Fallout Five Zero

Makes You Wonder What The Other Sign Would Have Looked Like

Posted on January 28, 2024 by Fallout Five Zero

The National Fallout Shelter Survey, which began in September of 1961, brought the Army Corps of Engineers and civilian architects and engineers who were put through Civil Defense training classes around the country to survey existing buildings to see if they would be feasible as public Fallout Shelters.

To be selected as a shelter, the building had to meet three criteria:

-Protection Factor of 40 (meaning a person would receive 1/40th the radiation inside the shelter than he or she would outside without protection. Noted below and in official documents as “PF.”)
-Room for at least 50 persons
-10 square feet of space per person

Once the survey was underway, buildings that were identified (and licensed if they were private) were marked with the official Fallout Shelter sign, and in some cases stocked with civil defense rations and equipment. As we have featured on our site in the past, the first shelter marked in Massachusetts was The Massachusetts State House in a ceremony that took place on November 5, 1962.

However, this document above (and linked below) from a 1963 shelter study done by the Stanford Research Institute for Boston shows that the original plan by civil defense officials was to only mark shelters with a PF of 100 or more, and mark any shelter with less than a PF of 100 with a differing sign, possibly with something saying “unmarked refuge,”

In the 155-page study, the difference between PF 100 and PF 40 shelters is discussed, as well as the percent of which type of shelter would be occupied day and night and the fact that the shelters that were stocked were at least PF 100. There are also maps showing where potential shelters in Boston were, although it is not differentiated by specific location, just dots marking potential shelter sites within various Boston neighborhoods.

It is interesting to know that we may have seen a sign other than the one we are used to (and this site is dedicated to), though I’m glad they decided to stick with the one.

Document retrieved on January 28, 2024, from archive.org

The Sound Around Town: Sometimes Wanted, Sometimes Not

Posted on November 7, 2023November 7, 2023 by Fallout Five Zero

This photo taken of the West Brookfield, Massachusetts town hall on October 29, 2023, shows a Federal Signal air raid siren on the roof. A similar one was on the roof of a building in nearby Warren, Mass.

This news story from the Telegram & Gazette, written on October 13, 2020, says that the siren had been active and was being sounded at the request of town residents at 6:15 p.m. each day, but malfunctioned one morning and sounded inadvertently at 5 a.m. It was then disconnected when this occurred, and it is unknown if it was ever reconnected.

Many town halls in Massachusetts, including Dedham and Provincetown, once had sirens on their roofs, probably due to those buildings being the highest in those towns. Both of those have since been removed.

Photo taken on October 29, 2023 and owned by Fallout Five Zero

A Grand Old Sign in Old Grand Lake

Posted on February 9, 2023 by Fallout Five Zero

Contributor Theresa submitted these photos taken on February 1, 2023, from the Grand Lake neighborhood of Oakland, California showing a pole-mounted exterior Fallout Shelter sign.

Pole-mounted signs were generally seen in areas where a public Fallout Shelter was not close, and sometimes included rarely seen “Blocks” or “Miles” overlays with the number of blocks or miles away the shelter was located. There were also times when a pole-mounted sign was placed where a shelter was nearby, but the sign could not be posted on the building or structure itself (for whatever reason).

This seems to be the case here, as the sign has an “In Basement” overlay with an arrow, which likely means it was outside of a specific building or structure designated as a shelter.

Special thanks to Theresa for submitting and allowing use of these photos

Photos owned by Theresa D. and used with permission

Where Jekyll And Hyde Meet Dr. Strangelove

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Fallout Five Zero

The Jekyll and Hyde Art Gallery and Studio, located in Laconia, New Hampshire bills itself as an “Oddities and Curiosities” Gallery, and sure enough has what appears to be an NOS (new old stock – authentic but never used) exterior Fallout Shelter sign hanging in its window.

Unfortunately, the gallery was not open to ask the reason or origin for having the sign in the window, but this author likes the gallery’s style regardless of the reason.

Pictures taken in Laconia, New Hampshire on October 10, 2022 and owned by Fallout Five Zero.

FS At The YWCA

Posted on October 7, 2022October 16, 2022 by Fallout Five Zero

Like many of its brother and sister buildings throughout the US, this YWCA building in Manchester, New Hampshire still has an exterior Fallout Shelter sign, showing capacity for 395 people.

Manchester is the largest city in not only New Hampshire but all the northern New England states, and once had many Fallout Shelter locations. This is one of the remaining signs left in the city.

Sign? What Sign?

Posted on September 13, 2022September 23, 2022 by Fallout Five Zero

One walking by this building at 136 West 28th Street in Manhattan might not notice the exterior Fallout Shelter sign that has not only been painted over but also used to mount not one but two different cameras.

While New York did start to take signs down in late 2017 as they found them “misleading” amid heightened nuclear tensions with North Korea, various visits since have shown that this occurred mainly at schools and not other buildings. Several exterior signs still exist within the burroughs, including this one, that despite needing the wall space they left up and mummified in time.

Pictures taken on September 2, 2022, and owned by Fallout Five Zero.

