Pittsburgh’s fallout shelters

March 18, 1960: The seven people who spent last weekend in a simulated fallout shelter at American Institute of Research, 410 Amberson Avenue, Shadyside. On the top bunk, Robert Smith, reading. Nancy Newton is at the “kitchen” stove at left. Second bunk: Frank McKenna, Gil Dannels, Tommy McKenna, 8, and James Altman. In lower bunk is Sara Bryson. (Bill Levis/Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph)

June 6, 1960: A faux fallout shelter stocked with food, water and other bare essentials for living at the American Institute of Research, 410 Amberson Avenue, Shadyside. (Morris Berman/Post-Gazette)

July 31, 1961: The Reserve Officers Association of Pittsburgh, Chapter 45, put a fallout shelter on display in Gateway Center park, near the water fountain, for two weeks. (Don Bindyke/Post-Gazette)

Aug. 1, 1961: No caption provided on the location of or people in this fallout shelter. (Don Bindyke/Post-Gazette)

Sept. 19, 1961: Scenes from a family’s model fallout shelter. (Credit unknown)

Sept. 24, 1961: This drawing is from a new Defense Department handbook on family fallout shelters released in Washington today. The shelter is below ground outside a house, with an entrance from the basement. Man in drawing is installing a hand-operated blower. Cost is estimated at between $550 and $650 when built as part of new house construction. (Associated Press)

Sept. 27, 1961: A fallout shelter on Neville Island. (Post-Gazette)

Nov. 14, 1961: A cartoon illustrating a family moving into its fallout shelter in case of nuclear emergency. (Credit unknown)

Nov. 19, 1961: An elaborate underground shelter could be duplicated for $8,000. (Associated Press)

Oct. 12, 1961: Mark Pollock, 10, with his mother in a family fallout shelter at Gutbro Construction Company, Boulevard of the Allies. (Harry Coughanour/Post-Gazette)

Feb. 5, 1970: Two employees of Duquesne University’s housekeeping department, Milton Geisler, left, and James Apostal, lift a 17 1/2 gallon can of water into place in the fallout shelter beneath the school’s student union building. (Anthony Kaminski/The Pittsburgh Press)

April 14, 1980: James Allan, of Pleasant Hills, double-checks a radiation detector in a fallout shelter located in the basement of his home. He would get an A plus grade in the survey being conducted by Allegheny County authorities. (Bill Levis/Post-Gazette)

Jan. 14, 1985: A photo of a fallout shelter directions sign. (Associated Press)

Jan. 10, 1985: Betty Workman of Carlisle’s displays cans of survival crackers. (Harry Coughanour/Post-Gazette)

There was a moment in 1964 when Allegheny County officials seriously considered spending nearly $30,000 (about $225,000 today) to buy from the federal government a hole in the ground.

It was a 20-acre bomb-resistant site in Plum Borough, complete with “three missile launching pits, underground command centers and miscellaneous bric-a-brac that might come in handy if a ‘take cover’ order ever rings out.” ((“County Debates Buying A Hole,” by William Pade, The Pittsburgh Press, June 4, 1964.))

Courthouse officials could have hid there had enemies attacked Pittsburgh.

These were different times. They were times of constant fear.

Take for example a test the Office of Civil Defense and the American Institute for Research (AIR) in Shadyside conducted the following year. Previous tests, such as those pictured in the first few images above, had apparently not been realistic enough to test a participant’s will.

And so researchers sunk them into a lake near Myerstown in Lebanon County inside a cigar-shaped tank, 30 feet long, five feet wide and four feet high. Two reasons were given:

1 — Occupants are fearful of cave-in, heightening stress.

2 — They cannot simply get up and walk out the door.

Mission accomplished. Sort of.

Reactions ranged from,  “Uncomfortable … It was damp … I couldn’t stand up” to “Noisy … Like being in a plane … I was getting bored.” ((“24 Hours Under Water in Tank Is ‘Like A-War” by Kenneth Eskey, The Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 17, 1965.))

AIR received $100,000 in federal grant money that year for shelter research.

Update: After publication, Post-Gazette photographer Bob Donaldson sent me these images and story from 2002 when an Edgeworth bomb shelter was uncovered.

Opening a time capsule from the 1950s, Renee MacDougall (right) and friend Steve Hramika pull open the hatch to an eight-person bomb shelter buried behind MacDougall’s Edgeworth home. The ladder is to climb down into the shelter; its wooden stairs have long since deterioriated. The shelter’s air vent pipe is at right. Photo made Monday, May 13, 2002. (Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette)

Renee MacDougall plays a light over a storage cabinet inside the eight-person bomb shelter her family found buried behind their recently-purchased Edgeworth home. What supplies remain in the dark and dank concrete shelter — including a package of toilet tissue and paper plates in this cabinet — have long since begun to deteriorate. Photo made Monday, May 13, 2002. (Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette)

Cardboard boxes holding canned food stored in the 1950’s bomb shelter behind the MacDougall home in Edgeworth have long since decayed into dust, as have the labels on the cans. The cans are covered with rust after decades in the dark and dank concrete shelter for eight people. The family the shelter buried behind their recently-purchased Edgeworth home. Photo made Monday, May 13, 2002. (Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette)

Renee MacDougall inside the eight-person bomb shelter her family found buried behind their recently-purchased Edgeworth home. Containers of food and water are still in storage beneath of the lower rack of bunk beds. A hand-crank ventilator is mounted on the wall at left. Photo made Monday, May 13, 2002. (Bob Donaldson/Post-Gazette)

Let us know what you think in the comments:

Were these government expenses worth it?

Do you know what became of AIR’s research office at that address?

Did you ever see the inside of a fallout shelter? What do you remember?