san jose international airport history
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San Jose International AirportBy Pat Loomis
The San Jose International Airport had its birth in the declining years of the
Great Depression, when San Jose had a population of less than 68,000 and its
economy was linked to the thousands of acres of orchards that stretched out from its
city limits.
Aviation enthusiasm had been growing since the early 1920s when World War
I fly boys returned to put on exhibitions and conduct flying schools.
The little private air fields were inadequate, the runways, mud holes in winter,
were not long enough and lighting was poor.
Pioneering the idea of a major municipal airport were such men as Ernest
Renzel, Jr., Norman Breeden, Joseph Lowry, Pat LeDeit, Alden Campen, and early
aviator, Robert Fowler.
Topping the list was Renzel, wholesale grocer, member of the Junior Chamber
of Commerce and Rotary Club, whose name became linked to the steps that led to
land acquisition, funding and development up through the war years and beyond.
Many were involved, but if any one man can be called the father of todays
huge multi-million dollar International Airport, it should probably be Ernest Ernie
Renzel, Jr.
1938
Most histories of San Joses airport began with a meeting held in 1938,
attended by members of the local chapter of the National Aeronautic Association, a
group of young aviation enthusiasts, members of the San Jose Junior Chamber of
Commerce and Exchange Club.
However, a search of aviation news in the files of the San Jose Mercury News
shows as early as November 1928, voters rejected a $400,000 bond proposal to
provide a municipal airport, and in January 1929, a citizens airport committee was
formed, made up of three representatives each from the Merchants Association, San
Jose Realty Board, American Legion Post 89, San Jose Flying Club, Building Trades
Council, Central Labor Association, and the Chamber of Commerce. Also on this
early committee were Andrew Swickard, representing the County Surveyors Office,
City Engineer William Popp, and Robert Fowler.
The committee first met on January 22, 1929, and letters were sent to 118
realtors asking for offers of suitable land. Among the sites offered were several that
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were to be studied a decade later. These included the William Prusch property on
the southwest corner of King and Story Roads, the David Kampfen land on the
southeast corner of King and Story, the Joseph C. Azevedo property on Story Road,
and a portion of the old Stockton ranch north of Newhall Street, then in the estate of
Mary Ives Crocker.
The 1929 committee selected the already existing flying field on Alum Rock
Avenue at Capitol Avenue (later site of James Lick High School). The Crocker land,
offered by realtor W.L. Atkinson, was the committees second choice, and its 400-
plus acres could have been purchased for $350,000. It was rejected on grounds the
site was not suitable because of poor drainage, unfavorable soil conditions, and costs
of building runways.
The same objections were to hold up approval of the same site beginning 10
years later.
For several months, airmail planes flew to Oakland out of the Alum Rock
airport, which was leased by Hudson Mead and Newton Orr, but before the end of
the year the field was ordered closed because of dust problems it created.
The airmail service to Oakland was resumed a short time later at a new San
Jose Airport on King Road just south of Story Road, a level 20 acres bought by West
American Aviation Co. from dairyman J.C. Azevedo. Mead and Orr were in charge of
the airfield and offered flying lessons, taxi service, charter trips, and crop dusting
service.
San Jose businessmen raised the money to install lights at the field in 1930,
and the airport continued to serve up through the decade. Earl C. Bradford and
Breeden were other operators of the airport.
Several commercial flights flew in and out of the King Road airport, one
making daily stops en route from San Diego to Vancouver, and Pacific Air Transport
operated the airmail flights to Oakland until 1933.
In the 1930s, San Jose State Teachers College (now university) operated an
aviation instruction school at the airport.
Late in 1935, Robert and Cecil Reid opened the Garden City Airport on Bonita
Avenue east of McLaughlin Avenue and south of San Antonio Street, which lasted
until 1938 when the port was condemned by the state for the extension of Highway
101. Reids Hillview Airport, at its present site, began operation the following year.
The Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) was created by an act of Congress in
1938, and Howard Hughes set a new around-the-world speed record flying from
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California and back in three days, 19 hours, 14 minutes and 28 seconds. Perhaps
these events helped to contribute local interest in a municipal airport San Jose could
be proud of.
As early as January 1938, a site in the Laurelwood area north of San Jose was
being considered. According to a newspaper story January 22, two officials from the
U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce approved the site for emergency landings when San
Francisco was fogged in. Commercial airliners were then using Moffett Field
(completed in 1933) or Livermore when San Francisco and Oakland were blanketed
in fog, and figures showed San Jose averaged only 18 foggy days a year, and that on
80 percent of those days the fog was gone by 10:00 a.m.
1939
The following year, the 1938 groups met in March of 1939 with civic leaders
and the newly created Central Airport Committee, headed by Joseph Lowry, realtor
with Cooper-Challen Realty Co. Clyde L. Fischer, president of the City Council,
suggested the airport committee meet with the Council. Another speaker was
Renzel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Aviation Committee.
A meeting of the committee was held March 14, 1939, with the City Council in
which City Manager Clarence B. Goodwin noted a large majority of the municipal
airports in the United States were operated at a loss, and Breeden, San Jose Airport
operator, who referred to the King Road port as a mud hole along a cow pasture,
claimed a municipal airport could be self-supporting.
LeDeit, member of the Central Airport Committee, noted any money we
invest in the property for an airport is a good, sound investment.
Council President Clyde Fischer appointed a seven-man committee to study
the issue. Ernest Renzel, Jr., was elected chairman. Others on the committee were
LeDeit, John Benevento, M.R. Bookwalter, Lowry, P.G. Robinson and Oran Slaght.
Options were obtained on several pieces of property, including four
considered back in 1920 - - the Crocker property, Kampfen and Prusch lands, and
the San Jose Airport site on dairyman Azevedos King Road land.
From the beginning, it was apparent the Crocker property was the front
runner.
In a 1985 interview, Renzel recalled when the airport was first broached, he
asked County Assessor Hayden Pitman where he thought would be a good spot for
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an airport. Pitman recalled this chapter in the airport history in a letter to Renzel in
March 1986:
As I remember, the Mary Ives Crocker property consisted of nearly 500 acres
and was the only property in one ownership of this size near or adjacent to
the City of San Jose. Mary was dead and the property, as a trust, was
handled by a large San Francisco firm.
Every year the agent protested to me about what in his opinion was
excessive amount of taxes levied against the property. The use of the
property in those years was strictly agricultural, the primary crop being
onions. Every so often the Los Gatos Creek and the Guadalupe would
overflow and flood a portion of the land. The trustees would not spend a
dime to improve the property, so there it sat waiting for something to
happen. It did.
You [Renzel] looking toward the future of San Jose and the Santa
Clara Valley, came to see me as County Assessor, because our office had
detailed maps of all properties in Santa Clara County.
You asked me if I knew of any property which might be suitable for
an airport. I immediately thought of the Crocker trust and showed you maps
of the property. Shortly thereafter the agent for the trust called me and
stated the trustees of the property had been contacted about selling and what
did I think of it. I remember telling him the trustees were not farmers and he
agreed.
It wasnt long before the property was sold and an airport was born.
I doubt if my advice had much to do with the sale.
From an economic standpoint the airport from the very beginning was
a huge success. Within the first year of its operation, 10 times more
assessed value was added to the assessment rolls from the properties in the
airport area than was lost by removal of the Crocker trust because of its
acquisition by a public agency, and the assessment rolls have been increasing
ever since.
Mrs. Crocker was the widow of Henry J. Crocker of the family which
included railroad magnate Charles Crocker. She owned several pieces of property in
Santa Clara County at the time of her death in an automobile crash near Menlo Park
in 1929. In getting an option on the 483.63 acres of land between Newhall Street
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and Brokaw Road, Renzel and the city dealt with Bronte M. Aikins, San Francisco
attorney for the six heirs.
Renzel recalled Aikins said the heirs wanted $625 an acre, but he told him
(Aikins) he doubted if the city could raise that kind of money, so we finally arrived
at $300 an acre.
In April 1939, the heirs of Mrs. Crockers estate agreed to accept the citys
offer for the land. A letter to Renzel May 20, 1930, from Aikins noted the heirs of
the estate had approved an option of the entire 483.398 acres of the Stockton
Ranch at $300 an acre. The option was for four months, and was signed by all of
those entitled to distribution of Mrs. Crockers estate and sent to Renzel in a letter
from Aikins dated June 5, 1939.
