In the midst of the Cold War, when concerns of nuclear attack by Russia bordered on hysteria, the U.S. Strategic Air Command created a “nuclear war relocation site” on the Holyoke Mountain Range in Western Massachusetts. This 44,000 ft² bunker, built on twenty-seven acres of land,was created with the intention of giving the U.S. military a chance to strike back in the event of nuclear attack. Equipped with its own water supply and electrical system, the bunker had the ability to keep three hundred people alive for forty days.
But as concerns over nuclear holocaust lessened, and major military bases were relocated from the east coast to the Mid-West, the bunker began to lose its utility. By 1972, the SAC bunker, built to withstand all but a direct nuclear attack, was converted into a Federal Reserve storage facility.
In 1992, the Federal Reserve put the bunker up for auction. Seeing the use of the bunker as an off-site storage facility for library materials, Amherst College placed a bid and on October 7th, 1992, purchased the bunker for $510, 000. Renovations were soon underway and by 1994, the 38-room Amherst College Depository was opened.
In terms of scale, this bunker had “three times as much space as the White House and four times as much space as Mt. Vernon.” (Amherst Volume 45, Number 1, Fall 1992 “Bunker is a Bargain”)The possession of the massive storage facility enabled Amherst College to move large numbers of furniture, supplies, records and books off campus, freeing up space in the Robert Frost Memorial Library for what would eventually become the A-Level Media Center. By 2002, the remaining four colleges of the Five Colleges- Holyoke College, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Hampshire College, and Smith College – also relocated many of their materials to the bunker, creating The Five College Depository.
Amherst College offers tours of the facility each year during alumni reunions. The Five College Libary Depository website offers directions here.
