Sunday, February 14, 2010

Glendale's Grand Central Airport


You may have already known this, but until Vanda took me there on a photo safari I didn't even know it existed: the first official airport of the Los Angeles area was Glendale's Grand Central Airport.

The windows and doors have been boarded up, but one of the coolest things about it is it's still there.

Closed and in need of repair, but still there.

It was built in the 1920s and still bears many of its art deco details.


There's plenty of web info and lots of great old pictures. Go here and click on Glendale Airport/Grand Central Air Terminal.

The blimp that flew by while we were there advertised "tickets to fly!"

Go ahead and read the links. It's a pretty sure bet Amelia Earhart walked these halls.

9 comments:

Amy said...

What a cool find, thanks for the link!

Petrea Burchard said...

Thanks for finding the post, Amy. I'll link to it on PDP tomorrow.

This is such a cool place! There was a security guard who said we had to leave, but he was very nice, not pushy at all. It's private property, owned by Disney since 1997. I don't know what their plans are with it. At one of the links (the first one, I think) I found references to a movement to make the place into an aviation museum.

Dina said...

Very cool indeed. Great discovery.

Bellis said...

Beautiful art deco! Well worth an excursion to the underbelly of Glendale to look for it. How close can you get before running into the security guard?

Petrea Burchard said...

I suppose that depends on how far he's gotten in his rounds. He seems to have several properties to patrol.

Vanda said...

It's a beautiful building, isn't it? It's a shame it's just sitting there unused and crumbling.

Anonymous said...

Clark Gable used to fly his plane out of here. I love this place, it's haunted.

Petrea Burchard said...

I didn't know about Clark Gable. Now I want to go back there and think about that.

Petrea Burchard said...

http://www.grandcentralairterminal.com/