The option was extended in October of 1939 and again in June of 1940. The
extension bore the signatures of Henry J. Crocker, Mary Julia Crocker, Scully and
Marion Phyllis Crocker, individually, William L. McLaine, Henry J. Crocker, and C.H.
Lamberton as trustees of the trusts created by the will of Mary Ives Crocker.
The Crocker property was part of Rancho El Potrero de Santa Clara (the
pasture lands of Santa Clara), granted in 1844 by Mexican governor Manuel
Micheltorena to James Alexander Forbes, a Scot who became a Mexican citizen and
British vice-consul. In 1847, Forbes sold the rancho to Commodore Robert Field
Stockton, military governor since the U.S. conquest of California in 1846. The sale
price was $15,000 for 1,939.03 acres as confirmed by the U.S. government in the
1850s.
Commodore Stockton established a nursery for the propagation of fruit trees
and had a number of prefabricated homes shipped around the Horn from New
England for a subdivision called Alameda Gardens. One of these, known as the
White House, stood at Newhall and Spring Streets on airport property until moved
to Agnew Road and Bayshore in 1946.
The committee felt the Crocker land had the advantage of being close to
Moffett Field, as well as San Jose, and agreed with those who had inspected the
Laurelwood area a year earlier that the climate was right.
There was a lot happening in Santa Clara County in 1939, both related and
unrelated to aviation. The Civil Aeronautics Administration pilot training program
began at San Jose State College. The U.S. Senate voted $4 million for an
aeronautics laboratory (NASA) as Moffett Field.
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San Jose was building a bridge over Los Gatos Creek connecting Bird Avenue
and Montgomery Street, and Permanente cement plant was being built in the hills
above Cupertino to supply cement for construction of Shasta Dam.
Col. Charles Lindbergh inspected Moffett Field July 4, and there were two
plane crashes, one at the Almaden CCC camp and the other on Mt. Hamilton. A local
cow, Johanna Hester Prilly, set a world milk production record. Hewlett-Packard Co.
began manufacturing electronic devices in David Packards Palo Alto garage.
Nationally, aviation news in 1939 included the flight of the first American-
made helicopter and the beginnings of commercial trans-Atlantic
commercial/passenger air service with a flight from New York to France.
The first clouds of war loomed in Europe with the invasion of Hitlers army
into Poland on September 1, while Santa Clara Valley hunters were enjoying the first
day of dove season.
It was first proposed to ask the voters to pass a bond issue to pay for the
land and build the airport, but it was recalled the last bond issue to pass in San Jose
was in 1911 when the city wanted to buy some horses for the fire department.
Renzel remembered he talked to John Lynch (city clerk) who said San Jose
would never pass a bond issue.
But, Lynch said, you could go for a tax levy which only requires a majority
vote.
Finally, the City Council decided on a three-year, 10 cent tax levy to buy the
airport property. The election was set for May 6, 1940.
1940
Arthur Ayres, regional airport engineer for CAA, wrote, prior to the election:
Undoubtedly the proposed site had several qualifying features accessibility
to town and its proximity to the Bayshore highway and since it is located within
the city limits it should be an easy matter to zone the surrounding area.
Among the unfavorable features Ayres pointed out, were the 55-foot power
line, a 45-foot water tower, and the Guadalupe River meandering along one side of
the site. He said removal of the obstacles and straightening the river would probably
be the greatest cost of development and should be done first.
However, he said, it is my opinion this site can be developed. This
statement was later repudiated by the CAA on the grounds the agency had made no
study of alternative sites.
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A banquet was held in April 1940 to launch the election campaign for the
three-year tax increase. It was held at the DeAnza Hotel and sponsored by the
Central Airport Committee. Edward R. Sharp, administrative officer of the new
federal air research station being built at Moffett Field, spoke at the dinner and
expressed surprise that a city as large and progressive as San Jose had no
modern municipal airport. He said development of the research station at Moffett
would undoubtedly attract industries. Chairman Renzel said, San Jose must
capitalize on the fastest growing industry in America, the aeronautics industry.
Speakers at a later luncheon to push the vote included Jacqueline Cochran,
foremost American aviatrix, and Frank Fuller, holder of the transcontinental Bendix
speed record.
The Junior Chamber of Commerce was in charge of getting out the vote for
the May election, but it just so happened, Renzel recalled, the weekend before the
election there was a Jaycee state convention in Long Beach and because San Jose
wanted Parker Hathaway to be elected state vice-president, they all went down there
to support him.
The day of the election, May 6, there was nobody around so three of us went
down to the Chamber of Commerce and became the get-out-the-vote committee.
Clyde McDonald, Bob Robb and I sat there all day telephoning, and Im satisfied that
if we hadnt done that the measure wouldnt have passed. We had to switch only
112 votes.
Youd think, Renzel said, it would be like shooting fish in a rain barrel
everybody would be for it but the vote was 11,002 yes and 10,780 no.
There was never any open organized opposition, but there apparently was
behind the scenes opposition, Renzel said. He believes the Southern Pacific,
Clayton & Co. real estate, the First National Bank, the San Jose Mercury, all of whom
made up a cozy close relationship, may have been the reason for the slim passage
of the measure.
He said there were some aginners such as City Councilman Clark Bradley,
who said, according to Renzel, Why get a great big piece of property like this for an
airport? Its like building a four-story garage for one automobile.
Renzel, looking back at the close vote, noted if the measure hadnt passed
some smart realtor would have bought the whole works, 483 acres for $145,000.
It was the biggest steal in real estate history.
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In July 1940, W.F. Carroll, District Airport Engineer of the CAA, came up from
Santa Monica to inspect the airport site. He repeated what San Jose already knew
that the No. 1 problem was removal of the high-tension line along the eastern border
of the air field, but he seemed generally impressed with the site.
He provided a set of CAA requirements for the airport, needed to apply for
federal funds, and city crews worked through the summer preparing surveys on
which to base contour maps preliminary to grading.
Hopes fluctuated up and down that summer as Congress kicked around a
proposed $40 million fund to construct 250 new commercial airports, but when a bill
was finally passed, San Jose was not on the list of sites for air fields.
Also disappointing was the Armys disqualification of San Jose for an air force
base or retraining field because of its proximity to the citys center of population.
This had seemed a great advantage from a civilian standpoint, but the Army feared
enemy bombs dropped on the air field could wipe out the city.
In November 1940, the City Council appointed nine men to act in a consulting
capacity for the airport. The nine were Renzel, Lowry, LeDeit, Wally Longwitz, Dr.
Lawrence Foster, Alden Campen, Eddie Hawkins, Clyde McDonald and George Harter,
the latter chairman of a new group called Civic Progress Committee. City Engineer
W.L. Popp and his assistant, Harold J. Flannery, were also added to the committee.
In 1940, the first commercial flight using pressurized cabins flew from
LaGuardia Field to Burbank, California.
Besides the airport, other San Jose projects underway in 1940 included a
municipal ball park. San Jose State College was building a library, and a new dome
was under construction at Lick Observatory. The County paid $35,000 for 97 acres
of the Macomber horse ranch on Tully road for fairgrounds on October 2, 1940.
Census figures for San Jose showed a population of 68,298.
Ernest H. Renzel, Jr. was selected Young Man of the Year by the Junior
Chamber of Commerce for his work on the airport project.
In this year, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England, and the
first McDonald hamburger stand opened near Pasadena. The first peacetime military
draft in U.S. history began October 29.
The CAA, in 1940, had suggested the city prepare an obstacle map showing
the height of all structures, trees and other obstacles within a two-mile radius of the
airport, and indicated a definite decision would be made on the basis of this plan.
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1941
In February 1941, Assistant City Engineer Flannery announced preparation of
the obstacle map, and also that trees along Newhall Street were being removed as a
hazard to aviation.
City Manager Goodwin also announced at this time that development plans
must eliminate any structure, highway or other obstruction with 700 feet of a major
runway.
Flannery said all plans for the airport must be approved by the Civil
Aeronautics Board (CAB) before application can be made for Works Progress
Administration (WPA) grading and constructing of runways.
(WPA assistance had been discussed and it was felt by the city it would be
available to alleviate some of the costs to the city in construction of the airport.)
