Cold War Fallout Shelter Uncovered at Western New York College

History was probably my favorite subject in school, although admittedly, it was probably the only subject I enjoyed.

The Cold War is a time period that all things considered, we're not too far removed from here in the United States. The Cold War essentially ended by the early '90s, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Fallout shelters (bomb shelters) were not uncommon in the 1960s here in the United States, when the Cold War was seemingly at its height. President John F. Kennedy initiated the Community Fallout Shelter Program in 1961. There were hidden shelters built at building across New York State, and there were even fallout shelters built in Western New York.

According to WGRZ, one was recently uncovered and many people had no idea it was even there.

The College of Brockport has hidden fallout shelters, which were built beneath Benedict, Dobson and McFarland Halls in 1965.

The discovery peaked the interest of students and staff, for obvious reasons.

"We simply just wanted to see them, said Meghan Finnerty, who works in the College Communications office.

 

 

"Then we were like, we should try these crackers, they're very old. And so the first person that we were put in contact with from facilities and planning said, sure there's lots of crackers down there."

Each shelter had 16-inch concrete walls and included 15-hundred gallon water tanks; along with two bathrooms. They could hold up to 2,000 people.

Get our free mobile app

WGRZ reports that researchers were under the belief that the Rochester area was a potential target during the Cold War, because of the defense and manufacturing industries there.

I went to Buffalo State College and there was apparently a fallout shelter built beneath Caudell Hall, but that shelter was cleared out years ago.

It's hard to wrap your mind around this stuff. There were literally bomb shelters built beneath numerous buildings round the U.S. just 60-plus years ago...