Looking to photograph underground San Antonio (Austin, Corpus Christi: house, high school, calculator)

[jachamp]

Hello, Does anyone here have any old maps, information on the old Cold War Fallout Shelters? I grew up in Corpus Christi and I still have my parent's old Civil Defense maps and information packs.

Since many of those places are being sealed up or destroyed by local authorities, I would like to create a pictorial documentation of these and their history if that is still possible.

Does anyone have any information about such things and the underground world that may be in the sub-basements of local schools or churches.

Thanks!

[jeffutsa2001]

Nope but how about some underground caves!

[Rustybolt]

Most of the fallout shelters in San Antonio (or any major city for that matter) were in the basements of tall buildings and they aren't being sealed up, but just not maintained as shelters. The ones I remember in San Antonio were downstairs at Joskes, some banks. Very few still have the signs, though you occasionally still see them. I recall as a child seeing them in the basement of Hancock Center in Austin next door to Sears. The shortcoming was that they were for fallout protection only. If you were anywhere near the blast, the over pressure would have rendered your fallout shelter pretty much useless. San Antonio being a heavy concentration of military installations probably was (is?) pretty high on the enemy hit parade.
Ahh, the Cold War. How I miss the clarity of knowing exactly who your enemy was, where they were, and what they could do. Back in the day I had a Flash-to-Bang Calculator that I was a whiz at in Cold War Germany. Survive the flash, start counting, stop when you hear the bang of the pressure wave, eyeball and estimate the size of the fireball and poof...you knew how big a hit you had endured and how far away it was. I hope they saved Reagan's DNA somewhere.

[The Sweet Pickles Bus]

Originally Posted by Rustybolt

I hope they saved Reagan's DNA somewhere.

I hear it's next to Warhol's

[jachamp]

Thanks all! I was afraid of that. I used to do work for the city's emergency management bunker and that was no bunker nor was it a fallout shelter. It seemed more like a renovated storage room.

I found some places while I was working at Ft. Sam but good luck getting a camera into them.

Oh well...it was worth a try. I'll look for another project.

And I'm sorry...I can't do caves. Something to do with my claustrophobia which I can control but caves bug me. There are some filled in cave openings near my house in McAlister Park I've found. There is no telling where those things may have run but I can see where kids would go in and get lost in there.

Thanks all!

[gungemini]

i work for a goverment office downtown, all the buildings have basements and the cleaning staff tells me there a A TON of basements and underground tunnels that even pre date the cold war. ill see what i can dig up

[SherryZ]

This may be a long shot but Paula Allen writes a column for the S.A. Express-News that often focuses on historical places in S.A. You might try emailing her. She will often write an entire Sunday column around one reader's question and include pictures she found and ask for others to give input.

[Mmeverman]

We lived at 117 Cardinal Avenue in the '50s. There was a bomb shelter across the street. I recall talk of Mr. Prassel's castle but don't remember if it was referring to his house or the shelter. It's something to check out.

[Mifflinjennifer]

W. B Ray High School is one of them, also there is a huge stone structure down by the water to the right side of cole park when you walk down to the water, its a sealed off bomb shelter, im looking for a list of all bomb shelters in Corpus Christi Texas, sealed off or not.
So if anyone has information please
[Mod edit: contact per DM]
Im also putting together a scrapbook of places and maps that are important