By HEATHER MCCLENAHAN
Los Alamos Historical Society
Of all of the iconic historic quirks associated with Los Alamos—and we all know there are many—one of the most remarkable is that the babies, until 1952, were born in a post office box.
At least that is what was indicated on their birth certificates: P.O. Box 1663. They were, of course, born in a hospital, a military hospital in a top-secret wartime community that was a mix of civilian scientists, their families, and military men and women assigned to the Manhattan Project.
Historian Jon Hunner, author of Inventing Los Alamos, explained that Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, scientific director of the project, wanted the scientists to bring their families with them because he thought they would be happier and more productive. He convinced Gen. Leslie Groves, the project’s military commander, that the scientists would not come to the remote, high desert outpost to work on an unspecified project for an unspecified amount of time without the comfort of their families.
The average age in Los Alamos during the World War II was 25, and, as physics Professor Bruce Cameron Reed explained in his book, The History and Science of the Manhattan Project, “Many were recent college graduates starting families, and they wasted no time in doing so. During the war, 208 babies were born at Los Alamos; nearly 1,000 would arrive between 1943 and 1949.”
“These were a lot of young couples, and young couples do what young couples do, and all of a sudden there was a baby boom at the maternity ward in Los Alamos,” Hunner wrote. “Groves wasn’t too happy about that. He thought it took away from the mission, at least of the hospital. Now they have to have pediatrics, and they had to have childbirths, and all that.”
James Nolan, an obstetrician, was the first doctor brought to Los Alamos by the project’s health director, Dr. Louis Hemplemann. Appropriately, Nolan’s son would be the first baby born in the Los Alamos army hospital, one of 80 during the project’s first year.
The next doctor to arrive was pediatrician Harry Barnett, charged with taking care of all those babies.
Historians estimate between eight and ten babies were born each month during the war. While Ellen Bradbury Reid, an early resident, wasn’t born in Los Alamos, she does remember the large crowd of youngsters that started school together at the end of the war.
“I was in the first class and went all the way through school at Los Alamos,” Reid said. “I started in first grade and there were, I’m sure people have said, many children born in Los Alamos. It was the pre-baby boom baby boom. I think it cost a dollar to have a baby, so everybody did!”
One of the great stories about the wartime baby boom in Los Alamos is the additional ire it raised in General Groves, who was already famous for his temper. In addition to taking away from the project’s mission, he believed the civilians were trying to take advantage of the inexpensive military hospital. Rose Bethe, wife of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hans Bethe, recalled spending 83 cents a day for the hospital stay when her children were born.
Groves confronted Oppenheimer, telling him he had to do something about all these babies being born. The situation put Oppenheimer in an untenable position—since his wife was pregnant!
According to Hunner, “a limerick swept through the community”:
The General’s in a stew.
He trusted you and you and you.
He’d thought you’d be scientific;
Instead, you’re just prolific.
And what is he to do?
Other anecdotes and more information about everyday life in Los Alamos during World War II can be found in Standing By and Making Do: The Women of Wartime Los Alamos and 109 East Palace Avenue. Both books are available in the Los Alamos History Museum Shop.
