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. ADVERTISEMENT The Pill Hill area had more than 100 homes by 1940 with most homes buil.
