Snyder: Chief Mechanics House Saw Many Changes
By SHARON SNYDER
Los Alamos Historical Society
The oldest continuously lived-in house in Los Alamos was built on the Los Alamos Ranch School campus in 1925 and was known as the Chief Mechanics House.
It is still the neighbor of the old Guest Cottage that today houses our History Museum.
In the first years of the ranch school, three brothers from Española came to work on the Pajarito Plateau. Jim Womelsduff hired on as the school’s wrangler and ranch foreman, responsible for the entire physical plant buildings, roads, water system, power plant, and power lines.