Historic Fuller Lodge

As the Los Alamos Ranch School grew in enrollment and prestige in the 1920s, director A.J. Connell sought additional space for students and staff and hired architect John Gaw Meem, early in his career, to design a new building. Meem, Connell, and a forest ranger handpicked the 771 trees for the project, and with a sawmill brought onto the site, construction of the magnificent 3-story upright log building finished in January 1929. Funding came from wealthy Michigan businessman Philo Fuller, whose son Edward had been on the Ranch School staff before his death in 1923, giving the building the name Edward P. Fuller Lodge. The Lodge served as the school's dining hall, community center, living quarters for some staff, and infirmary. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, who knew of the Ranch School from summers spent in northern New Mexico, suggested Los Alamos as an ideal location when he and Gen. Leslie Groves searched for a site for their top-secret wartime laboratory, and in November 1942 Groves reportedly finalized his decision after seeing Fuller Lodge and the isolated site with electricity, running water, and some existing housing. During the Manhattan Project, the Lodge remained a dining hall while also housing visiting scientists and serving as a community center. After World War II, Fuller Lodge was the only place to accommodate visitors in Los Alamos, and its restaurant served steak dinners for $1. Tudor-style wings added in 1948 provided more guest rooms and amenities such as a barber shop. In the 1960s, as the U.S. government moved away from owning the entire town, private owners built the Los Alamos Inn and Fuller Lodge's future became uncertain, but after debate and preservation efforts by the League of Women Voters and others, the Lodge became a cultural center owned by Los Alamos County, remaining the heart and soul of the Los Alamos community.

Los Alamos, New Mexico · United States