San Jose International Airport History

San Jose International Airport
By 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. 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 Also on this early committee were Andrew Swickard, representing the County Surveyors Office,
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Pat Loomis, Author
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 400plus 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. 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 Earl C. Bradford and
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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, Another speaker was suggested the airport committee meet with the Council.
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. onions. The use of the property in those years was strictly agricultural, the primary crop being Every so often the Los Gatos Creek and the Guadalupe would The trustees would not spend a overflow and flood a portion of the land. 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
dime to improve the property, so there it sat waiting for something to
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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. 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 The U.S. Senate voted $4 million for an began at San Jose State College. One of these, known as the White House, stood at Newhall and Spring Streets on airport property until moved
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 Americanmade 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. study of alternative sites. This statement was later repudiated by the CAA on the grounds the agency had made no
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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 Edward R. Sharp, administrative officer of the new Central Airport Committee.
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. recreation department. Food Machinery Corp. tested its first armored tank, and San Jose formed its first
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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 11acre 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 Benito influenza epidemic. Allied forces captured Guadalcanal and invaded Southern Italy. 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 reelected 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. $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. Each of the three put in
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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. 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 The suit also
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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. 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. It is our [the citys] duty to protect the
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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. 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. Lester Keaton, coordinator for San Joses civilian defense forces, was placed in charge of the emergency housing
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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 5050 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. $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. project. 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. So Id tell Marcus Id say Okay, Whaley I had a little problem and why didnt he fix it and charge it to the Race Street Sometimes Flannery would catch us and give us heck. Harold, but the repair was done, and the next time we would do the same thing I put down something like
Pat Loomis, Author
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 Citation, with Eddie Arcaro up, won U.S. racings prevent a nationwide rail strike. 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 4,500foot 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
Pat Loomis, Author
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.
Pat Loomis, Author
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. expansion of the runway. However, in 1951 radio equipment worth $8,000 was donated to the airport, along with a grant to allow 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, commercial basis. CBS began broadcasting color television programs on a 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
Pat Loomis, Author
annexation fight between San Jose and Santa Clara. interesting.
Thats what made it so
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. 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. They
Pat Loomis, Author
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, Her aircraft and other memorabilia were pioneered glider and sailplane flying.
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. 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. General Dwight Eisenhower was elected president of the United States and Rocky Marciano won the world
Pat Loomis, Author
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. Bird flyers, who had flown before 1914, were introduced. Eight Early 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.
Pat Loomis, Author
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 omnirange) 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. 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. Electronic computers were showing up in
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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. dam on Uvas Creek. Voters in February approved a $2,111,100 bond issue for the South Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District to build a 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. 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 clerktypist 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. It was at night and the pilot was talking to the Moffett control tower and looking at the lights
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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. 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. Soon after, federal
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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 was nearing completion (to be rechristened Interstate 880 in the mid-1980s). The CAA celebrated its 20th anniversary with open houses at several Bay Area airports, including San Jose Municipal Airport, where the new control tower was opened to visitors. A federal grant of $107,400 was received for realignment and acquisition of the PG&E high power line right-of-way at the airport, and another 53-plus acres were added to the airport with purchase of land north of Brokaw Road between Kifer Road and the Guadalupe River from the estate of San Jose businessman Douglas H. Sim for $391,902. Formation of an airport commission to assist Airport Manager Nissen was proposed in 1958. That year San Jose moved into its new City Hall near the site of the original pueblo on Mission Street in the north part of the city, and the city revealed plans to extend the city limits all the way south to Morgan Hill. For the first time in the 20th Century the Democrats won control of the State Legislature. Democrat Edmund G. Pat Brown became governor, succeeding Republican Goodwin J. Knight. San Joseans noted an increase in daily living costs with gasoline up to 30.4 cents a gallon, round steak $1.04 cents a pound, blue jeans $3.75, and the San Jose Mercury and Evening News costing five cents at newsstands. Nationally, the year 1958 saw the New York Giants become the San Francisco Giants, founding of the John Birch Society, launching of the first U.S. Earth satellite, and introduction of the BankAmericard by Californias Bank of America. The Boeing 707, the first U.S.-built commercial jet airline, went into service in 1958. 1959 In 1959, the City of San Jose hired the engineering firm of Radar & Associates to study the needs of the airport and develop a master plan. administration building. The City Council approved hiring of an architect to design the proposed airport terminal and
