A Community Shelter

My longtime interest in all things underground eventually led me to a metal hatch in the center of Zilker Park, only a few hundred feet from the famed Barton Springs Pool. I was a graduate student at the University of Texas, tasked with composing a National Register nomination for the stone-faced Caretaker’s Cottage. As beautiful as the cottage was, it was always the underground unknown that kept my fascination.

Those of us who talk and write about urban planning use the term “post-war” to describe many of the suburban homes and developments that sprung up with the return of World War II veterans. It was a time of abundance that embraced modernity and science, but the looming threat of the Cold War was about to have its own, less remarked upon effect on the built environment.

When the Soviet Union successfully tested their atomic weapon in 1949, an era of intense fear began across the country, and Austin was no exception. An Austin Statesman article printed in April 1954 warned of a potential attack that would decimate the city in minutes. In 1958 the paper further insisted that Texas, of all US states, had the most targetable sites in the nation. The attitudes in Austin were not unique, as all over the nation the conversation of how to protect the public in the event of a nuclear attack.

In the 1950s, public attention was turning to the threat of a nuclear attack from Russia. When the Soviet Union successfully tested their atomic weapon in 1949, an era of intense fear began across the country, and Austin was no exception. An article in the Austin Statesman in April of 1954 tried to illustrate the severity of the threat, insisting H-bomb destruction could happen in Austin and leave decimation in its wake. In 1958 the paper further insisted that Texas, of all US states, had the most targetable sites in the nation. The attitudes in Austin were not unique, as all over the nation the conversation of how to protect the public in the event of a nuclear attack began.

The Security Resources Panel presented President Eisenhower with the 1957 Gaither Report, which proposed a nationwide shelter program. The report stated that “the panel has been unable to identify any other type of defense likely to save more lives for the same money in the event of a nuclear attack.”¹

The following year, the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization (OCDM) under Eisenhower and his Civil Defense director Leo Hoegh initiated a program called The National Shelter Policy.² Its mission was to impress upon the American people their personal responsibility to protect themselves and their families from potential nuclear fallout.³ Public education on the hazards of fallout would be encouraged, as would an effort to build prototype shelters. By 1959, OCDM began distributing plans for the construction of inexpensive or ‘do it yourself’ home shelters.⁴ OCDM predicted that in 1960, nearly 100 shelters would be constructed or initiated, and made 2.5 million dollars available towards the goal of building prototype shelters in every state in the nation, so that citizens could be educated on the best ways to protect their families.⁵

The Austin Statesman reported in January of 1960 that Zilker Park would play home to two fallout shelters, one built above and another below ground.⁶ Both were proposed for the property surrounding the Caretaker’s Lodge, but there is no evidence the second, above-ground shelter was ever built in the park. The underground shelter was built on the northeast corner of the Caretaker’s Lodge site in the early months of 1960, one quarter of a mile east of the Barton Springs Bathhouse.⁷ It was the first shelter for public demonstration in Texas, and the first OCDM demonstration shelter to be built in the whole of the Southwest.⁸ It was said that Austin was selected as the site of the shelter because of it being the capital and also its central location within the state of Texas.

The shelter at Zilker park has interior dimensions of 8 feet by 8 feet, with 8 inch reinforced concrete walls. It represents one of five ways that a government approved fallout shelter can be built. The image showing a cutaway view of the shelter to visitors was exactly the same as the image circulating nationwide, as a family shelter option. The same image appears in the 1959 OCDM report. Austin’s shelter was also the first to have custom furniture built inside, to best use the minimal space.⁹ Many local contractors contributed so the model could be made very affordably, including a two weeks supply of food given by the H.E. Butt Company and the flooring given at a half off discount by the Modern Floors Company.¹⁰

Texas Governor Price Daniel officially opened the shelter in a ceremony held on April the 11th, 1960. Also in attendance were Austin Civil Defense director Terrell Blodgett, Mayor Tom Miller, Regional Civil Defense Director Welcome Wilson and State Defense Mobilization Director James Garner.¹¹ Terrell Blodgett, who at the time was both the City Manager and the City Civil Defense Director, announced at this ceremony that the shelter would be available for tours every Tuesday from 1pm until 5pm, and otherwise by appointment with his office.¹² This shelter and another, privately funded in the same year in the University Hills area, would be visited by the National OCDM Director Leo Hoegh on May 13th of 1960 before he was honored in a ceremony.

In the summer of 1960, a film entitled “Target… Austin, TX” was produced by local television station KTBC in order to further educate the public on the need for preparedness in the event of a nuclear attack.¹³ It tells the story of three Austin Citizens on the day of a nuclear attack, including the family of Dorothy Klukis, who have built a home fallout shelter and stocked it responsibly. This short Public Service film was made throughout Austin, and any images of the Klukis Family surviving in their home fallout shelter were filmed in the Zilker Park demonstration shelter.¹⁴

By 1971 there were more than 200 public fallout shelters in Austin, though there is not a record of how many private shelters might have been built into backyards or as basements in new homes.¹⁵ It would seem that at least one shelter was built in the model of the Zilker Park Demonstration Shelter, as a homeowner discovered a very similar one in their backyard in 2008. Built by a Colonel in the backyard of his West Lake Hills home, the shelter has a shockingly similar layout to the prototype constructed under the caretaker’s cottage, a plan that had been widely distributed.¹⁶

In hindsight, many see the Eisenhower and subsequent Kennedy administrations’ efforts to support the Shelter Program as backing away from the federal responsibility to protect citizens in the event of a nuclear attack. The argument being that self made shelters could be stocked from local groceries and were individualistic and American, while the burden of building massive shelters for many citizens reeked of communism. This is yet another way that American nationalism shaped the built environment in the mid-century.

Note: I was lucky enough to discuss this site with KUT reporter Andrew Weber in 2017. That piece can be found here.