Just try to resist this memory-tugging aerial photograph of York’s Roosevelt Avenue Airport
Starting after World War II until the mid-1950s, York (Pa.) Airport operated on the west side of Roosevelt Avenue in the vicinity of Lincoln Park, which is on Roosevelt’s east side. The airport then moved back to its previous – and current site – near Thomasville. For part of that era, a second York-area airstrip bookended this west York landing area in east York, near the current location of Wal-Mart in the old York Mall. Also of interest: Ho, ho, ho – uh, Santa, hold on, The Grumbachers: ‘Builders and Heroes,’ Part III and For 15 years, old Kelsey Airstrip atop York Township hilltop flat spot for local pilots.
The booklet “The Record of the York Chamber of Commerce in the First Half of the Twentieth Century” is filled with wonderful photographs of the York area at mid-century.
Its emphasis on airports tied to the York chamber’s role as an advocate for the business community.
The booklet explains that the proximity to Harrisburg Airport was then shorter than the commute time of most major cities to their fields, particularly when the “new express highway,” Interstate 83, was finished.
Indeed, that’s true today… .
This meant that York countians could count on that airport rather than build a major regional field of its own. There just wasn’t enough air travel to justify that.
Still, the chamber applauded the two York-area, grass-runway airports then in operation: the York Airport along Roosevelt Avenue (this link leads to a photo that helps locate the airport in the big picture) and Valley Airways/York Whitehull Airport in east York along the Lincoln Highway.
According to the booklet:
“This early enthusiasm for air transportation service has not diminished, but has resulted in the establishment of two excellent airports so well operated that York has the reputation of having more private planes for business purposes than cities of similar size. Several industries are using these fields for the operation of their planes.”
Other posts with aerial views:
– Just try to resist studying this memory-tugging photograph
– Just try to resist studying this memory-tugging Sears photograph, Part II
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging photo of North York’s White Oak Park
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging aerial photograph of York Whitehull Airport and York Valley Inn and Playland and …
– So, can you find long-gone Springwood Park in this aerial photograph?
– Camp Security area of Springettsbury Township from the air
– Columbia-Wrightsville Susquehanna River bridges from the air.
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging photograph of northwest York, Pa.
– Just try to resist this memory-tugging aerial photograph of York’s Roosevelt Avenue Airport.
“The Record of the York Chamber of Commerce in the First Half of the Twentieth Century,” the source of the photograph for this post, courtesy of Joe Stein.
