Chronicling the Public Fallout Shelter Over Fifty Years Later
An exterior Fallout Shelter sign is seen on the United States Post Office Building in Littleton, New Hampshire this past fall.
The weathered sign shows a capacity of 355. New Hampshire’s first Fallout Shelter sign was posted in Concord in 1962, and shelters were more prominent in some of the larger cities like Concord and Manchester. There were, however, shelters in various places throughout the state.
© 2021 Fallout Five Zero
Above photos taken in October 2020 and owned by Fallout Five Zero
In typical Hollywood fashion, one location can easily double for another, and a Fallout Shelter sign in the background does not care where it’s actually supposed to be.
This screenshot from Spenser: For Hire, Season 2, Episode 15 shows an exterior Fallout Shelter sign on the outside of 150 Causeway Street, which when this was filmed was the former Boston Garden. This arena was connected in some fashion with North Station, but neither had a bus terminal, so some artistic license was used in the shot.
This building was closed in 1995 and demolished in 1998, but it’s memory lives on in Boston sports legend and modern day streaming services.
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This screenshot from the TV series Spenser: For Hire shows an exterior Fallout Shelter sign on the outside of a residential building at 96 Beacon Street in Boston. This shot came from Season 1, Episode 22 (“Hell Hath No Fury”) and was taken as Spenser (played by Robert Urich) turns from Beacon Street on to Arlington Street.
The building is still there today, but the sign is long gone.
The sign marks are still very prominent to the left of the entrance door. It is unknown when the sign was removed but it was well before the mid 1990s.
Spenser ran three seasons from 1985 to 1988 and was filmed almost entirely on location in Boston.
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Footage from Spenser: For Hire owned by Warner Brothers Television
Exterior photos taken and owned by Fallout Five Zero
Up until recently, I only knew of one photo of Governor Volpe hanging a Fallout Shelter sign (the first in Massachusetts) at the Massachusetts State House on November 5, 1962.
However, the photo above, found on the National Archives catalog, shows Governor Volpe hanging a second sign on the front of the State House on the same date.
At it’s peak, the Massachusetts State House had at least 6 exterior signs and an unknown amount of interior signs. All exterior and interior signs, including the two the then Governor hung, have since been removed.
For more photo-op (as well as Average Joe) sign hanging photos, visit Bill Geerhart’s Conelrad Adjacent page.
-FFZ
© 2020 Fallout Five Zero
Above photo owned by the National Archives and retrieved on January 19, 2020 at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75747687
A post-holiday stroll in New York City today by FFZ correspondents Tim and Erica showed this weathered but intact exterior Fallout Shelter sign on the Hudson Park branch of the New York Public Library.
Despite announcing a campaign two years ago to remove Fallout Shelter signs from their buildings, New York still has many signs intact throughout the five boroughs.
A welcome sight going into the new year, and new decade.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from Fallout Five Zero
©️ 2019 Fallout Five Zero
Images taken and owned by Tim and Erica, FFZ correspondents and used with permission.
This view last Sunday shows one of the buildings of the Whittier Street projects almost completely demolished, and the lone Fallout Shelter sign on the building awaiting it’s fate.
Like many other city owned housing developments, several of the buildings here were designated as shelters. As of today, however, only one building with a sign remains. The rest have been demolished and replaced with new construction.
© 2019 Fallout Five Zero
The building above is the New York County Supreme Court, located at 60 Centre Street in Manhattan, in an area known as Foley Square.
If you’re an aficionado of law or court shows, the building should be familiar, as it appears in multiple shows and movies. IMDb lists 60 Centre Street as a filming location in 24 separate movies/shows, the most prominent (and current) being Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Both of these photos were taken in March 2005 and show a Fallout Shelter sign on the front of the building
As mentioned in other posts, Fallout Shelter signs often appear in the background of shows and movies (CONELRAD – All Things Atomic has an excellent and unparalleled archive of such sightings).
The above sign has appeared in Trading Places (1983), in a blurry news image photo used in the movie
Although screenshots have not yet been located, the sign has also appeared in multiple episodes of Law and Order: SVU and potentially many other movies and shows
The sign was still up as recently as December 2017 as this Google Maps screenshot shows
However, a visit to the actual site in June 2019 shows that the sign has been removed
New York started a campaign in December 2017 to remove Fallout Shelter signs; however, this was mostly done at school buildings.
