A Pill Hill home alive with history is connected to 'Oppenheimer' (2024)

ROCHESTER — On the historic streets of Pill Hill, the homes share preservation and elegance. There's even a stucco exterior home that Luis Alvarez, a Manhattan Project contributor depicted in the movie “Oppenheimer,” lived in with his family during high school.

His life was surrounded with science and medicine, including during his time in Rochester. The Alvarez family moved to town in 1926 for Dr. Walter C. Alvarez’s job as a gastroenterologist at Mayo Clinic. Luis Alvarez graduated from Rochester High School in 1928, and he’s noted as the only graduate to win a Nobel Prize. He was awarded the 1968 Nobel Prize in physics for developing a liquid hydrogen bubble chamber.

Two years after his start at Mayo, Walter Alvarez was named president of the American Gastroenterological Association. There was something remarkable about his skills: “Many physicians treat diseases; Alvarez treats people who have diseases,” Di Cyan is quoted in an article by JAMA on Alvarez. He later became regarded as “America’s family doctor” through his newspaper column.

In his 1987 book, “Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist," he reflected on Rochester’s cold temperatures, his walks to school and meeting his first physicist.

“(The house has) got a super cool history because of him, just what he accomplished and he was … very esteemed in his industry,” said Realtor Jon Ryan about Luis Alvarez.

The Pill Hill area had more than 100 homes by 1940 with most homes built between 1903 to 1937. The homes ranged from colonial to Tudor revival, prairie school, craftsman, Spanish colonial revival and bungalow styles. The property at 815 Fifth St. SW, near the Mayo Foundation House, was built in 1914 and boasts original woodwork. The home has had four owners since 1914.

“It’s an extremely tall home, sits up on top of Pill Hill and has some pretty cool views out of the third floor towards downtown,” Ryan said. One of the views includes the ear-of-corn water tower.

Dr. Bill Nichols and his wife Sharon lived in the home for about 40 years, and enjoyed hosting international physicians visiting Mayo. Bill Nichols died in 2022.

“Bill was dedicated to the science of medicine, pursuing decades of research in the field of hematology, while also training subsequent generations of physicians. He was known within the Mayo hematology community for his generous manner. … and his trendy socks and colorful neckties,” reads a portion of his obituary. He also helped establish the American Specialized Coagulation Laboratories Association and the External Quality Assurance in Thrombosis and Hemostasis organization.

Rebecca Mitchell / Post Bulletin

As a physicist, Luis Alvarez found his way into learning different aspects of physics including cyclotron bombardment, high explosives, particle tracks and magnetic monopoles. He also analyzed the film strips and determined the timing of the shots after Life Magazine published color prints from President Kennedy’s assassination.

“Most of us who become experimental physicists do so for two reasons: we love the tools of physics for their intrinsic beauty, and we dream of finding new secrets of nature as important and exciting as those our scientific heroes revealed,” Luis Alvarez wrote.

He contributed to “several World War II radar projects,” as Paul Scanlon noted in his book “Rochester Stories: A Med City History.” One of the most well-known projects centered on the atomic bomb through the government’s Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Luis Alvarez led a team in monitoring the explosion’s energy released over Hiroshima. The bomb killed more than 70,000 people. Luis Alvarez said he worked on the atomic bombs with the hope that they “would save innumerable American and Japanese lives” and help end the war.

“The story of our mission will probably be well known to everyone by the time you read this, but at the moment only the crews of our three B-29’s, and the unfortunate residents of the Hiroshima district in Japan are aware of what has happened,” Luis Alvarez wrote in a letter to his son. “... What regrets I have about being a party to killing and maiming thousands of Japanese civilians this morning are tempered with the hope that this terrible weapon we have created may bring the countries of the world together and prevent further wars."

Alvarez died in 1988.

At the 1968 Nobel Prize banquet in Stockholm, Sweden, Luis Alvarez described walking up the stage’s stairs as “one of the most spine-tingling experiences of my life.” His award in physics was for a hydrogen bubble chamber, which follows the paths of particles in high-energy collisions, according to ScienceDirect. The project was “dangerous but rewarding territory,” he wrote.

Luis Alvarez’s final scientific endeavor helped “rejuvenate" his scientific career, he said. Luis and his son Walter, who is a University of California-Berkely earth and planetary science professor, focused on high levels of iridium in rock layers. Their theory — the Alvarez Hypothesis — found dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact.

“The most recent development of my scientific career has also been the most unusual. I will probably be remembered longest for work done with my son Walt in a field about which I knew absolutely nothing until I was sixty-six years old,” Luis Alvarez wrote. “The field is geology; the work is our impact theory of mass extinctions.”

In the Pill Hill neighborhood alive with history, Ryan said he enjoys walking in the neighborhood where he and his wife Kelsey Ryan own a home. They also own Dwell Realty Group, Home Collective and Hilltop House, a historic property converted to an event center near Indian Heights Park.

“It’s a unique layout, it’s got really tall ceilings on the main floor which is cool for a house that age to kind of have open-concept as well,” Ryan said. The home is listed for $799,900. “When you walk in, it just kind of flows. You can see from one end to the other, which is pretty unique for a 1914 home.”

Ryan knows people who come to tour the home might just be interested in seeing the well-preserved and storied home.

“Most of (the Pill Hill homes) are one-of-a-kind it seems with different aspects and different features on the exterior. There’s a lot of different styles so with this one it’s got those gables that come out on the exterior, that’s pretty unique, you don’t see that anywhere else in that neighborhood. And then it’s got the stucco exterior … and it’s surprisingly in really good shape for Minnesota weather and the climate,” Ryan said.

Contributed / Dwell Realty Group

Rebecca Mitchell / Post Bulletin

Contributed / Dwell Realty Group

Rebecca Mitchell / Post Bulletin

Contributed / Dwell Realty Group