Air travel was coming of age by...

Air travel was coming of age by April, 1930, and the new Alhambra Airport opened that month as a monument to the public’s increasing acceptance of the industry.

A crowd of 100,000 turned out for the dedication, and was entertained by Hollywood stars and a 50-piece band. KHJ radio broadcast the ceremonies, and the day was capped with the release of 200 racing pigeons.

A free aircraft exhibit attracted long lines eager to see two of the newest and largest airplanes in the world, capable of carrying a whopping 30 passengers each.

In mid-ceremony, B.F. Goodrich Rubber Co. chief pilot Lee Schoenhair landed in “Miss Silvertown,” a sleek, white Lockheed monoplane. The craft had set several world speed records, among them 186 m.p.h. while carrying a 1,100-pound load and 176 m.p.h. with 2,200 pounds on board.

Western Air--the forerunner of Western Airlines--built the $1-million terminal, a four-story, $100,000 passenger terminal and the largest airplane hangar in the world. In the giant hexagonal hangar, mechanics could work simultaneously on six 12-passenger Fokker airliners, with their corrugated aluminum fuselages and 100-foot wingspans.

The airport south of Valley Boulevard, between New Avenue and Almansor Street, quickly became a favorite of sport aviators and commercial airlines. It also attracted movie makers, who shot several films there about the exciting days of early aviation. Still, the airport was far enough away from developed areas that jack rabbits lived along the runways, and they would stand at attention in the weeds as planes took off and landed.

The 1929 stock market crash pushed several airlines to the brink of bankruptcy, forcing one group to form a new airline called Transcontinental & Western Air Inc.--later to become TWA. The participating lines--Trans Air Transport (TAT), Maddux Airlines, Western Air Express and Pittsburgh Aviation Industries--contributed equipment and manpower to organize the new airline.

However, the Depression and the development in 1930 of a new airport close to Lockheed in Burbank doomed Alhambra’s air operations. The next year, Western, which had boasted of its facility just a year earlier, also abandoned Alhambra for a new airport in Glendale.

After losing the airline business, the airport continued as a field servicing private and smaller commercial operations. Also, Western Air College, a flying school with 400 students, operated at the field.

And on Sunday afternoons, the curious public would come out just to spend an afternoon looking at planes. The more adventurous paid $1 for sightseeing flights.

As war clouds gathered over Europe in 1938, Alhambra Airport won a new lease on life when it became the official shipping station for Lockheed’s military airplane orders. The company flew in hundreds of bombers and other planes for disassembly and shipment to Britain, South America, the Orient and Australia.

But within a year, residents began protesting low-flying aircraft and noise. A petition protesting “hazardous flying” was signed by 8,000 Monterey Park residents. The airfield was allowed to continue operation until 1943, when the 157-acre property was put up for sale. The following year, the city of Alhambra annexed the site.

In December, 1944, the Civil Aeronautics Authority proposed reopening the airport--with backing from city officials--but the rebirth was not to be.

The following year, Harlow Aircraft Co. bought the property from Western for $350,000 and began to manufacture small planes in an operation that lasted a year. In 1946, Harlow sold the site to real estate developers, who built 604 homes, which sold for about $10,000 apiece, and a $1-million shopping center, which included Britt’s Department Store.

The Alhambra Park tract went without mail delivery for more than a year. Finally, after many pleas to local politicians, U.S. Rep. Richard M. Nixon, in one of his less controversial moves, stepped in and made sure residents got their mail.

In 1954, the San Bernardino Freeway was cut through the back end of the airport’s acreage.

Today, where Britt’s once stood, thousands of cars whiz by. A Big 5 sporting goods store sits atop the site, selling athletic equipment rather than flying lessons. Newberry’s, a Thrifty drugstore, Great Western Bank and other businesses and restaurants are attracting more customers each day than the tiny Alhambra Airport drew in its entire existence.