It appears other buildings are now affected. In addition to 60 Centre Street, another state building down the block at 80 Centre Street also had evidence of recently removed signs.
It was disappointing to see this sign gone, as based on the prominence of this building on both TV and in actual court cases, this was likely one of (if not the most) famous Fallout Shelter sign in America.
Have any other tips on shows or movies this sign appeared in? Let us know here.
© 2019 Fallout Five Zero
March 2005 and June 2019 images of 60 Centre Street taken and owned by Fallout Five Zero
Screenshot taken from Trading Places (1983), a Paramount Pictures film
Google image owned by Google and retrieved on June 14, 2019 from Google Maps
Since it’s introduction in 1961, the Fallout Shelter sign has appeared (sometimes purposely, many times inadvertently) in the background of movies and TV shows and many photographs.
This photograph, taken by photographer Peter Simon (petersimon.com) on February 26, 1968, is titled “Verandah Porche: portrait standing between stone columns, with fallout shelter sign” and was taken in Allston.
The capacity on the sign reads 60, and it is unknown where the picture was taken or if the sign still exists. However, this is one beautiful example of how the sign can be art, and not just an eyesore or inconvenient backdrop.
© 2019 Fallout Five Zero
Photograph citation: Simon, Peter, 1947-. Verandah Porche: portrait standing between stone columns, with fallout shelter sign, February 26, 1968. Peter Simon Collection (PH 009). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
Special thanks to Ronni Simon for allowing use of this photograph. Peter Simon passed away in 2018, and may he Rest in Peace.
Special thanks also to Danielle of the University of Massachusetts Amherst Special Collections department for her assistance.
Boston Latin School, the oldest public school in America, was founded in 1635. The first school building was on School Street in Boston (a plaque marks the site). It moved to it’s current location on Avenue Louis Pasteur in 1921.
Like many of the other Boston Public School buildings, it was marked as a public Fallout Shelter. The first two photos above excerpted from the 1964 Liber Actorum. which is Boston Latin’s yearbook, and presumably taken around the same time. The third photo was taken from the 1979 edition.
It is unknown if this was the same sign, but the school had an addition added in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s, and it (or they) were likely removed at that point, as publications of Liber Actorum from the mid-1990’s no longer showed them.
The picture below of the Boston Latin football team is from the 1969 Liber Actorum and shows the exterior sign on the front of the building, which based on photographic evidence was removed by 1990.
The building also had numerous interior Fallout Shelter signs on the first floor, in the interior stairs, and in the basement. Three such signs existed in 1995, and all were removed within the next 6 years.
Pictures below show two different signs from the 1979 Liber Actorum
Another picture from the 1984 Liber Actorum shows an interior sign on the first floor hallway next to the stairs
A listing of shelters in Roxbury (which is the area this school is considered to be in) shows the shelter capacity for Boston Latin at 1,006.
English High School, which has been Latin’s football rival for decades, was once housed across the street from Latin in the former High School of Commerce and was also designated as a shelter. The photo above, taken by Richard Sullivan in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s from the roof of Latin, shows the then English High with the shelter sign to the right of the door.
A new English High School was built in the 1970’s in a high rise (which still sits across from the current Boston Latin and is now owned by Harvard Medical School) and was not marked as a shelter. English High later moved to Jamaica Plain.
Several other editions of Liber Actorum show signs in the hallways, and by physical and photographic evidence, it was likely that 7 or more interior signs existed when the school was designated as a shelter. One FFZ contributor even shared that Civil Defense water barrels became classroom trash bins at Boston Latin in the 1980’s.
As the phrase goes, Tempus Fugit, and no signs remain at Boston’s oldest and most renowned public school.
© 2019 Fallout Five Zero
© 2020 Fallout Five Zero (Edited April 28, 2020)
All photographs above excerpted from editions of Liber Actorum and accessed through archive.org at https://archive.org/details/bostonlatinschool
Photo of English High School taken and owned by Richard Sullivan and used with permission. Thank you to Mr. Sullivan for taking and use of the photo.
A woman strolls by as three men sit outside the former Army & Navy YMCA in Charlestown in this undated photo. A Fallout Shelter sign is posted on the wall to the right of the entrance. This building and it’s neighbors have since been demolished.
The above photograph is property of the City of Boston Archives and used under Creative Commons licensing. No portion of this photograph was changed or altered in any way.
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