It used to be noodles and shelter; now it’s neither

Posted on July 21, 2022September 23, 2022 by Fallout Five Zero

The Ho Toy Noodle Company was located for many years in Chinatown at 72-79 Essex Street, just on the edge of Chinatown. It has since moved, but the building that it once called home is still there and was marked as a Fallout Shelter.

These photos, taken in December 2010, show an exterior Fallout Shelter sign facing Essex Street. There was a second exterior sign on the Oxford Street side of the building. The Essex Street sign was removed in 2017, and the one on Oxford Street a year later in 2018.

There was also at least one interior sign as recently as 2017, but its current status is unknown.

Recently, Vincent Tocco Jr. was in the building and sent these photos and info:

The building is just a gutted shell now awaiting some future demo. [The first two photos] are broad basement looks. [next] is the back stairway. [The next one] shows the freight elevators. [The last photo] shows the only object of any interest in the building, the remains of a very old boiler. I couldn’t find any fallout signage.

The building itself is several stories but entirely vacant, and it is unknown if the shelter area was just in the basement or on other floors. Ho Toy Noodle still exists but is operating out of other locations in Boston and a suburb south of Boston.

At least if it was ever used as a shelter, the food would have been better than the rations.

Exterior and interior Fallout Shelter photos owned by FFZ.

Basement photos provided by Vincent Tocco, Jr. Special thanks for sharing them and allowing us to use them.

Love in a Fallout Shelter: Falling in love when you’re underground

Posted on June 26, 2022June 26, 2022 by Fallout Five Zero

As the saying goes, love is blind and the term “love at first sight” can be a very real thing. People fall in love everywhere, at any time, and sometimes with someone they just met.

This can even happen in your local public Fallout Shelter.

In May 1964, a civil defense exercise was held at Quincy High School, and student volunteers spent 24 hours in the school’s Fallout Shelter.

This excerpt from the 1964 Quincy High School yearbook “Goldenrod” shows the front of QHS, with two Fallout Shelter signs to the sides of the entrance doors.

During the exercise, Diane Sutherland, a QHS senior who was taking part in the exercise, met Tom Bryant, a local civil defense volunteer who had graduated 2 years prior from North Quincy High School.

In her first meeting with Tom, Diane said “I couldn’t get my cot together, and Tom came over to help me. After that, we spent the night playing Crazy Eights and other games. At the end of the exercise, Tom said to me ‘I love you and I’m going to marry you.’ I told him he was crazy, but if he was serious, to come back to me with $5,000 in the bank and a ring.”

It turns out Tom wasn’t crazy but very serious. In February 1965, he came to Diane with an engagement ring and had $5,000 in the bank, just as she asked.

And a life together was born.

Tom and Diane married and had two children, Mark and Lisa, and lived a comfortable life together for 58 years until Tom’s unexpected passing in January 2022.

Although Tom is gone, his legacy lives on in his family, and during a recent celebration of his life, both his civil defense volunteer certificate and a Fallout Shelter sign were displayed to commemorate where it all began for these two: underground and in love.

Special thanks to Diane Bryant for sharing their story and letting us tell it on FFZ. Special thanks to Tom Bryant for being a volunteer and friend to the civil defense program and may you Rest in Peace.

The Cab, The Sign, and The Siren

Posted on March 16, 2022January 28, 2024 by Fallout Five Zero

From the desk of our assistant editor Tim comes this screenshot from a WGBH Archives clip of Hyde Park from 1979. Pictured is Boston Police Station 5 (now E-18) on Hyde Park Avenue. On top of the station is one of several Federal Signal air raid sirens that used to be on top of buildings throughout the city.

To the left of the left entrance door is a Fallout Shelter sign, and passing the station is a Checker brand White Cab, which before ridesharing used to be the only hired mode of transportation in cities across the US outside of limos and livery cars.

This photo, taken by Daniel White in February 1980, shows a clearer picture of former Station 5, sans cab.

The cab, the sign, and the siren. All gone today.

Screenshot from WGBH Archives, September 1979

Special thanks to Tim for finding and providing the WGBH screenshot and to Daniel White for permission to use his photo

Arlo Knows Where To Go

Posted on September 16, 2021September 23, 2022 by Fallout Five Zero

Contributor Brian sent us these photos from the movie Alice’s Restaurant (1969), starring Arlo Guthrie, Patricia Quinn, and James Broderick. Here, Arlo is in a hospital and an interior Fallout Shelter sign is seen pointing the way to the shelter area. The placement of the arrows on the sign is a little bit of a mystery, as the “Nurse’s Station” sign seems to point left while the arrows point down, which would usually indicate a set of stairs.

As mentioned in previous posts, Fallout Shelter sign appearances were common in a large number of movies and TV shows from its creation in 1961 and still do on occasion even today. Conelrad Adjacent has compiled numerous stills of these appearances on their page Fallout Shelter Sign Cameos.

Special thanks to Brian for sending these into the site.

Alice’s Restaurant (1969) produced by Elkins Entertainment and Florin