Fallout Shelter on Sherwin.

Cold War Relic Or Important Vintage Feature?

            

Fallout Shelter - Noun.  A shelter to protect occupants from the fallout from an atomic bomb.

Fallout - Noun. The descent of solid material in the atmosphere onto the earth, esp. of radioactive material following a nuclear explosion, any solid particles that so descend, side-effects; secondary consequences  

             1608 w Sherwin has a fallout shelter. Peak Properties' location of their management sign is not respectful of the importance of this vital neighborhood refuge. There is a flickr site with pictures of Chicago fallout shelter signs  Public fallout shelters were kept track of and listed by the federal government from the early fifties until mid-eighties. "The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which replaced the Federal Civil Defense Administration in the 1970s, no longer requires states to keep an inventory of their public fallout shelters." "Effective public shelters can be the middle floors of some tall buildings or parking structures, or below ground level in most buildings with more than 10 floors."

     1608 W Sherwin is also on the bed bug registry as of 2009, better that than radiation. This building was built in 1931 and listed to be 7 stories tall with 84 units. No mention anywhere of the added bonus of a built in fallout shelter though. The fallout shelter sign appears to have inspired a local tagger who goes by the  name WMD & uses the fallout shelter icon on his stickers. Currently there is a sticker of his on the tennis court fence in Touhy Park.

"Hey! Someone vandalized my vandalism!"
Fallout Shelter to the left of this Touhy Park sign.
Sadly this sticker art has been vandalized by
juvenile delinquents using U.S. Postal mail stickers.