Q. Are there any remaining Cold War-era fallout shelters in Ann Arbor?
A. The Observer learned of just one surviving private fallout (aka bomb) shelter, in the tranquil Ann Arbor Hills neighborhood. The current home owner on Bedford Road says the only outward evidence is a slightly sunken lawn where two feet of soil cover a nineteen-by-twenty-seven-foot bomb shelter.
Added to the house in 1960 or 1961, the shelter has its own buried water tank, in case municipal water services were destroyed, and a hidden air vent to the surface. The passageway connecting the shelter to the home’s basement makes a ninety-degree turn to reduce radiation intensity, and the entry door is made of steel two inches thick, with heavy steel bars on the shelter side in case the occupants needed to barricade it against desperate neighbors. In case the residents themselves were trapped, a few blocks on one wall were installed without mortar, so that they could have been removed to burrow out.
There must be many other fallout shelters in the area. It’s estimated that anywhere from 200,000 to half a million were built nationwide. The exact number can’t be known: some home owners arranged to have their shelters built at night, so that their neighbors would never know.
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Michael Paulsen emails:
I saw your answer regarding cold-war era fallout shelters and wanted to pass along some additional information. When I was younger, probably 15 years ago, I remember going with my parents to look at a house for sale in Ann Arbor, and it had a bomb shelter. I believe the house was in a neighborhood over by Concordia University, but I can’t remember exactly where, although it was quite close to US-23 as the highway noise was the reason my folks didn’t buy the house. At any rate, the realtor said that when the subdivision was built, homeowners had the choice of having a bomb shelter or a fireplace. Since the neighborhood was built during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, many homeowners opted for the bomb shelter so presumably many of the houses in that neighborhood have bomb shelters. The shelter itself was quite small, maybe 10′ x 10′ and did not have much in the way of accommodations for staying in the shelter long-term, but it did have a little crank-operated air pump that pulled air in through a hidden pipe that surfaced in the back yard. I think it had an escape hatch that led to the back yard also. I remember the door being extremely thick and made of concrete or steel. You entered the shelter from within house’s basement, but I can’t remember if the shelter was at the same level as the basement or deeper. I wish I could remember more information, but hope that helps!