Dallas Fire Station 55
Baylor University Physics Building
First Baptist Church of White Settlement
Caldwell Elementary, Mc Kinney, Texas
Dallas Public Library, Audelia Road Branch
Community Savings, Fredericksburg Texas
Churchill Way Presbyterian Church
LaGrange College Library, Georgia
Peoples National
Bank Paris, Texas
Central Christian
Church Sherman Tx
Community Tours Main
Shelter Tours Main
Back to Civil Defense Museum Main
This is the Audelia Road Branch of the Dallas Public Library. This library
is in the neighborhood where I grew up and has been remodelled since these
photos were taken.
(See Building Update Below)
This sign has been on this building since it was constructed in 1970. It
is just your standard medium size shelter sign. There is no capacity marking
on the sign to tell how many people this shelter would hold.Update on this building.
In 2003 the city started a major renovation on this library branch. The auditorium was torn down and most of the library has been completely remodeled. I should have made an effort to get the shelter sign but it went with the rest of the auditorium when it came down. I stopped by the library and tried to check out the construction of the auditorium through the construction fence one night during my "lunch" hour. About 2 feet of the walls were still standing and I could see 2 rows of cinderblocks along with the outside brick veneer. From my vantage point outside the fence it looked like the blocks might have been filled with material but I couldn't tell for sure. The roof structure was built like rest of the library with heavy precast concrete "T" beams. If the wall blocks were filled the auditorium area probably would have had enough shielding to provide the "protection factor of 40" required for public fallout shelters.
Auditorium This is the front entry to the library as it appeared originally. The near part of the building with the sign on the corner is a small auditorium. The librarians I spoke with during my photo excursion told me that they thought the auditorium was the shelter area. To have a shelter in this type of above ground structure it would have to have a concrete roof and either concrete, or sand filled concrete block walls to supply adequate shielding as a shelter. I could not determine just from observation how the auditorium is constructed. (See Building Update Above)
This is the entrance to the auditorium inside the building. You can see the outside entry out the window on the far left of the picture. Both entries to the auditorium are protected by the roof inside and outside. The roof would prevent deposition of fallout in front of the outside door as well as the inside door. The roof would have to be concrete over these areas also to reduce radiation from fallout on the roof from entering through the wooden doors. I would like to see the blueprints for this building to be sure that the auditorium was in fact built as a shelter area. (See Building Update Above)
Here is the interior of the auditorium. The inside walls are brick, but
something else more substantial, as I mentioned before, would have to
be between the inner and outer brick veneer to add sufficient shielding.
I tried looking around the edges of the ceiling where a drop down projection
screen is, but I couldn't see what material the roof is constructed of.
(See Building Update Above)
This is the west side of the library. The building is built on an uneven grade, (classic example of a building that would provide Fallout Shelter) as you can see. These basement doors lead into a mechanical room full of air conditioning equipment. There is also access to the basement are inside the building, as seen below. This area is a more typical fallout shelter location.
BasementThis is the basement entrance from the library above. The basement area is most definitely a shelter area. This stairway is in a back room in the library. These spiral stairs are a pretty unique way to access the basement. You can see the heavy concrete construction of the floor of the library through the opening of the stairway.
The basement is just the typical air conditioning filled mechanical room. This room is a classic example of space designated as a fallout shelter. The heavy concrete floor above, the thick concrete foundation walls and the earth surrounding 3 sides of the basement definitely provide enough shielding for a shelter area. The storage in the basement area takes up quite a bit of floor space. Even with the a/c equipment there would be room for several people by public fallout shelter standards.
This photo shows the basement as viewed from just inside the exterior doors. The spiral staircase is in the far left corner. The ladder on the far wall leads up to a crawl space access under the library.
