The fallout shelter was a highly specialized building type developed in the 1950s in response to the escalating Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. Faced with the realization that conventional structures would provide little or no protection from an atomic blast, civil defense officials in the United States undertook a concerted campaign to convince the American public of the necessity of building fallout shelters in their houses and backyards. In addition to these personal shelters constructed of brick, concrete block, or corrugated metal, efforts were undertaken to identify sufficiently reinforced and structurally sound areas of existing buildings to designate as larger-scale public fallout shelters. Construction of personal fallout shelters peaked between 1958 and 1962, when a series of international crises pushed the world ever closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation. During this period the fallout shelter became an integral part of U.S. nuclear po...