This old First Aid symbol is mounted on one of the many civic buildings down near City Hall. There is no marked entrance near it, it's on a back-of-the-way corner of the building, adjacent to a surface parking lot. My guess is this is a relic of the 40s & 50s, when WWII and subsequent Cold War fears had prompted numerous publicly accessible 'bomb shelters' throughout the city. I tried to search for maps that document where those shelters are, but found nothing. I suppose once the threat of 'red terror' abated, most private property owners converted those underground shelters into mundane storage, or otherwise profitable space.
And yet, I'm sure a few of them remain, as I recall passing by a building-mounted placard citing a public-assembly bomb shelter on a building in the Polk Gulch/Tenderloin neighborhood. That ought to be my next meandering quest - to find that placard and learn if the shelter is still intact.
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A little bird told me that this building used to be a hospital, and is currently the site of the Health Commission.
Still want to find those old bomb shelters, though...
Posted by: moi | March 14, 2007 at 11:32 AM
As strange as an old bomb shelter is the control room to the old Nike base on Angel Island. I went down in there a few years ago, through a hatch someone had cut open and into the pich-black underground. To find my way around I took a picture into the dark and then looked at the screen on my digital camera ...
Posted by: Don | March 15, 2007 at 12:50 PM
The marin headlands has some old explorable bunkers, too, with amazing views out to the Pacific and back toward SF. I took some nice shots out there, need to get them on here...
Posted by: moi | March 15, 2007 at 12:53 PM
HipLiz, that you? welcome back! [grin]
Posted by: moi | March 15, 2007 at 12:57 PM