Georgia Strickfaden, representing the Los Alamos Historical Society and Los Alamos County, receives the 2017 Edgar Lee Hewett Award from Historical Society of New Mexico board member Don Bullis at the Joint Arizona-New Mexico History Conference April 23 in Flagstaff, Ariz. Courtesy photoHistorical Society News:
The 2017 Edgar Lee Hewett Award, given yearly by the Historical Society of New Mexico, has been presented jointly to the Los Alamos Historical Society and Los Alamos County.
The award was announced during a conference banquet April 23 at the oint Arizona-New Mexico History Conference in Flagstaff, Ariz. The Hewett award is given in recognition of outstanding service to the people of New Mexico.
Los Alamos, with the help of the historical society, draws visitors from around the globe to experience the history of the Manhattan Project and the Cold War, along with introductions to our connections with Ancestral Pueblo people, Hispano and Anglo homesteading, and the Los Alamos Ranch School. Throughout the last few years, the Los Alamos Historical Society and its partner, Los Alamos County, have made significant resource investments to ensure that these uniquely New Mexican stories are preserved and shared.
Los Alamos County took the first steps in earning this award when it included a state-of-the-art archive to house the collections of the Los Alamos Historical Society in its new municipal building in 2013. That collection contains tens of thousands of photographs, more than 1,500 linear feet of documents, and more than 20,000 artifacts—from Maria Martinez pottery to samples of trinitite.
Also in 2013, the historical society acquired the historic Hans Bethe House on Bathtub Row, a structure dating to the Los Alamos Ranch School era. The log and stone cottage once housed the Ranch School’s business manager and his family and was later home to two future Nobel laureates. Today it is the home of the Harold Agnew Cold War Gallery, an expansion of the Los Alamos History Museum that can now feature nearly 70 years of post–World War II history of Los Alamos.
In 2016, the county began restoration of the Ranch School Guest Cottage, the oldest continuously used building in Los Alamos. Originally built in 1918 as the infirmary for the Ranch School, this cottage has served as a guest house, the favorite sleeping quarters of Gen. Leslie Groves during the Manhattan Project, home for a post-war hotel manager, and the museum (since 1968). The county invested more than $800,000 for electrical and plumbing upgrades, ADA accessibility, an HVAC system, new interior walls, new exterior siding, refurbished hardwood floors, and restored historic windows.
In addition, the county restoration project included nearly $4 million to renovate Fuller Lodge, an effort that included an ADA accessible elevator, improved public restrooms, restored windows, a new air handling system, and upgraded electrical infrastructure.
In addition, the old patio was removed and the historic steps on the east side of the Lodge were exposed and restored to once again act as a splash guard to protect the huge, old growth pine logs that architect John Gaw Meem designed into the Fulter Lodge portal in 1928.
To round out the picture, the historical society invested more than half a million dollars in new exhibits designed to display history in such a way as to prompt visitors to think about big questions related to community, to science, and themselves. The Los Alamos History Museum celebrated its grand re-opening Dec. 30, 2016.
In addition to exhibit designs and restoration, Los Alamos Historical Society and Los Alamos County were instrumental in the establishment of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park. The society worked for more than a decade with New Mexico’s congressional delegation to see the legislation passed to create the park.
Since that time, the society has been a part of the interpretive planning, and the county has donated space for a visitor center and office space for the interpretive ranger, as well as hiring a project manager to focus on integrating the park into the community.
With more than three years and $7 million in public and private investment, the Los Alamos Historic District—with its History Museum and its crown jewel, Fuller Lodge—is well restored and ready to welcome an increased numbers of visitors. This has all been enabled by the partnership between the Los Alamos Historical Society and Los Alamos County.