City Engineer Popp, Flannery and Goodwin went to Santa Monica in March
1941, to meet with the CAA officials and to deliver the obstacle map.
Results of that meeting were not overly encouraging.
The CAA first suggested the City of San Jose abandon the Crocker site
entirely. Then, it submitted its own suggested layout for the site which included
clearing all approach zones to a 30:1 ratio and proper steps to protect such
approaches; stringent zoning and enforcement and purchase of air rights and
acquisition of the lands before construction of the port was started. It recommended
more property be acquired to permit extension of runways, minimizing turning and
approach hazards.
The CAAs Supervisor of Airports Arthur Ayres, said if all these things were
done, then we will not raise further objections to this site.
By the summer of 1941, WPA had been so much curtailed it begun to appear
San Joses chances of getting a grant for construction were slim.
A letter from Ayres to Renzel dated June 10 refers to plans for development
of the airport prepared by Paul Birmingham, who had joined the City of San Jose as
municipal airport engineer, and who subsequently was credited with developing the
entire concept of the airport as it existed at the time of his death in the late 1960s.
In the letter, Ayres said the CAA had no knowledge of any possible allocation
of funds for the San Jose airport. He said a board composed of the Secretaries of
War, Navy and Commerce designated the locations for development of civil airports
as recommended as essential to national defense, and in view of the heavy
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concentration of flight activity in this whole Bay Area, it is doubted that such a
recommendation would be made.
Ayres, writing June19, noted it was mandatory that lands upon which
construction occurs under a CAA program be owned in fee simple by the sponsoring
agency. It is desirable that long-term options be arranged toward acquisition of all
lands northwest encompassed in the master plan, he said.
With the CAAs continued opposition, the airport committee grew impatient
and began urging the city to go ahead without the agencys support of WPA funds. It
was argued San Jose might not achieve a great airport, but they could have one that
is usable.
It was proposed the remaining obstructing trees be cut down, the power line
removed, the runway graded and oiled. Also, it was suggested a campaign be
launched to attract aeronautical industries to the area.
The City Council refused to bow to the wishes of the airport committee,
arguing that without the CAAs approval the airport could not be used for commercial
purposes and could not qualify for WPA aid or labor.
So it was back to the drawing board and the city began work on a new master
plan for the airport. It was to be ready to go back to the CAA on January 1, 1941,
and an application for a WPA grant was to go to Washington on February 1.
Then came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and all civilian airport
construction came to an end.
Looking back on 1941, the war in Europe was touching the U.S. and its people
long before that December day of infamy.
National defense activities picked up in 1941 and both civil aeronautics and
military authorities adopted more stringent policies regarding airport requirements.
In March, the San Jose unit of the National Guard was inducted into the Army.
On a sunny day in August, the USO Hospitality House at the south end of the City
Plaza was constructed.
On December 9, just two days after the Japanese attack on Hawaii, San Jose
had its first wartime blackout. This same day the first U.S. troops arrived to protect
the city.
Precinct captains were named December 12 by the Civilian Defense Council,
and on December 19 Brig. Gen. Robert C. Richards, Jr., arrived in San Jose to take
command of the Army headquartered in the Commercial and Knights of Columbus
buildings.
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1942
Navy blimps for submarine patrol took over Moffett Field on January 11,
1942, and tire and sugar rationing boards opened in February.
In spring 1942, Japanese residents of the county were evacuated to inland
camps, and vacant lots were being planted to victory gardens.
The war deflated the building boom and residential construction was frozen.
The only two major building projects in San Jose in 1942 were construction of Food
Machinerys $200,000 addition and the Anglo California National Bank.
The citys 1942-43 budget of $1,028,000 was the first in San Joses history to
exceed a million dollars.
On October 10, 1942, street lights were shielded. Gasoline rationing started
in November. City Engineer William Popp who had been instrumental in the early
planning of the airport, died November 28 and was succeeded by Harold Flannery.
The San Jose Mercury Herald bought the San Jose Mercury News.
Russell E. Pettit, secretary manager of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce,
announced receipt of a letter from James G. Ray, vice president of Southwest
Airways in Phoenix, Arizona, saying the Army and Navy had asked the Civil
Aeronautics Board to investigate the need for a feeder line for airmail service on the
west coast with a stop in San Jose.
Pettit and the Chamber also endorsed Henry J. Kaisers plan to build cargo
planes in the Santa Clara Valley, and suggested the plant be located on undeveloped
municipal airport land, neither of which came to pass.
The war in Europe and the Pacific escalated with headlines informing
Americans of the round-up of Jews by Hitlers government and the fall of Bataan,
Corregidor and the Solomon Islands to the Japanese.
K rations were packaged for U.S. troops by the Wrigley Company of Chicago.
The last U.S. automobile to be produced until after the war rolled off the Ford
assembly line in February as auto plants turned to production of materials for war.
1943
There were floods in Alviso to start off 1943, and later that spring San Jose
State College reserves were called to active duty in the armed forces. Food
Machinery Corp. tested its first armored tank, and San Jose formed its first
recreation department.
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In July 1943, the San Jose Merchants Association voted unanimously against
parking meters for downtown San Jose, and 600 Mexican Nationals arrived to help
with the harvest in the valley. On October 4, the City Council voted to buy the 11-
acre Brassy Orchard at 16th and William Streets for $12,571 to add to Coyote Park
after the war. Schools were closed a week in December 1943 because of an
influenza epidemic.
Allied forces captured Guadalcanal and invaded Southern Italy. Benito
Mussolini and his cabinet resigned July 25. Rationing of meat, shoes, butter, cheese,
flour, fish and canned goods began. The Chinese exclusion acts of 1882 and 1902
were repealed.
During the early war years, San Jose played a waiting game as far as its
municipal airport was concerned. The CAA was still holding up approval of the site,
although letters received by Renzel and the city officials from R.W.F. Schmidt of the
CAA kept the locals hopes alive.
On August 31, 1943, Schmidt wrote to Renzel, noting While we are a long
way from being sold on the airport site, the City of San Jose has now, if it can be
expanded properly across Brokaw Road, the power line removed, Guadalupe River
relocated, adequate clearances obtained and protected by enforceable zoning, we
can see no alternative but to proceed on the basis of developing the present
municipally-owned site.
I feel this airport would be devoted primarily to industrial and cargo
operation, however, and that private flying would have to be provided with one or
two other airports, Schmidt said.
Then on December 28, 1944, Schmidt wrote to then City Manager John
Lynch, noting among other points, the city should state it recognizes the necessity
for acquisition of lands north of Brokaw Road and south of Newhall Street to protect
any building and runway investment lying between the two thoroughfares, and that
closure of one or both may become necessary in contemplation of expansion to a
larger class of airport or to increase safety in operations.
Schmidt said there should be an admission from the city that CAA approval is
qualified and not a blanket sanction. He said he was surprised at the reluctance of
the city to formally accede to these admissions because the need for clarification of
position is so evident in all recommendations for city and community planning.
Schmidt in an informal note to Renzel March 23, 1945, said he wanted him
to know you can say to anyone, anywhere, any time, that the CAA has approved the
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site with certain recommendations which we are following and thats that. In this
and other letters Schmidt emphasized the amount of time four years and more
the CAA had devoted to San Joses Municipal Airport.
1944
Stepped-up production in county war plants marked the year 1944 with major
contracts including 30 generators ordered by Russia from Joshua Hendy Iron Works
in Sunnyvale and government contract awarded Food Machinery Corp. for
amphibious tractors.
Plans for extension of Bayshore Highway from East Santa Clara Street south
were presented to the County Board of Supervisors.
Politics shook City Hall with election of the Progress Committee slate to fill
City Council seats. New councilmen were Renzel, Fred Watson, James W. Lively, Ben
Carter, Albert Ruffo, and Roy H. Rundle. City Manager Goodwin was forced to resign
and was replaced by City Clerk John Lynch. William C. Brown became police chief
and Lester OBrien fire chief.
Topping world news in 1944 was D-Day, marking the June 6 landing of
176,000 allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. President Roosevelt was re-
elected to a fourth term, and the G.I. Bill of Rights was enacted by Congress.
