Preserving Oppenheimer's aura: Fundraising underway to restore house of famed scientist

Jan. 21—Leslie Linke gets goosebumps on her arms when she goes inside the Oppenheimer House.

"There is an aura in the house that is incredible," said Linke, a docent, tour guide and board member with the Los Alamos Historical Society (LAHS). "It is hard to describe just what it is, but it is unmistakable."

The house is where J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of the top-secret Manhattan Project, lived with his family from 1943 to 1945, during the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. Some scenes filmed inside and outside the house are included in "Oppenheimer," the blockbuster movie released this past July.

Linke said she believes Christopher Nolan, the movie's director and screenwriter, was also affected by the house's special character.

"You could see it in his face," said Linke, who showed the director around the home.

It's not difficult to imagine that the rooms that sheltered the genius responsible for the nuclear age crackle with a unique kind of energy.

The house, built in 1929, is part of the Los Alamos Museum campus, which features exhibits and sites that usher visitors through Los Alamos history from the pueblo period, through its homesteading history and years as the Los Alamos Ranch School down to its time as the Secret City, the home of the scientific revolution that ended World War II and altered the future.

"History of the Secret City" guided walking tours are offered at 11 a.m. Monday through Saturday. Unfortunately, however, members of the public are not allowed into the Oppenheimer House.

"There is a lot wrong with it," Linke said. "There's a lot of structural work that needs to be done to make it safe for the public."

To make that happen, the nonprofit LAHS recently launched a campaign to raise the estimated $2 million needed to restore the historic building.

Smoking hotYou can't imagine better publicity for Los Alamos and its history than "Oppenheimer." The movie grossed $955.3 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing biographical movie ever and the second-highest grossing R-rated film.

It won five Golden Globe Awards, including best motion picture drama, and eight Critics' Choice Awards, including best picture, and is expected to dominate the Academy Awards nominations that will be announced on Tuesday.

The film is based on the 2005 biography "American Prometheus," by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. The Albuquerque Public Library system has 22 copies of the book, but leave your library card in your wallet for now. All those copies are either checked out, on hold or being transferred from one library to another.

It's obvious that Oppenheimer and Los Alamos are smoking hot right now. Linke said there has been a 52% increase in visitors to the Los Alamos Museum campus since 2022.

The Oppenheimer House is part of the "Secret City" walking tour.

"People get to see it," Linke said. "We allow them to look in the windows."

Linke, 65, grew up in Los Alamos. Her father started work at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the early '50s and worked there 38 years as a technical staff member.

"He had degrees in math and physics and became a magnet expert," she said. "I actually don't know too much about what he did, but he could fix anything."

Like her father, Linke also worked at LANL for 38 years, starting out as a part-time, fill-in secretary and finishing as the lab's cybersecurity training specialist.

"On the tours I guide, I include a lot of information about the house, as well as about Oppenheimer," she said. "A fun little detail about the Oppenheimers' time in the house is that at the beginning of the Manhattan Project, military police were assigned to stand guard outside. That didn't last very long though because they just ended up babysitting all the time."

When Oppenheimer and his wife, Kitty, moved into the house, their son, Peter, was less than 2-years-old. Their daughter, Toni, was born in Los Alamos in 1944.

Linke knows a lot about the Manhattan Project days at Los Alamos and the scientists who worked there and their families and associates.

"But the movie is what everyone wants to hear about these days," she said. "What was filmed (at the museum campus), what it was like to meet Nolan and the cast and crew."

Uncertain startThe house was built for May Connell, the art teacher at the Los Alamos Ranch School and sister of the school's director, A.J. Connell. The school, a private institution for 12- to 18-year-old boys, was founded in 1917 and closed in January 1943 after the U.S. government acquired the property for the war effort.

The Oppenheimer House was and is a fine looking structure of stone-masonry, large windows and an impressive fireplace. It is also on the street known as Bathtub Row because the houses located there were the only ones with bathtubs.

LAHS acquired the house in 2020 via a donation by the previous owners, Bergen "Jerry" and Helene Suydam, both now deceased.

Much of the building is in good shape, making it easy to understand why Oppenheimer and his family might have found it appealing and a welcome refuge from the pressure of the Manhattan Project mission.

"But the foundation is pretty much gone," Linke said. "The electrical system and roof need work. The heating and the plumbing need to be replaced."

And because it is an historic structure, Linke said these problems need to be addressed with a particular finesse.

"You just can't be poking holes in the wall," she said.

LAHS is teaming up with the Santa Fe architecture firm MASS Design Group, which has expertise in the sensitive kind of restoration required for the project.

Linke said the work will be accomplished in phases. The first phase will cost an estimated $900,000.

"Phase one would cover critical elements such as electrical upgrades, foundation stabilization, floor care and roof repairs," Linke said. "I believe that when phase one is done, people will be allowed into the house. Later phases will involve the addition of interpretive stuff."

But no one can say at this point when the restoration will begin. That depends on how quickly sufficient money is raised.

It can't be too soon. Linke wants the public to experience the aura, to feel the goosebumps.

"People are so anxious to get into the house," she said. "To not be able to let them in is a little difficult."