Fall Out Shelter : Cold War Underworld

There is a current series on History Channel entitled Cities of the Underworld. In that series they explore what is under the surface of cities and country side. Last week as I traveled south on Columbia County Route 66 I was going to have my smaller version. I had managed an invitation to see a piece of the cold war. A home fallout shelter. My uncle was a carpenter , he had done work on the house several yrs ago. Through a mutual acquaintance I had after a number of months arranged an invitation to see this piece of history. I promised to keep the exact location private. The owners would rather not have their names and location mentioned in a blog. So be it. So about 11:00 am on a cold Thursday morning in February I arrived at my hosts home in Dutchess County. The owner greeted me as he came out of his garage , a large 4 car brick structure. We walked around the back of the garage to a small shed type building built into a dirt mound. At the back of the shed was a heavy wooden door with a tin front. the door led to wooden stairs. The owner said that the wooden stairs replaced the older stone steps. 5 steps down , left turn. A common bedroom door which my guide unlocked. This door was put in several yrs ago and was not part of the original construction. Down 3 steps to a large wooden platform. There before me was the final door. I will call it a bulk head door , metal door with a turning wheel in the center. It looked like the doors you see in submarine movies from WWII. With some small effort I turned the wheel , opened the door with a slight creekiness. switched on the light , now placed on the outside of the door. Two steps down and I was there. Not quite in the Cold War. It was as I had been previously told no longer an active shelter as the original intention. The ceiling was high....about 9 ft 6 inches tall. Poured concrete floor , drain in the center of the floor. It looked essentually like a basement of that era with a higher ceiling. It was now a combination wine cellar , store room etc. The one remaining left over from the original was a small safe that was open empty and unlocked. It was not a combination safe but was opened by a large brass type key. The current owner said that some valuables and articles such as birth certificates was stored there. Also stored there was a couple of hand guns and ammo. The safe not longer could be locked or once locked might not be able to reopen through age and disuse. In the south east corner was an old wire stapled to the ceiling beam that went into the ceiling. Below was what I realized from my old radio days was a grounding rod. I believe this is where the radio was to be used....the wire was an antenna of some sorts and the grounding rod would help protect the radio from elecrical discharge from lightening etc. The rod was imbedded in the concrete floor. The owner then directed my attention to the center of the western wall. He moved a wooden crate so I could get a good look at the floor. I turned on my flashlight. There imbedded in the concrete of the floor by 2 bolts and the concrete itself was the most curious item. A traditional Masonic Symbol with the G for God in the center. The previous owner was a Freemason. Exactly why he placed this apparently brass disc of about 4 inches in diameter in that location is not known. I speculate it was perhaps a symbol of belief or of fondness for his brotherhood. A statement of this is what I am for an uncertain future if this was ever needed for the original purpose. I discovered my host was himself at one time a freemason. The tour contained 2 more items. A new vent had been placed in the wall into the heated garage to keep the temp more stable for the wine storage. It was about 18 degrees outside but was rather comfortable with my coat on itside the shelter. The other patch was for the old filtered ventilation system. The vent lead to a small shaft to the surface where I was told there was a cone shaped outlet. Air was pumped down by a hand crank air pump. With my tour over I was invited to lunch after a quick tour of his garage and a look at his 1968 mercedes automobile that belonged to his father. The lunch was healthy , low fat cream cheese with sprouts on whole wheat bread his wife made up for us. The coffee on a cold day was good as well. Over lunch we discussed some of the background history. The house was bought by Susan's grandfather in the 1950's. He had been a lawyer and served in WWII as a legal liason to the British Forces stationed in London. He had the shelter built between May - July of 1960. He felt that Richard Nixon might not be elected President and feared the worse if John F. Kennedy was elected. He felt he could travel from his NYC home to his summer/ weekend gitaway home if war was imminate. His wife I was told was not a big fan this project. Without Eisenhower who he had known the world was likely to go to hell in a hand basket. The house was later sold after his death in 1970. The current owners bought it back in the family in the early nineties as a semi retirement , summer gitaway home. After they bought the property , they took the then empty space converted it to storage and a place for family wine storage. John also told me of a nearby outhouse built in the same time period made of brick. I guess they could not be sure of plumbing facilities after the bomb. After lunch I said my thank you's and goodby. As I traveled back towards home that afternoon I came to a more full understanding of archeology. It helps us uncover past culture , knowledge , community etc. It also often looks at fear , the walls to keep an enemy or other culture out. Roads built to ease the transportation of armies. The fear in the darkest of days of the cold war was real. Duck and cover drills in schools , fear of the Communist menace as it was often called drove people in some cases underground. In this new century we we still have our fears and our politics sometimes reflect that fear. In reality few home shelters were built. The population seemed to slowly ease into a nervous acceptance or change of official policy towards other nations. Now the shelter from past has become the wine cellar of the present. So it goes.