1945
James M. Nissen, former Naval aviator and Pan Am pilot, was test flying at
Ames Laboratory at Moffett Field in 1945 when he and James Mathiesen, a college
friend who had served in the same Navy squad and who had gotten out of the Navy
the year before, heard San Jose was interested in trying to get an airport together
and came down to see what we could do.
On November 14, 1945, the City Council voted to lease 16 acres of airport
land to Nissen.
Ill never forget that evening with the City Council, Nissen said in a March
1986 interview.
It was in the old council chambers (Market Street City Hall) where you sat
nice and close to the council members with one rail separating the audience.
I wanted a lease of at least two years, so if the city cancelled in the event
federal funds became unavailable for development I would have some damages and
at least get my money back.
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The council agreed on the two years and said the city would pay some
damage if it had to cancel me out. Everything was fine until some John Doe in the
audience got up and said you cant do that the city cannot commit itself to any
liability greater than the rent theyre going to receive on the land. (Nissen had
offered to pay $20 an acre).
So, Nissen chuckled, the council declared a recess and went into City
Manager John Lynchs office to discuss it. It was decided I would get a one-year
lease with the option of renewing, and that I would take the gamble and there would
be no damages. Everybody thought I was crazy to get into it for only one year, and
they were probably right.
The City Council in approving the lease agreed that if federal funds were
made available during the year, Nissens rent would be refunded and any buildings
he had put up could be removed.
Nissen, Mathiesen, and Ray Stephens, a mechanic at Ames Laboratory,
formed a company called California Aviation Activities. Each of the three put in
$2,000. They planned a small runway, office and hangar.
By the mid-1940s the city had paid for the last of the original parcels
purchased from the Crocker estate and was buying more land, most of which was
leased for vegetable growing.
While Clarence Goodman was still city manager, he noted that although the
airport property had not been converted to the purpose for which it was bought, it
was playing an important role in the war effort by producing food.
In January of 1945 the city bought five fire trucks for $56,000. The San Jose
Historic Landmarks Commission was created, the Hyde-Sullivan study for a sewage
treatment plant was authorized, and a $1,700,000 bond issue to build storm sewers
was passed. Ernest Renzel, Jr. was mayor of San Jose.
On July 20, 1945, the city bought 69 acres of dairyman Martin J. Hass
property to add to the airport land.
World War II ended in 1945. President Roosevelt died and his vice-president,
Harry Truman, succeeded to the presidency.
The Beechcraft Bonanza single-engine private plane was introduced in 1945,
ballpoint pens went on sale, and frozen orange juice was pioneered in that year.
Late in 1945, the city sold 90 acres of airport land to Food Machinery Corp.
for $62,258, the amount the property was appraised by the San Jose Realty Board.
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FMC wanted the land because of its need for expansion, the company officials
said they would be forced to move out of Santa Clara County if the site could not be
obtained.
The property on Campbell Avenue with 10 acres along the Southern Pacific
tracks was needed for FMCs new Bean-Cutler Division of the company, laboratories
and administrative headquarters.
Its sale was protested and a lawsuit filed in 1946 charging bids should have
been called for and there should have been a vote of the people. The suit also
claimed there should have been a public auction.
Businessman John McEnery was a major protestant, paying for a large ad in
the form of an open letter to the public in the San Jose Mercury.
The matter was argued in Superior Court and while Judge John D. Foley
overruled the first two points in the lawsuit, he held that under the California General
Laws the City Council should have sold the land at public auction.
There was a lot of criticism that the price the city accepted for the 90 acres
was too low. City Manager John Lynch answered the city was interested in factors
other than price, especially in the industrial growth of the city and keeping FMC with
its high assessed valuation and large payroll in San Jose.
(FMC executive Emiel T. Nielsen, Jr. in 1987 disclosed taxes paid to that date
on the 90 acres amount to $30 million and salaries and wages paid by FMC came to
$1.7 billion.)
In the midst of the FMC controversy in 1945, Lynch noted the city, even at
the price paid for the 90 acres, had made a good profit on its original investment.
Cost of the land to the city in 1940 was $27,000, so sale to FMC would show a profit
of more than $35,000, plus rental on the land over five years.
The FMC sale was not resolved for another year (1946), at which time profit
to the city would more than double.
1946
Activity at the little flying field out on airport land began picking up early in
1946.
Nissen was still living in Los Angeles and working as an experimental test pilot
at North American in March, commuting back and forth to Los Angeles in a BT 13 he
bought after first trying commuting via commercial airlines. The family looked for a
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place to buy in Southern California, but decided they didnt want to live there, Nissen
said.
Finally I decided Id come back. The operations at San Jose (California
Aviation Activities) had gotten into financial problems and I felt I either had to come
back and run it or just let it go with what I had in it, Nissen said.
The company borrowed some money and got a G.I. contract. The office and
hanger were built early in 1946.
I remember the hanger. I wanted to put up a temporary building, because it
was only for a couple of years, but the citys chief building inspector, Bob Lotz, said
there was no such thing as a temporary building and Renzel and everybody agreed
with him. So we had to build the hanger to code. It was over where the main
runway is now, Nissen recalled in that 1986 interview.
We had a fair amount of rain that winter (1945-46), Nissen said, and the
land which was planted to cauliflower was not only smelly but was adobe and hard to
work. We were begging and borrowing every farmers tractor and disc we could to
work the ground, and we did sometimes until 11 or 12 at night or until it rained
and we had to stop.
The company had a flight school and began flying off the little runway (less
than 3,000 feet long) in the spring of 1946, about the time Nissen and his partners
leased another 64 acres.
Although the airport was a private venture, which continued until 1948, the
fact it was operating out on municipal airport land gave a boost to the dreams of
those who had been pushing for the port so many years.
The CAA in February 1946 approved a plan for development of municipal
airport with a runway of 4,500 feet (Class 3), and in May enactment of the Federal
Airport Act provided financial support for construction of airport facilities.
Air service was granted to San Jose in June, authorizing Southwest Airways to
stop in San Jose on flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles, but because the
runway was only 2,300 feet, the airport could not meet CAA landing specifications for
DC-3s and therefore could be no service.
Along about this time, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission, silent
during the five years since San Jose agreed to buy the Crocker acres for an airport
site, suddenly decided it was against the location.
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Commission Chairman W.B. Weston and Commissioner W.W. Curtner
expressed opposition to the municipal airport site, Curtner noting the expense to the
general public in the removal of power lines and changes of roads.
This was in mid-July 1946, at a meeting in which the commission granted a
permit to Arthur J. Monti of Sunnyvale to operate a Class B flying field at Bayshore
Highway and Lawrence Station Road.
The permit was hotly protested by San Jose City Attorney Robert Cassin, City
Engineer Flannery and City Planning Engineer Michael Antonacci. They argued the
closeness of Montis field would prevent CAA approval of the San Jose airport, thus
eliminating any federal funds for the port.
The people of San Jose voted for the [Crocker] site and we have $200,000
invested in the project, Antonacci said. It is our [the citys] duty to protect the
peoples interest in it.
City Engineer Flannery said, 10 years ago, San Jose looked forward to the
airport at the present site, acquired it, and has never abandoned that intention. It
looks like the commission is doing all it can to kill the San Jose airport.
On August 26, 1946, the County Board of Supervisors authorized spending
$5,000 to settle the controversial issue of where the San Jose Municipal Airport
should be located. County Planning Commission Chairman Weston had asked for
$10,000 to hire impartial and competent airport engineers to survey the situation.
City officials approved the move, as did Renzel, who said, This is a special
project and with the various planning groups occupied with other things, I think it is
in order that a study be made by men who know about the special problems of the
location of airports.
Newly hired City Manager O.W. Hump Campbell promised the closest
cooperation between the city and county in the survey by the General Airport Co. of
Stamford, Connecticut. Campbell was hired in June.
The survey was completed in December with the recommendation of the
survey team that San Jose should immediately develop its municipal airport as a
Class 4 port at its present site.
The engineering company considered four other sites, three in the area of
Trimble Road and Agnews State Hospital, and one on Monterey Highway between
Tully and Senter Roads, but agreed the present site was the best.
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The County Planning Commission accepted the report and the CAA announced
satisfaction with the site and also confirmed its earlier approval of future extension of
the runway across Brokaw Road.
Proposed closure of Brokaw Road had raised a storm of protest from Santa
Clara because it was a major artery into that city.
