Reading’s City Park Fallout Shelter has long been the subject of mystery. The shelter’s entrance is located along Constitution Boulevard, directly next to the city’s greenhouse. The doors have been locked tight for the past few decades. A relic of an era when the ever present threat of nuclear annihilation swept our nation; perhaps you are amongst those who have wondered about its story.

This fallout shelter project kicked off in April of 1960, when city officials signed a proposal from the federal Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. The plan was to implement these prototype shelters across seven states, but only four were actually ever built. Ground was broken on the project in May 1961. The shelter itself was made of reinforced concrete and concrete blocks. It would cost $25,000 to construct and was completed in October 1961 paid in full by the federal government. The only cost to the city was to provide water, electricity, heat and regular maintenance. Built right into Mount Penn, the shelter is covered by 2.5 feet of soil.

Newspaper articles about the shelter claimed it to have a capacity of 50 people, though it is hard to imagine more than a dozen fitting comfortably in the 1000 square feet of space. The main purpose of this shelter was to protect city officials – council members, mayor, etc. – in the case of an atomic bomb dropping on Reading. The 90-degree turns in the two entrance corridors are a commonly used method to attenuate radiation so that it does not penetrate the shelter.

The shelter was mainly used for research, testing and educational purposes. Local schools visited the site for field trips. Boy Scout groups regularly took training courses in the shelter, and even occasionally stayed the night within. At the request of Mayor John Kubacki City Council held their meeting inside the shelter on October 30th, 1962 in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis which occurred in the weeks before. Tensions between the United States and Soviet Russia were at an all time high, and the Mayor thought it appropriate that all relevant government officials experience what worst case scenario together in the shelter may look like.

In February 1963 a study was done using the shelter to test humidity and temperature inside the structure in the event of it being occupied by humans for an extended period of time. They used a device which expanded humidity inside replicating the existence of between 1-60 humans. The shelter has always had a moisture and humidity problem, which was evident on the rainy March day I visited.

After completion the shelter was stocked with a variety of necessities. There were ten bunks in the main room, and a few other stand-alone cots. There was also a wooden desk, a radio, a small electric stove, games, books and food and water storage. As the Cold War thawed use of the shelter waned, and by the 1980s the shelter was used as storage – largely locked up and abandoned.

In 2023 the city revisited the status of the shelter for the first time in over four decades. They were quoted $70,000 to demolish it. Project Manager David Anspach found that it would be much less expensive, around $40,000, to renovate it. The shelter was cleaned out of the bunks, cots and other furniture which were placed there after construction was completed in 1961. Most of it was damaged and unusable due to decades of excessive moisture in the structure. The walls were repainted, floor redone, new electrical with LED bulbs, new ventilation system added and two new metal doors on each entrance. These upgrades were completed last year.

The city is also currently in the process of renovating the greenhouse next door, so its possible that the shelter’s future use will be as storage for plants or other greenhouse material. However, City Project Manager David Anspach would love to see the shelter returned to its original function as a place of historical education, perhaps in conjunction with WWII Weekend, which takes place each June at the Reading Airport.