One that still features an outside marker is the Panhellenic Building, 1531 Cumberland Ave.

A November 1969 public service publication printed by the News Sentinel included a map showing more than two dozens campus sites. The University of Tennessee had the greatest number of shelters, he said. 'Businesses were willing to give us their space to protect people,' Shoffner said. But traces of the project - old yellow and black 'Fallout Shelter' signs and ration boxes, for example - still can be found if you look hard enough.īobby Shoffner, director of Civil Defense in Knoxville during the era, said finding space for shelters was an important task.

The Civil Defense program eventually faded away as the threat of nuclear war diminished. (Whether it would actually be safe was a matter of scientific debate.) Those inside a shelter could expect to get a quart of water a day for drinking water likely would not be available for bathing. Government officials stocked the sites with water and rations of biscuits, which were supposed to keep the population alive until it presumably was safe enough to come out. Shelters outside Knox County included the Alcoa plant in Alcoa, Maryville College and TVA dams. Gay St., the YMCA on Clinch Avenue, Bearden High School and parts of Neyland Stadium. In Knoxville and Knox County, 237 shelters were designated, including McCalla Avenue Baptist Church, Max Friedman Jewelers at 302 S.

In the early 1960s, as the Cold War with the Soviet Union intensified, scores of public fallout shelters meant to house tens of thousands of people for up to two weeks were installed in area schools, hospitals, churches, private businesses, government buildings and even in caves. Every day East Tennesseans walk, bike and drive by the remnants of a huge, multimillion-dollar program once designed to protect Americans in the event of a nuclear attack.

Fallout shelter locations knoxville tn