While the study was underway by the Connecticut firm, Nissen requested
$4,000 from the city for improvements to his existing runway, drainage, cutting of
trees and removal of power lines.
The runway had been graded and rolled by the first week in December when
a two-engine cargo plane carrying a consignment of pianos for Frank Campis Music
Store in San Jose attempted to land at the airport. After circling the field eight
times, the pilot decided the dirt runway was too dangerous.
The FMC-airport land sale matter resurfaced again in the fall of 1946.
In September of that year, FMC released the city from the sale and a public
auction was held October 24. High bidder was FMC. This time the company paid
$140,000 for the 90 acres; more than double the original price and only $5,000 shy
of what the city paid for the entire 483 acres of airport land.
Attorney Victor A. Chargin, representing FMC, paid the required 10 percent
down payment following the bidding, handing over fourteen $1,000 bills to
Councilman Renzel, who announced the money would go into the airport fund.
Chargin handed me all that money, Renzel recalled, and I handed it to
Police Chief Brown just as quick. This was in the old City Hall in the upstairs council
chambers. Brown ran downstairs and put the $14,000 in the police department safe
in the basement.
The city was continuing to buy land for the airport, adding 49 acres in
November 1946, from the estate of Manual Rogers. This piece was north of Brokaw
Road near Kifer Road and was needed to protect the main runway with height
limitations. The city was informed federal monies would be available to help finance
the purchase of this and other pieces, as well as airport construction costs.
Also in November, the city applied for $100,000 in federal funds to aid in
construction of the municipal airport, and the following January the Civil Aeronautics
Administration in Washington, D.C., approved a grant of $107,313. Estimated cost
of the first unit of work to bring the airport up to standards of a Class 3 port was
$222,300.
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Another major event of the year 1946 involving airport land was the
establishment of Airport Village.
It grew out of an earlier city housing development called Victory Village and
involving trailers. It was established on a 9-acre city park site on Polhemus Street
(later named Taylor) between Walnut and Irene Streets.
The state granted San Jose $311,080 for construction of Airport Village on
airport land at Coleman and Newhall Streets to further ease the housing shortage.
On January 22, 1946, the City Council had established the Department of
Emergency Housing to handle the problem which was expected to become acute
when veterans returned from military duty. Lester Keaton, coordinator for San
Joses civilian defense forces, was placed in charge of the emergency housing
projects.
In shopping around for housing units for Airport Village, he discovered 206
new prefabricated steel barracks still in their crates in an Army ordinance depot. The
City was able to obtain them free of charge and shortly before Christmas the first
Veterans families moved in.
Keaton was kept busy that first year and into the next scrounging materials
such as fittings for sewers, electrical wire, toilets and plumbing fittings from Camp
Shoemaker and other government installations. The Federal Public Housing
Authority in Redwood City supplied 150 kegs of nails and 40,000 square feet of
plywood. Other supplies came from Pleasanton, Pomona, and as far away as Salt
Lake City.
A total of 356 units were constructed and occupied, with Veterans paying
from $30 to $40 a month. From the beginning, Airport Village made money for the
city.
During 1946, the former San Jose Airport on King Road was sold to four
couples, the Richard B. Richmonds, J.H. Channells, C.E. Goodrichs, and H.B.
Barnicks, who continued to lease to several air schools. A restaurant was opened at
Reid-Hillview Airport on Cunningham Avenue.
Other significant happenings during 1946 included start of construction of the
$400,000 overpass at Bayshore and East Santa Clara Street, talk of moving the City
Hall north, opening of the second Santa Clara County Fair in September (the war had
cancelled fairs after the first was held in 1941), and installation of parking meters in
the downtown area on a one-year trial basis.
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A 10-foot granite shaft honoring aviation pioneer, John J. Montgomery, was
unveiled at the University of Santa Clara in April.
San Joses population in 1946 was 80,734.
The Philippines gained independence from the U.S. on July 4, 1946. Strikes
idled some 4.6 million U.S. workers during the year, and the U.S. Mint issued the
Franklin D. Roosevelt dime.
1947
In April 1947, CAA District Engineer C.B. Worthley told City Engineer Flannery
State and federal aid would be forthcoming for San Joses municipal airport
development and land acquisition.
Flannery said state authorities had agreed to finance land acquisition on a 50-
50 basis with the city up to $28,630 maximum, and would also reimburse the city for
the cost of planning the airport.
Worthley assured Flannery federal money stood back of airport construction
costs on a 54-46 per cent basis, and for 25 per cent of the cost of any land
acquisition.
Flannery also announced the CAA had granted San Jose top priority in the
state for airport development.
Paul V. Birmingham, former San Jose manager of WPA, was named assistant
civil engineer by Flannery in March, with the responsibility of steering San Joses
municipal airport to completion.
Among non-airport events in 1947 were approval of a 66-acre site at North
First and Rosa (later Hedding) Streets for a civic center, opening on June 4 of the
$400,000 Alum Rock overpass on Bayshore Highway, with completion of the 8-mile
extension of Bayshore in East San Jose later in the month.
Voters approved the $2,500,000 Lexington Dam project in October, and in
December Howard W. Campen was named first county counsel. Also that month, the
Santa Clara County Air Pollution District was formed, and San Jose barbers
announced they were raising the price of haircuts to $1.25.
Radio KEEN went on the air June 21, 1947, from its studio in Hotel De Anza.
Rosemary Gardens tract was expanding across Guadalupe River from the
municipal airport.
National news in 1947 included authorization by Congress of a Central
Intelligence Agency and passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over President Harry
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Trumans veto. The largest aircraft ever built, Howard Hughes Spruce Goose, made
its first and only one-mile flight in San Diego. Jackie Robinson signed with the
Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first black baseball player in the major leagues.
1948
Nine years of community effort bore fruit on June 21, 1948, when Ernie
Renzel remembers word was received of the airports final approval by the CAA.
Renzel also remembers an incident that occurred early in 1948 before final
CAA approval of the airport.
Frazier Reed, president of Clayton & Co. real estate, phoned to ask that I
meet with him and the chief engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad. We met at
Clayton & Co. on West Santa Clara Street.
Frazier said the S.P. wanted to develop a switching yard on the airport
property, and since I was chairman of the City Council committee on lands, parks
and public structures, hed like our recommendation to do this.
I said I would tell the committee of the request, but was sure it would not
approve, since it would interfere with the airport development. He replied that there
wouldnt be any change of the CAA approving the site. I disagreed, naturally.
Then in June Ray Hess, chief engineer of the CAA in San Francisco, gave final
approval. Maybe it was a coincidence, but he was fired within 30 days. Later he told
me, he was sacked for approving the San Jose airport.
San Jose officially received its federal airport grant of $185,180 (applied for in
1945) in mid-1948 and in August, Leo F. Piazza Paving Co. was awarded the contract
to build the first permanent runway with a low bid of $314,000. The vote to accept
by the City Council was unanimous, although Councilman Clark Bradley expressed
doubt the airport site was the proper location and predicted the airport there would
become a municipal white elephant.
The contract was signed August 4 and ground-breaking ceremonies were held
August 8. Airport Engineer Birmingham said the runway would be 4,500 feet long,
150 feet wide, and hard-surfaced, with a long taxi-way.
Dirt for the sub-base was hauled from Razorback Ridge in lower Alum Rock
Park and granite from Watsonville.
A Chamber of Commerce report on the airport noted California Aviation
Activities, Inc. was operating complete airport service, including repairs, student
instruction, chartered rides, sales and rentals. Buildings included hanger, shop and
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office, and a repair shop. The runway was surfaced and had lights. FMC also had a
hanger on the airport, the report said.
On October 11, 1948, City Manager O.W. Campbell announced James Nissen
had been selected from among ten candidates to become the first manager of the
San Jose Municipal Airport.
Nissen, who assumed his new job November 1, gave up his affiliation with the
California Aviation Activities which had been operating on the airport site for two
years. Nissens salary was $403 a month.
City Engineer Flannery asked him to make out a budget for the first year,
which he did, setting a figure of $17,000.
I never spent it, Nissen said, and the second year Flannery wanted me to
ask for the same amount, but I said I didnt need it. I put down something like
$8,000, and the third year I didnt want anything.
Nissen said the airport had the support of everybody, the media, taxpayers
association, merchants, and city workers.
