History
Established in 1928 on 260 acres (1.1 km²) of land along U.S. Highway 41 and funded by a city bond issue, the original airport construction included a small terminal, weather bureau, hangar, runways, boundary lights, grading, and drainage work.
On June 16, 1930, the Evansville Municipal Airport and its two runways were officially dedicated. Those runways, which were 100 X 1,200 square feet and four inches thick, cost $30,000 to complete. The first Evansville Airport Manager was Werner J. Genot. He took charge on December 16, 1930.
Interstate Airlines made Evansville a stop on their Chicago-Atlanta and St. Louis-Louisville routes on October 19, 1928. Also in 1928, Capital Air Corporation started passenger service through Evansville. From February 1933 to September 1940, the airport did not have a commercial airline. At that time Eastern Airlines brought four commercial flights a day to Evansville. This service showed that Evansville’s airport needed to grow and plans were put in place for expansion.
In 1950, a new airport terminal opened. The construction cost was $787,000. Evansville City Council passed an ordinance to change the name of the airport to Dress Memorial Airport on October 11, 1950, and on October 29, 1950, the new terminal was dedicated. The total airport property now consisted of 467 acre. Only 347 of there acres were utilized for aircraft operations. The remaining 120 acres were used for agriculture.
The first jet that actually landed at the Evansville airport landed in September 1964. It was a chartered 727 that had Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater on board.
The original terminal was replaced in 1988 with the new William H. Dress Terminal. The new terminal was designed by Hafer Associates and provides 140,000 square feet (13,000 m²) of space and ten carrier gates.
Read more about this topic: Evansville Regional Airport
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