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109 East Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, NM

Manhattan Project National Historical Park

The entrance of a flat-roofed adobe building with 2 screen doors and a sign that reads Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory of the University of California Office. — The Manhattan Project office at 109 East Palace was used by the ACE until 1963.
Photo courtesy of the Atomic Heritage Foundation and NMNS&H

Present-day visitors to Santa Fe, New Mexico, often spend time on the historic plaza, visiting shops, museums, galleries, and the Native American artists selling their work in front of the Palace of the Governors. Those who continue east on Palace Avenue may step into a little courtyard filled with colorful crafts and marked with a small sign, “Los Alamos National Laboratory HISTORICAL MARKER Back Wall of Courtyard.”

And on the back wall of the courtyard is a modest bronze plaque that reads:

109 EAST PALACE 1943 SANTA FE OFFICE 1963 LOS ALAMOS SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
All the men and women who made the first atomic bomb passed through this portal to their secret mission at Los Alamos. Their creation in 27 months of the weapons that ended World War II was one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time.

Bronze plaque that reads in part 109 East Place 1943 Santa Fe Office 1963. Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. University of California. — The bronze plaque at 109 East Palace in Santa Fe, NM.
NPS/JUDSON

This land was first granted to Captain Diego Arias de Quiros, a Spanish army officer, in the very early 1700s. Fast forward to March 1943, when the small offices on the property were leased by the University of California. The owner, Martha Field, only knew it would be used for the war effort. On the evening of March 25, a local woman, Dorothy McKibbin, met with Duane Muncy of the University of California, and an old friend, Joe Stephenson, in the lobby of the famed La Fonda hotel on the plaza, about a job offer. Dorothy and her young son Kevin had moved to Santa Fe in 1932 when she was widowed. She was well acquainted with the town and its colorful residents. The men introduced her to Robert Oppenheimer, who offered her a job located in one of those offices at 109 East Palace. Although he didn’t tell her what the job would be, she didn’t hesitate to accept. As she later wrote, “I thought to be associated with that person, whoever he was, would be simply great! I never met a person with a magnetism that hit you so fast and so completely as his did. I didn’t know what he did. I thought maybe if he were digging trenches to put in a new road, I would love to do that … I just wanted to be allied and have something to do with a person of such vitality and radiant force. That was for me.”

Middle-aged women wearing glasses, button up shirt, and sweater stands in a doorway looking out of the building. — Dorothy McKibbin stands in front of her office at 109 East Palace.
Photo courtesy of the Atomic Heritage Foundation and NMNS&H

The next day she reported for work, joining several University of California administrative personnel. She learned that their employer was the secret Los Alamos Laboratory in the nearby mountains, part of the covert Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer, who was the Laboratory Director, and his secretary, Priscilla Greene, were there too, but soon moved up to Los Alamos itself. Before long Dorothy was considered the “gatekeeper” to Los Alamos since all civilian employees and many of the military personnel checked in through her office. She provided new staff with temporary passes, directions or transportation, and encouragement to those tired and confused from their long journeys.

She came to be friends with many of the people in the secret city, known as “The Hill.” People on shopping trips stopped in to visit and share news. Her lovely adobe home was used for more than a dozen weddings, sometimes with Oppenheimer giving away the bride since family members couldn’t come to the secret location. People in Santa Fe called Dorothy about unusual newcomers wandering around, apparently lost, since usually they were looking for her office. Daily, Dorothy and her assistants sent more than 65 people to the “secret city,” issued dozens of passes, and dealt with scores of phone calls.

For weeks after August 6, 1945, when the announcement of the Hiroshima mission was splashed across the news, the office was inundated with people from Santa Fe and far beyond, wanting passes to go see Los Alamos. After Oppenheimer resigned as lab director in October of 1945, his successor, Norris Bradbury, asked Dorothy to stay on. The little office continued handling new employees, information requests, and curious visitors until it closed when Dorothy retired in 1963.