I said I will not ask for a raise until it can come out of airport revenue,
Nissen said. That was one reason the tax payers got behind the airport That was
on the angel side, but there was the pork side, too.
The city public works crews would be working on Race Street, maybe
recapping it, and I had a few chuck holes needed to be filled. So Id tell Marcus
Whaley I had a little problem and why didnt he fix it and charge it to the Race Street
project. Sometimes Flannery would catch us and give us heck. Id say Okay,
Harold, but the repair was done, and the next time we would do the same thing
again.
I didnt mind stealing a little bit from the city, but later on we started making
money and they wanted to steal the money from us and I didnt like that.
We got up to the salary thing Clark Bradley said wed always lose money
and I said we wouldnt. He said the day we got in the black you come to me and Ill
get your raise. Well, the day came, but if I received the raise it would put the
airport back in the red again.
The personnel, the crew, were wonderful, Nissen recalled. Anything they
could do for the airport to save us paying somebody else, they did it.
The city let us reinvest our revenue as if it was a private operation. Thats
an incentive I believe helps hold down costs.
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We set up our own books. I got help from San Francisco Airport. We kept
our books and the city kept theirs, which was fine.
When the airport revenues would support some raises, I took care of pay
increases for employees first and then later went to the civil service and asked for a
one-third raise for myself, which was granted.
Nissen said that when he took the airport job he had no intention of staying
as long as he did. (He retired in 1975.)
I probably started to leave many times, but there were always new
challenges. There were two basic things Ive always loved, research and
development, and they kept me busy.
During 1948, San Jose filed for 100,000 acre feet of water from Folsom
reservoir, made final payment on parking meters, made the sales tax permanent,
and reached agreement on $63,000 of 22 acres of the Civic Center site. County
Supervisors approved the county manager plan. Radio Station KXRX went on the air
from its station on Bayshore Highway near McKee Road. Santa Claras 1890 jail and
city hall at Main and Benson streets were demolished.
U.S. railroads shifted from coal-fired steam to diesel-electric locomotives in
1948. President Truman ordered the Army to operate the nations railroads to
prevent a nationwide rail strike. Citation, with Eddie Arcaro up, won U.S. racings
Triple Crown.
1949
Finally, on February 1, 1949, ceremonies were held to dedicate the San Jose
Municipal Airport.
Renzel, who had never given up hope or stopped pushing for the airport since
its beginnings a decade before, was master of ceremonies and lauded many of the
early backers.
City and county officials were taken on a flight over the Valley prior to the
dedication ceremonies which brought well-wishers from Moffett Field, San Francisco
and other airports, as well as Army and Navy officials.
Captain John Dodge, native of Los Gatos and first aeronautical major at San
Jose State College, piloted the first scheduled Southwest Airways flight to arrive and
depart from the San Jose Municipal Airport. Southwest had been flying out of Moffett
Field for the past two years, awaiting the opening of the San Jose port.
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Completion of the first unit of development heralded San Joses first aerial
link with the rest of the world, the San Jose Mercury noted.
The newspaper pointed out acquisition of the airport property has been a
lucrative one for the city. The site now comprises approximately 600 acres.
$140,000 has been derived from rentals of the property for agricultural use and
$140,000 was realized from the sale of 90 acres for industrial development (FMCs
Bean Cutler plant). Thus, revenues have been more than double the original price.
In February 1949, a fee schedule was adopted for airport users including,
parking and storage fees for private planes, and fees for regularly scheduled airlines.
No landing or take off fees were charged for private plans.
Also in February, a twin engine DC-3 landed 2,550 baby chicks at the airport.
The first phase of the airport construction was to include, besides the 4,500-
foot runway, a parking apron, an access road, auto parking, and wooden
administration building containing a waiting room, baggage room, offices, and
eventually a cafe.
In the summer of 1949, the citys plans for construction of hangers for private
planes were protested by private airport operators who feared city competition would
cut into their business. Principal protestors were H.A. Barnick of San Jose Airport on
King Road and Cecil Reid of Reid-Hillview Airport.
Because of the complaints, the City Council in September rejected all bids for
hanger construction and agreed to advertise for new bids for two-thirds of the
number of small hangers originally planned, or 20 instead of 30.
Early in the year a city-county emergency aid station was established. Dial
telephone replace the old manual number please exchange in San Jose in August.
An Air Force B-29 crashed near Calaveras Reservoir September 12, the crew bailing
out and landing safely near Milpitas.
December saw construction of a replica of the first statehouse in city plaza
and a pageant and other programs celebrating the meeting of the first State
Legislature in San Jose in 1848.
Congress boosted the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour, and a U.S.
transcontinental speed record of three hours and 46 minutes was set by an Air Force
jet bomber.
1950
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On February 2, 1950, City Manager Campbell resigned to take a similar
position in San Diego. City Engineer Flannery became temporary city manager on
March 27, the 100th anniversary of San Joses incorporation, until A.P. Dutch
Hamann took the oath of office. He was to serve until November 1969, during which
his pro-annexation policy added 1,419 acres to the city and the population climbed
from 94,000 to more than 400,000.
In April 1950, Airport Manager Nissen announced the next job at the airport
would be painting the administration building. He also said a loudspeaker system to
announce arrivals and departures was being installed.
City Engineer Flannery said in May San Jose would get a share of aviation fuel
tax money being divided among California cities and counties.
Also in May 1950, Airport Engineer Birmingham received a letter from the
CAA district airport engineer in San Francisco approving a $200,000 expansion
program at the airport, major costs to be borne with federal funds. The work called
for installation of new taxiways, aprons, lights, and other improvements, he said.
A Bay Area planning group formed to develop an airport plan for the nine Bay
Area counties praised the San Jose site location and predicted its expansion because
of weather, freeway transportation, and the airports location in an independent
trading center.
In August 1950, Leo Piazza Co. was awarded the contract to build a new taxi
strip, warm-up aprons, plane parking areas and other projects with a low bid of
$168,000.
During 1950, there was a move to name the airport for pioneer aviator,
Robert Fowler, who made the first flight from the Pacific to Atlanta coasts in 1913.
Among those favoring the name was Congressman Charles Gubser, who knew Fowler
personally when he lived in Gilroy.
U.S. forces were ordered to Korea in 1950 and the national emergency
resulting called a halt to further improvements at San Jose Municipal Airport. City
Manager Hamann returned from Washington, D.C., in December with word from
federal officials and Congressman Jack Anderson that the CAA would not allocate any
money for development locally for the duration of the crisis.
At the same time, Piazza Construction Co. asked for an extension on its
contract to build the taxiway because of heavy rains.
Victory Village trailers were auctioned December 12, marking an end to the
World War II housing project on Polhemus Street.
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San Joses population in 1950 was 94,044.
1951
Because San Jose did not have a military field, it did not expect any
government grants until the end of the Korean War. However, in 1951 radio
equipment worth $8,000 was donated to the airport, along with a grant to allow
expansion of the runway. Both improvements were for defense purposes allowing
San Jose to provide an emergency landing strip in the event San Francisco and
Oakland airports were bombed.
In June 1951, Nissen announced a teletype machine was to be installed to
enable pilots to comply with a new CAA ruling making it mandatory to file flight plans
and position reports for aircraft within air defense identification zones.
San Jose and Santa Clara reached tentative agreement on the latter citys
sale of part of Laurelwood Farm for airport expansion. It was not to be that easy.
Airport Engineer Birmingham said, Without the land, the airport is a dead
duck. The plan called for extension of Coleman and closing of Brokaw Road.
Other events that made headlines locally in 1951 included dedication of San
Joses central fire station at Market and St. James Streets, construction of the
$1,600,000 Lake Elsman above Los Gatos by the San Jose Water Works, and the
purchase of the 63-acre Kelley estate on Senter Road for a park, in a contractual
deal with the City of San Jose, by Renzel, his wife, Emily, and Alden Campen.
A tornado damaged homes in San Jose and Sunnyvale in January 1951, and
storms brought floods to Alviso at years end.
Nationally, CBS began broadcasting color television programs on a
commercial basis. The I Love Lucy TV program began and Jersey Joe Walcott
won the world heavyweight boxing title.
1952
Improvements at the airport ground to a halt in 1952 as the long land battle
between San Jose and Santa Clara heated up again.
