Washington Airport - Hoover Field

Hoover Field

Hoover Field was built in 1925 by Thomas E. Mitten, president of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (which held the airmail contract between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia). An small expansion of the then-unnamed field led to its rededication on July 16, 1926. It was given the name Hoover Field in honor of then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, a major promoter of civil aviation.

Hoover Field suffered from numerous, highly dangerous safety issues, including nearby hills, high-tension electrical power lines near the field, an amusement park to one side, a landfill that was on fire (and which sometimes obscured the field, unpaved sod runways, tall smokestacks blocking the approaches, and more. Almost as soon as it opened, there were calls to close Hoover Field and build a large, modern airport at another location. In February 1927 a group of aviators and aviation companies, led by aviation pioneer Henry Berliner, called for the establishment of a new, larger airport across Military Road (the southern boundary of Hoover Field). When this did not immediately occur, Berliner began leasing and then took a majority ownership in Hoover Field.

A fire at Hoover Field on July 3, 1928, destroyed eight planes and the lone hangar, causing $100,000 in damages ($1.275 million in 2010 inflation-adjusted dollars). Flights out of Hoover Field were suspended for 18 days. Berliner's finances were significantly damaged by the fire, and he sold his interest in Hoover Field to E.W. Robertson's Mount Vernon Airways on July 20, 1928. Mount Vernon Airways soon sold out to International Airways.

In early 1929, a new holding company, Atlantic Seaboard Airways, took over International Airways and its subsidiary aviation businesses. But on December 30, 1929, a group of investors led by R.H. Reiffen, chairman of the New Standard Aircraft Company, seized control of Atlantic Seaboard Airways and control of Hoover Field.