Although not many families were willing or able to fully participate in the fear of nuclear weapons by building private bunkers under their homes or in their backyards, cities turned major public buildings into fallout shelters for their residents. The National Fallout Shelter Survey and Marking Program in 1961 under the Kennedy Administration, as part of the Community Fallout Shelter Program, found that government buildings, large concrete-based buildings, and staples of the city became the most likely spaces to establish public shelters. 
       Culver City had seven registered locations with fallout shelters, which included City Hall, large companies like MGM and Hughes Aircraft, and sites simply described as  "professional building." According to the U.S. Census, between 1960 and 1970, the population of Culver City exceeded 32,000, yet the registered shelters only provided spaces for 10,000 people, and enough supplies stocked for a mere 650. Among the sites mentioned, the national survey identifies some of Culver City's well-known landmarks, which  were conscripted into the Civil Defense public shelter program. 

Culver City Grammar School

          The Culver City Grammar School or "Culver School" opened in 1916, one year before the city was officially incorporated during the September 1917 election. In its first year, the school built six classrooms with the passing of a $55,000 bond to buy the property and construct the building. The school was part of the Palms School District until 1920, It was located on School Street, with its back side extending to Braddock Drive. Back then, Braddock Drive continued all the way to Van Buren, with the playground across the street. The school contained a kindergarten, and students would attend until 8th grade.  Prior to the 1950's, with the opening of Culver City's Junior and Senior High schools, students would have matriculated to Venice High or Alexander Hamilton High School.  

          As a public facility, schools were a common site for the creation and designation of fallout shelters.  In addition to supplying students with shelters, the FCDA also popularized the cartoon figure "Bert the Turtle," star of comic-book pamphlets and short classroom films such as Duck and Cover. The friendly Bert demonstrated to kids how, in the event of an attack, "you duck to avoid the things flying through the air and cover to keep from getting cut or even badly burned." In the video version, a melody was added to make the procedures easier to recall in the time of an attack.  Classroom "duck and cover" drills, in which students would "duck and cover" under their desk, were synchronized with regular tests of the FCDA siren system tests. Rather than teaching children to actually survive an atomic attack, these drills provided the means for students to cope with the anxiety of nuclear threats. 
9520 W. School Street
Culver City, CA
​(School Street no longer exists)
Picture
Culver Grammar School. Courtesy of the Culver City Historical Society.
​          With the addition of new junior and senior high schools in Culver City, these drills became a common experience for students across the district, especially during Culver City's involvement in Operation Alert, a mock hydrogen bombing meant to test the national Civil Defense emergency response.  Operation Alert was headquartered in Washington D.C., but it was comprised of simultaneous mock-bombings of  75 key targets, of which Culver City was one. According to David Obst, a writer who attended Culver City Junior High School at the time, "Operation Alert had done its job...I was now alerted to the fact that I was never more than half an hour away from becoming nuclear toast."
           In the late-1960s the Culver Grammar School was rebuilt as a new elementary school, and renamed for one of the school's former principals, Linwood E. Howe. The new school was opened in 1968 and its name dedication occurred in 1969.  But in a 1967 publication from the Fallout Shelter Survey of Los Angeles County, the "Culver School" was listed as containing 256 licensed, and fully-stocked spaces in case of a nuclear emergency. Today, Linwood E. Howe Elementary School is located at 4100 Irving Place (School Street no longer exists), and the section of Braddock that once divided the school and playground has been removed.

Culver Hotel

​          The Culver Hotel was opened in 1924 as the Hotel Hunt.  It was later renamed, but even at its opening, local newspapers referred to the six-story building as the “Culver Skyscraper.” A theater had previously occupied the lot, which housed the city offices prior to the building of City Hall.  The Culver Hotel was designed by the Los Angeles firm Curlett & Beelman, which specialized in large commercial structures. Their design was a Renaissance Revival-styled wedge located in the center of downtown on Main street. The building is a dominant presence in downtown Culver City, and over the years it has been a feature in many motion pictures, as well as home to numerous movie stars during filming, several of which have even been listed as owners at one time or another. After several years of deterioration and neglect, the Hotel stands today, beautifully restored by Historic Hollywood Properties in partnership with the Culver City Redevelopment Agency.

​          The Culver Hotel would have been an attractive location for Civil Defense surveyors for several reasons.  The hotel itself was constructed for the purpose of housing people, but it surprisingly offered the least space of all public shelters in Culver City.  It is listed as having 79 fully-stocked spaces, which would have been a fraction of the people staying in its six-stories, not to mention employees working in the hotel.  Despite the lack of space, the hotel did offer a solid concrete and brick construction, which is likely why it was chosen to be a public shelter.
9400 Culver Blvd
Culver City, CA
Picture
The Culver Hotel (circa 1930's). Courtesy of the Culver City Historical Society.
          In 1955, the Civil Defense conducted a test of structures and Civil Defense preparation measures against an actual atomic bomb.  The test was a part of Operation Teapot, conducted at the the Nevada Test Site located in Yucca Flats.  The Civil Defense portion of the test was referred to specifically as "Operation Cue."  The entire test involved creating a "Survival Town," complete with radio stations, numerous types of buildings, and even "residents," in the form of mannequins. Using various construction materials, buildings were placed at different distances from the blast, and it was the more solid structures, which were made of concrete and brick, that tended to withstand the blast. However, the buildings were still up to a mile away from the blast. With these results in mind, it is likely that Civil Defense officials would have chosen solidly built structures, like the Culver Hotel, to serve as public shelters. ​
Burtch, Andrew. Give Me Shelter: The Failure of Canada's Cold War Civil Defense. UCBPress, 2012.
".". The Culver Hotel. N.D.
Lugo Cerra, Julie. Culver City Chronicles. The History Press, 2013.
​Oakes, Guy. Imaginary War. Oxford University Press, 1994.
Obst, David. "Culver City". Too Good To Be Forgotten: Changing America in the '60s and '70s. John Wiley & Sons, 1998, pp. 13-43.