Nissen recalls, Land acquisition was the big thing in the 50s, and the big
fight was with Santa Clara over closing of Brokaw Road so we could expand the
airport.
I think we were really caught in the middle of the annexation war that was
going on then. The airport was used as leverage for the give and take in the
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annexation fight between San Jose and Santa Clara. Thats what made it so
interesting.
Also, we had the support we needed. We had the City Council with us, the
press, radio, and TV, and Ernie Renzel was a big plus.
He was the real father of the airport, getting the land originally. We had a
lot of problems, but we had a tremendous amount of support to carry us through,
Nissen claims.
In 1952, Santa Clara changed its mind about its Laurelwood Farm land
reserved for industrial and sewage plants, and refused to sell any of it to San Jose.
Also, Santa Clara renewed its fight against the closing of Brokaw Road and
although the CAA had approved closing of the artery in 1947, the CAA set a hearing
in San Francisco in August in compliance with the Federal Airport Act mandating a
hearing in event of protests.
Although the hearing found that a major airport was required in the area, the
location of San Jose Municipal Airport was right, nothing much was resolved as Santa
Clara continued to refuse selling land to San Jose for airport expansion.
A San Jose witness at the hearing was Pat Ryan, former Santa Clara city
trustee and acting mayor, who said a poll of industrialists when San Jose first tried to
buy Laurelwood Farm land several years ago advocated we sell to the City of San
Jose about 60 acres, sufficient to complete the airport runway involved. They
thought it was a fine idea San Jose was providing an airport for us, Ryan said.
He also noted there was an ironclad agreement between San Jose and Santa
Clara that if Brokaw Road is closed, San Jose must provide a satisfactory alternate
route.
Another land matter which kept the two cities busy most of the summer
involved 60 acres of farmer Joseph Giannis land north of Kifer Road and south of
Bayshore Highway. He had agreed to let Santa Clara annex the land for industrial
purposes, but changed his mind when he got a better offer from San Jose.
(Gianni died in May 1953, after he had won a court decision against Santa
Clara which had annexed his land over his protest. Santa Clara appealed the ruling,
but a court decision allowed San Jose to acquire the land from Giannis heirs.)
On February 6, 1952, a plaque was unveiled at the airport honoring aviation
pioneer Robert G. Fowler on the 40th anniversary of the first west-to-east
transcontinental flight in which he flew from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida.
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Renzel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce aviation committee, was
master of ceremonies.
Mayor Clark Bradley told the crowd at the ceremonies San Jose is honoring
one of its great citizens while he is here to enjoy and participate in the honor. Bob,
San Jose has given you a place in its heart and will keep you there forever.
Fowler, who took lessons in flying from the Wright Brothers in Ohio in 1911,
talked about crude early aircraft and the men who had nerve enough to fly em.
Among special guests was Roy Francis, another early San Jose airman who
was carrying passengers in his homemade biplane early in the century and who, in
1930, became Superintendent of Mills Field, later to be known as San Francisco
International Airport.
(Fowler died in 1966. His wife, Lenore Vargas Fowler, who died in 1965,
pioneered glider and sailplane flying. Her aircraft and other memorabilia were
turned over to the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in 1930.)
In June 1952, six tons of celery grown by George Takeda and Nakimura Bros.
of San Jose were flown to New York markets to alleviate a shortage brought on by
heavy rains in the east.
During the year, San Jose, under City Manager Hamann, annexed a couple of
square miles of land and the population figure jumped over the 100,000 mark for the
first time in history. A special census put the figure at 102,148.
It was a political year and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and vice
presidential hopeful Richard Nixon both spoke in San Jose.
Fire destroyed the landmark Richmond-Chase Co. dried fruit plant at
Edenvale, and Campbell became an incorporated city.
The final link-up of San Joses $3,000,000 storm sewer separation project was
completed November 28, 1952, at Eighth and Jackson Streets. Bond issues for the
project amounted to $2,500,000 and the state contributed the remainder.
Elsewhere, the year brought death to Englands King George VI and his
daughter Elizabeths ascension to the throne. General Dwight Eisenhower was
elected president of the United States and Rocky Marciano won the world
heavyweight boxing title.
By the end of 1952, the San Jose Planning Commission had approved an
alternate route to Santa Claras Brokaw Road, looping up the west side of the airport
from Coleman Avenue to connect with Bayshore Highway. Also, bids were received
for extension of the airports taxiway.
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1953
Three major events marked airport history in 1953.
In June, an estimated 2,000 persons attended ceremonies dedicating a new
taxiway and commemorating the 50th anniversary of powered flight by the Wright
brothers. In July, the City Council appropriated $273,168 for airport expansion,
allowing purchase of 76 more Crocker estate acres north of Brokaw Road, and in
December, the Gianni land sale was cleared by the court, giving the airport another
63 acres.
The June 14 celebration included exhibits of military and civilian aircraft.
Robert and Lenore Fowler displayed an original Wright motor and two gliders flown
by Mrs. Fowler in the 1920s.
A plane built and flown in 1912, owned by airport manager, James Nissen,
and his former partner in the old California Aviation Activities company, James
Mathiesen, was also on display, along with a 1929 Fairchild owned by Cecil Reid, a
helicopter displayed by Hiller Co. of Palo Alto, and cutaways of engines by San Jose
State College aeronautical students.
Ernest Renzel, Jr., was master of ceremonies, and guest speakers included
B.M. Doolin, Director of the California Aeronautics Commission, City Manager
Hamann, Mayor Parker Hathaway, Robert Fowler, and James Nissen. Eight Early
Bird flyers, who had flown before 1914, were introduced. They included Frank T.
Coffyn of Palo Alto, only survivor of the original team of five men Orville Wright
taught to fly in Dayton, Ohio in 1910; S.H. Page of Los Gatos, and Mrs. Ruth Law
Oliver of San Francisco, early stunt flyer.
A caf was added to the administrative terminal complex at the south end of
the airport in 1953.
Effective January 2, 1953, San Joses two justice courts and its police court
became the Municipal Court under the states reorganization of inferior courts
approved by voters in 1950. Municipal judges were Grandin H. Miller, Percy
OConnor and John P. Dempsey. Anthony Nave was elected first chief clerk of the
Municipal Court. The year also marked the 100th anniversary of the introduction of
the states first honeybees, brought from the east by Christopher Shelton to the
Stockton ranch, now the site of the municipal airport. A state plaque
commemorating the anniversary and honoring San Jose City Historian Clyde Arbuckle
was to be dedicated at the airport 29 years later in March 1982.
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In 1953, OConnor Hospital moved from San Carlos and Race Streets to a new
four-story building on Forest Avenue.
During 1953, the DC-7 propeller plan was introduced by Douglas Aircraft,
Joseph Stalin died, the Korean War came to an end, and Playboy magazine began
publication with a nude photograph of screen star Marilyn Monroe. Ben Hogan was
the king of golf, winning the U.S. and British Opens and the Masters Golf
Tournament.
1954
General aviation activities at the San Jose Municipal Airport had increased to
the extent that in 1954 the administration building was filled to capacity and three
temporary barracks were installed.
In May, the CAA approved the airport for federal funds and VOR (visual omni-
range) thus allowing planes to land at night and in bad weather, but in October the
city was turned down by the CAA on its request for $321,000 to finance 54 percent
of the cost of land acquisition for further expansion of the port.
At that time the airport was also excluded from the 1955 federal aid program.
S.A. Kemp, administrator of CAA, said this was due to the necessity of undertaking
more urgent work within the limits of available funds.
However, he assured City Manager Hamann the CAA still felt the airport was a
necessary and integral portion of the national airport system.
A few days later, the city received notification of a surprise donation of
$26,500 from the CAA which Congressman Charles Gubser believed meant San Jose
would get top priority in the 1955 allocation, which it did.
San Joseans in 1954 were paying 29 cents a gallon for gasoline and 92 cents
a pound for steak. School children were taking part in the mass polio immunization
program instituted across the nation. Electronic computers were showing up in
businesses.
A 9.3-mile segment of new Highway 17 between San Jose and Warm Springs
opened on July 2, 1954.
City Manager Hamann recommended a fence be built along the Guadalupe
River on the west border of the Rosemary Gardens tract after a child drowned. The
fence was to be built as part of the airport riverbed realignment project.
