that name.
In 2007, residents petitioned to have the street name officially changed to Bathtub Row. Among the reasons given were wide acceptance and the name’s power to commemorate an important part of our history.