Front Street Fallout Shelter - Woonsocket, Rhode Island
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N 41° 59.782 W 071° 30.894
19T E 291702 N 4652432
The former Commodore Fur Storage at 512 Front Street in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was a designated Civil Defense fallout shelter. Two trefoil plaques still hung from its northwest exterior wall as of September 2022.
Waymark Code: WM16P9B
Location: Rhode Island, United States
Date Posted: 09/08/2022
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This former storage facility in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was a designated fallout shelter for a neighborhood in the southwest section of the city. The building was "placarded with orange-yellow and black trefoil signs, designed by United States Army Corps of Engineers director of administrative logistics support function Robert W. Blakeley in 1961." (Sources:
Wikipedia, via
New York Times) Capacity information and all other black paint was completely faded from the pair of otherwise intact and good condition signs mounted to the street-facing corners of the northwest side of the windowless brick and concrete building. Three bays wide and about the same deep, the structure stands four stories tall.
This public use shelter is listed on page 9 in the Rhode Island Statewide Planning Program publication, “Rhode Island Community Shelter Plan: Where to go…What to do…” (undated, but c. 1969-1973) as: Woonsocket map, Location 47, Commodore Fur Storage, 512 Front Street. The 40-page booklet includes a note from Governor Frank Licht, information and instructions, shelter allocation maps by city and town, an explanation of the maps, a family shelter checklist, home supplies, home shelter preparation guidelines, and a final page for general information.
Today, the building serves an undeclared purpose, with a store bought "For Sale By Owner" sign zip tied to the chain link, barbed wire topped gate protecting a rolling steel door, the ten-foot wide aperture its only visible entrance.