2001.1.131

c.1925
8 in HIGH x 10 in WIDE
(20.32 cm HIGH x 25.40 cm WIDE)
The Oakland Tribune Collection, the Oakland Museum of California. Gift of ANG Newspapers
2001.1.131


The Tribune photo and the article dated August 25, 1989, written by Ricahrd Spencer, pasted on the back of the photo reads as follows: "BERKELEY? AIRPLANES IN Berkeley? When this picture was taken in the 1920's, there were cows, cars and smoldering garbage on tidelands adjaccent to the city dump. In 1925 the Tribune reported 'establishment of an airport on the Berkeley waterfront loomed to day as a possibility in the near future when city manager John Edy urged the City Council to purchase 13 acres of tide lands at the foot of Harrison Street for $2000 an acre." "The next day, under orders to prepare a confidential report for the War Department, a lieutenant from the USS LOangley, America's first aircraft carrier, visited the site. "His superior, Capt. Stanford E. Moses, air officer of the 12th Naval District, recommended an Eastbay airport at the site, telling city fathers a flying field was a must if the city was to keep pace with developments in commercial aviation. "'The proposed site is an excellent one,' he said. 'The sanitary fill in West Berkeley can be made into a flying field. The site also has the advantage of being near the water where seaplanes can be harbored.' "Speaking to the Rotary Club, statistician Robert Babson said that 'in the next few years, the city without an airport will be in the same fix that a city without a railroad was 50 years ago.' Early in 1928, Berkeley's Allied Flying Club arranged a fly-over for city officials to convince them of the need for an airport. "Backers envisioned three 'take-off lanes,' hangars, and gasoline and oil service stations. "The trip was made in the Argonaut, a newly designed Thaden monoplane, the first all-metal aircraft manufactured in the East-bay. "But the plan never really got off the ground, and Berkeley never became the site of a major Eastbay airport. Over the years there were scores of studies, funding recommendations, and great interest, but other demands on the dwindling amount of waterfront industrial land held sway, and pilots zeroed in on Oakland, Sanm Francisco, and other Bay area airports." The aerial photo shows tidelands, a building with "Berkeley" paionted on its roof, two cow barns, three cow paddocks, one with cows inside, and a smoldering garbage dump

Used: Oakland Tribune

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