The first Fallout Shelter signs are installed in Chicago's Loop on November 11, 1962.

The public information officer of the Chicago District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Thomas Hicks, says that signs have been posted in 13 Loop buildings that have been designated as fallout shelters.  

The Chicago Loop Buildings Include:

• 13 West Wacker Drive.
• 160 North Franklin Street.
• 162 North Franklin Street. 
• 174 Randolph Street. 
• 177 West Lake Street. 
• 190 North Wells Street. 
• 236 West Lake Street. 
• 30 North Wells Street. 
• 310 North Michigan Avenue. 
• 314 West Washington Street.
• 316 West Randolph Street.
• 417 South Dearborn Street.
• 78 East Washington Street, Main Chicago Public Library.

The buildings will provide enough space for 6,200 people with “basement and upper floor shelter space to reduce radiation effects within the shelter to one-one hundredth of that outside,” according to Hicks. 

A 1962 Orginal Tin Fallout Shelter sign from my personal collection.
TEXT AT BOTTOM OF SIGN: DOD FS NO 1 - Not to be reproduced or used without Department of Defense Permission.

These buildings are the first of 495 Loop buildings and 2,500 buildings in the city that have been selected as fallout shelters. Most Chicago Public Schools will serve as Fallout Shelters. Loop shelters will provide space for 2.3 million people while 4.7 million people could be handled in shelters in the rest of the city.  It is expected that the posting of signs on the shelters will be completed within four months.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.