Kennedy’s bunker to close temporarily

More than 50 years ago, when a previous president kept a winter home in Palm Beach, a top-secret bunker was constructed to protect the commander-in-chief from nuclear fallout.

The John F. Kennedy bunker on Peanut Island, with its bunk beds, 40-foot tunnel and concrete floor with the presidential seal, will close to visitors at 4 p.m. today for what’s likely to be at least a few months, as the current manager’s lease expires. Palm Beach County plans to negotiate an agreement to run it with the island’s owner, the Port of Palm Beach, and plans to create more elaborate exhibits, possibly including a gift shop, cafe and visits from the former presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz.

Eric Call, the county’s parks and recreation director, said any exhibits would range well beyond Kennedy, since the complex includes a historic Coast Guard station that operated from 1936 to 1995 and stands on an island rich in stories from the county’s past.

“There is a lot of nautical history there,” he said. “I think we could tell the history of the port, the history of the inlet, the history of how the island was formed, the history of the Coast Guard, what they did and what happened, the relationship between us and Cuba before the revolution — we transported a lot to and from this port to there. Then of course in the early ’60s, the secret construction of this underground fallout shelter during the Cold War period. There are lots of elements. It’s not just the Kennedy bunker.”

The site’s allure, of course, comes from the Kennedy mystique and the chance to relive the tense atmosphere of the Cold War. Like the ruins of Nike anti-aircraft missile bases in Key Largo and the Everglades, the bunker is a relic of the era of duck-and-cover drills, B-52s on hair-trigger alert and backyard bomb shelters.

Kennedy’s own shelter, located a 15-minute boat ride from his house in Palm Beach, is basically a Quonset hut buried in the ground, protected on top by 18 inches of concrete and 12 feet of earth. The entrance tunnel takes a 90-degree turn to contain the effects of a blast.

No one was thought any of this would protect anyone from a direct hit by a nuclear bomb. But the bunker was intended to provide protection from radioactive fallout, as the president directed what remained of the nation’s armed forces from a ham radio by the wall and waited to be picked up by a destroyer or submarine.

Inside, there are bunks for 15, a Geiger counter, rations and water, a decontamination shower, barrels to serve as toilets and a desk flanked by American flags.

The bunker was opened to the public in 1999. It has been managed by the Palm Beach Maritime Museum, whose lease is expiring. There have been disputes over the management, control of the property and condition of the bunker, and neither the port nor the museum attempted to renew the lease.

At a meeting Thursday of the Port of Palm Beach’s Board of Commissioners, which is independent of the county, commissioners were told a meeting with county officials would take place Oct. 30, the day before the lease expires, to work out a lease.

At the port commission’s meeting, Gregory Albritton, captain of the historic yacht, the Honey Fitz, said the yacht’s owner was interested in making the yacht at least an occasional part of the complex’s programs.

The 93-foot wooden ship also served as the presidential yacht for presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon. But it was most associated with Kennedy, a naval hero and experienced sailor, who enjoyed cruising on the Honey Fitz with his family and friends off Cape Cod and Palm Beach. Currently docked in Jupiter, the yacht is used for charters, corporate events and similar outings.

Much of the memorabilia within the bunker will move out with the former management.

Anthony Miller, who manages the bunker for the museum, said the bunk beds, food rations, historical photos and other items will be moved to a new Kennedy exhibit that will be displayed at the museum’s location in Currie Park in West Palm Beach.

Before reopening the bunker, Call said, the county must find a way to pay the operating expenses for what he hopes will be a highquality staff, with a curator, new exhibits and volunteers to tell the story of the bunker and early maritime history of the county. Among the money-making options would be a cafe and a gift shop.