Milpitas was looking toward the growth the Ford Motor Co.s new plant would
bring, and leery of being gobbled up by San Jose, incorporated.
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The U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled racial segregation in public schools
unconstitutional.
1955
Early in April 1955, Gubser (R-Gilroy) and San Jose News Washington
correspondent Wes Peyton came in for plaudits for paving the way for San Jose to
obtain $106,175 from the CAA for airport land acquisition.
Councilman Joe Santoro returned from the national capital and reported both
Gubser and Peyton had arranged for him to meet with aeronautics officials and plead
the cause of San Jose for federal funds. Santoro said he learned that in future
requests for airport funds, San Jose must stress the fact that the local airfield is used
for emergency landing by military aircraft. He said 15 such landings in recent years
have saved the government up to $5 million in aircraft.
In October 1955, San Jose and Santa Clara committees met and agreed on a
land swap providing for industrial sites for Santa Clara and airport land for San Jose
in the vicinity of De La Cruz Boulevard, Kifer and Brokaw Roads.
William Bill Werstlein came to San Jose Municipal Airport in 1955 as general
manager of Baker Aircraft Sales with an office in the main terminal building.
The address then was 401 Newhall Street. Ten years later, Newhall became
Airport Boulevard.
There was only one runway, the power lines still looped across airport land,
and the Guadalupe River hadnt been aligned. San Joses biggest revenue check
from the airport property was from the Marchese pear orchard, Werstlein
remembered in a 1988 interview when he was still at the airport as president of
Pacific Aero Sales, Inc.
There were only 51 planes based at the airport in 1955 and 25 percent of the
hangers were empty. Some of the hangers were used to store parts for airplanes.
Werstlein remembered four men, representing four companies, were the
nucleus of corporate aviation in the mid-1950s. They were San Jose attorney James
Boccardo, President of Mayfair Packing Co. Joseph P. Prucci, President of Sun Garden
Packing Frank DiNapoli, and President of Contadina Foods Anthony C. Morice.
They were general aviation, without which there would not have been an
airport, Werstlein said. Flight schools played a major part, also, he said, along with
FMC and Lockheed which flew out of the field.
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Besides Baker Aircraft Sales, Liddell Aviation Co., Southwest Airways, and San
Jose Instrument Service were located at 401 Newhall Street in 1955. Ralph B.
Preston was a pilot for Commercial Dusting Corp. and lived at Airport Village.
Robert Wright had a shop for service and maintenance of planes at the old
terminal 1950 to 1967 and remembers it (the airport) was a small, closely knit
operation where you knew everybody. We used to meet for morning coffee in the
coffee shop , stated Robert Wright.
Wright, who in the 1980s was in business at Reid-Hillview, said he flew for
FMC for a year before opening up the shop at Municipal Airport. At that time FMC
had a little quonset hut on the grounds. Wright was co-pilot and mechanic for FMC
and also worked for Bob Liddell (Liddell Aviation) as mechanic and flight instructor
for a time.
Russell Hill, who probably taught more people to fly than any other local flyer
in those early days, remembers there were a lot of pheasants on the airport after the
war and airport personnel and pilots were allowed to shoot them early in the
morning.
Hill never shot any I was always busy doing something else, but
remembers hitting one with his plane on take-off.
Its been a long time since pheasants were a problem at the airport, Hill
noted in a March 1989 interview.
Hill worked for Wright Bros. in those early years at Muni, and operated a flight
school.
Off-street parking and one-way street programs were instituted in San Jose in
the face of increased traffic in 1955. Voters in February approved a $2,111,100
bond issue for the South Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District to build a
dam on Uvas Creek. Also approved was a $5,150,000 bond issue for County
Hospital renovation and a new County Jail and Juvenile Hall, as well as a $1,975,000
bond issue for development of San Joses portion of the First and Rose Streets civic
center site.
However, by the end of the year, the city and county had no master plan for
the civic center and had not decided where to put the new County Jail or which way
to face the new City Hall.
The City Council established a fee for use of Alum Rock Park, and Ford Motor
Co. opened its new assembly plant in Milpitas. Second Street was extended through
St. James Park. IBM bought 190 acres for a plant at Cottle and Monterey Roads.
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Pre-Christmas storms in 1955 brought widespread flooding to California,
including San Jose which recorded 9.26 inches of rain. The summertime County Fair
was the setting for KNTVs first telecast.
There was civil war in Vietnam, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
resigned, the U.S. Congress approved a hike in the minimum wage from 75 cents to
$1.00, and Disneyland opened in Anaheim.
1956
In 1956, the CAA awarded San Jose $319,150 for land acquisition and
construction of a control tower at the airport, a count having found the number of
daily operations more than the minimum required to qualify for a tower.
Jack Harper, assistant airport manager under Nissen, remembers the first jet
that landed at the airport (by mistake) before the tower was in operation.
It was a Navy Commander flying from Florida to Moffett Field. It was at
night and the pilot was talking to the Moffett control tower and looking at the lights
at San Jose Municipal Airport. He thought he was at Moffett and set down.
I was working that night, Harper said in a telephone interview in 1989, and
someone said a jet had landed. I said no, the runway is only 4,500 feet long, but
he said he saw it come over the fence so I walked out the front door (this was the
old terminal later General Aviation) and I could hear the whine.
I called Nissen and he told me not to let the pilot take off at night. The Navy
came and picked up the pilot and brought him back the next morning.
It was cold and foggy and they had him in an open jeep maybe as
punishment for his mistake, Harper chuckled.
We had a lot of rabbits on the field then and when they heard that jet it
looked like the whole field was covered with popcorn the rabbits by the thousands
were jumping straight up and down. Later, when we finally got the jets, theyd sit
right next to one and never move at take-off probably deaf.
Harper was a ticket agent for Southwest Airways when it served San Jose
through Moffett Field and came to San Jose Municipal Airport in 1950 as a clerk-
typist in the office, working his way up to assistant manager. He retired in 1980.
The California Taxpayers Association reported at the end of 1956 Santa Clara
was still the fastest growing of the 12 Bay Area counties, adding nearly 40,000 to its
population during the year.
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Valves were turned on at San Joses completed sewage treatment plant near
Alviso in November 1956, Mayor Robert Doerr presided at the ceremonies.
A Redevelopment Agency headed by electrical contractor Roy Butcher was
created in October 1956 to administer the citys first project, Park Center.
The worlds first airborne hydrogen bomb was exploded in the Pacific by the
Atomic Energy Commission, Wall Streets Dow Jones average peaked at 521.05 and
Floyd Patterson became world heavyweight boxing champion.
1957
The municipal airports 6-story aluminum tower, built at a cost of $141,000,
was dedicated in ceremonies June 7, 1957. Renzel was in charge of the program, at
which City Manager Hamann noted the tower was the first phase of a construction
project which would provide a terminal building, realignment of the Guadalupe River,
and extension of runways.
Four days later on June 11, voters approved a $3,500,000 bond issue to
finance runway expansion, construction of a new administration building, purchase of
the remainder of needed land, and removal of obstructions. Soon after, federal
funds were forthcoming for realignment of the river.
San Jose State College celebrated its centennial in 1957, San Jose voters
approved $24,550,000 in civic improvement funds, the Greyhound bus depot moved
from Market Street to Almaden Avenue, and IBM moved to its new plant at Cottle
and Monterey Roads.
The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the worlds first man-made Earth
satellite in October, followed in November by Sputnik II which was visible at night
over the Santa Clara Valley.
The first U.S. civil rights law since Civil War reconstruction days was passed
by Congress in 1957, and a new transcontinental speed record of three hours, 20
minutes, 8.4 seconds was set by Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn.
1958
At long last, San Jose and Santa Clara city officials arrived at a compromise in
July 1958 allowing closure of Brokaw Road for runway expansion.
The compromise, in which San Jose would contribute $200,000 toward Santa
Claras road fund and help that city complete De La Cruz Boulevard as a
thoroughfare connecting with Bayshore Highway, allowed San Jose City Manager
Hamann to successfully renew the airports eligibility with the CAA for federal funds.
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The compromise came after the Federal Aviation Administration had opposed
as too costly San Joses idea of a tunnel to put Brokaw Road under the extended
runway for the airport.
An industrial park was under construction on the east side of the airport by
May 1958. Highway 17 wa
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