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In June, the City Council authorized purchase of two buildings containing 20 hangars from H.G. Wanderer, Sunnyvale electrical contractor, for $27,000. purchase agreement with the city. Fair director. Early in January 1959, an aerial wake was held at the old San Jose Airport on King Road, forced to close because of spreading Tropicana Village subdivision. A highlight was an airmail flight to Oakland in one of Cecil Reids old Fairchild biplanes, recreating the service begun in 1929. San Jose in 1959 approved the 935-acre Riverside 1B annexation extending along Monterey Road to Morgan Hill and filed on annexation of 2,446 acres in the Evergreen area. A total of 4,295 acres were added during the year, pushing the citys size to 52.2 square miles. Eucalyptus trees planted along Alum Rock Avenue in the 1880s were cut down to widen the road late in 1959. The Korean War began in 1959 with the invasion of Communist North Korean forces into the Republic of South Korea on June 25. The first Xerox copying machine was introduced, as was commercial use of cyclamates for artificial sweeteners. 1960 Radar and Associates completed its report in 1960, finding the temporary airport terminal to be at capacity and the 4,500-foot runway inadequate. They recommended a new 6,300-foot runway with a wheel load capacity of 45,000 pounds and terminal facilities to accommodate the 500,000 passengers expected by 1967. The firm also recommended the existing runway be extended to 7,800 feet with a 60,000 wheel load capacity, and future (1969-70) increase in terminal facilities to handle an expected million passengers using the airport by 1970. meet the need of 1970. A federal grant was awarded to San Jose in November for construction of a second runway. A.J. Raisch Paving Co. was awarded a $549,863 contract for runway paving, lighting, drainage, and fencing at the airport. County supervisors in 1960 were considering buying Reid Hillview Airport to handle small private planes, an idea endorsed by Airport Manager Nissen who City Manager Hamann recommended the city spend $1,500,000 to provide terminal facilities to The structures had been financed four years previous by Wanderer under a leaseWanderer was a flyer, sportsman, and County
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pointed out San Jose Municipal Airport facilities for private planes were rapidly reaching capacity. San Joses population reached 204,196 in 1960, nearly doubling in a decade. During 1960, two old San Jose hotels, the San Jose and the Letcher, were demolished for construction of the Coleman-Market Street overpass. The 1902 Carnegie Library on the San Jose State College campus, used in recent years as the Student Union, was torn down to make room for a six-story addition to the Colleges library. County Supervisor Oran Slaght, member of the 1939 airport committee, died while on a hunting trip. Airport Village, San Joses emergency housing development on its municipal airport property, reached ghost town status and was closed. The old barracks were removed to make room for airport expansion, and City Engineer Harold Flannery in a 1985 interview recalled some of these went to enlarge facilities at the airport terminal. The original section was concrete and at one time included an observation deck and restaurant. In 1960, the address was still 401 Newhall Street. This was also the address of Uncle Rays Flying Service and Dee Thurmonds Flight School (Miss Thurmond won the Powder Puff Derby in 1963). Wright Bros., Baker Aircraft Sales, Liallard, and San Jose Avionics Co. were also located at 401 Newhall. Lockheed Aircraft Corporations air transport division had an office here in 1960. The old terminal buildings were still serving general aviation as late as 1989, long after Newhall Street had become Airport Boulevard and municipal airport had changed its name to San Jose International. Nationally, 1960 saw Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy elected president, use of aluminum cans for food and beverages for the first time, and development of the Xerox 914 copier which marked the beginning of the revolution in paperwork reproduction. 1961 During the first half of 1961, a new 4,400 foot runway was completed and the original runway was extended to 6,975 feet.
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Word was received in March 1961, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) had approved an allocation of $97,438 for airport improvements and to reimburse the City of San Jose for land acquired for runway clearance. Also in March, a kite flown by a 15-year old resident of nearby Rosemary Gardens subdivision caused several planes to swerve out of their landing patterns at San Jose Municipal Airport. In November 1961 the city, through Airport Manager Nissen, submitted an application for $1,027,807 from the FAA for runway extension, parking aprons and a fire and rescue building. The county acquired Reid-Hillview airport this year. Late in 1961, the Coleman-Market project was underway, and San Jose had put up $53,000 to extend De La Cruz Boulevard north from Kifer Road to the new interchange on Bayshore Highway north of San Jose Municipal Airports runways thus fulfilling San Joses agreement with the City of Santa Clara to help construct an alternate route to Brokaw Road. Fire, late in December, gutted the 17-room historic Leet Mansion at 1550 The Alameda. Monte Serenos new city hall, built after the Citys Council cut the tax rate from 15 cents to 10 cents, was completed. The County Hall of Records on North First Street was torn down this year, and San Joses first airport hotel, the Hyatt, opened a few blocks north, a mile from the airport. The University of Santa Clara accepted women undergraduate students for the first time, becoming the first Catholic coed institution of higher learning in California. The new interchange at Bayshore Highway for De La Cruz Boulevard was being completed in 1961. In national news, the year saw Alan Shepard, Jr. make the U.S. manned space trip on May 5. The Peace Corps was created by President Kennedy, Washington severed relations with Cuba, and the Bay of Pigs invasion in April ended in disaster and embarrassment for the U.S. 1962 Planning for a $1,800,000 air terminal begun in 1962, but it would be two years before construction began. A proposal for a $1,300,000 hotel to be built above the terminal building was turned down by the City Council in December on grounds it would delay construction
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of the terminal building, it did not conform to the airports master plan, and no plans for additional parking had been submitted. The main runway was extended another 812 feet, giving it a final length of 6,312 feet and enabling larger aircraft to land at San Jose Municipal Airport. A special subcommittee to attract more commercial passenger and cargo airlines to San Jose was appointed in 1962 by the aviation committee of the Greater San Jose Chamber of Commerce, consisting of developer Joseph Reiter, Nissen and Renzel. The City of San Jose faced other than airport problems in 1962, including arrest of its treasurer for theft of thousands of dollars in parking meter funds, an election which saw defeat of a new city charter, and start of the Park Center urban renewal project which would be an ongoing development for years to come. Construction began in 1962 on the first Santa Clara County leg of Junipero Serra Freeway, a segment extending west from Route 17. Emma Prusch gave San Jose 86 acres at King and Story Roads for a park. Santa Claras city government moved to the new Civic Center on Warburton Avenue. San Joseans were treated to a rare sight on Sunday, January 21, when snow covered lawns and sidewalks. The National Farm Workers Association was founded in 1962 by Cesar Chavez. President Kennedy embargoed nearly all trade to Cuba. The first of U.S. Earth orbits were launched February 7 by astronaut John Glenn in the Mercury Capsule Friendship 7, and NBCs Tonight Show introduced host Johnny Carson. 1963 In January of 1963, the San Jose Mercury published an article in which Airport Manager Nissen expressed disappointment in the seven percent increase in passenger traffic and a decline in the number of landings and take-offs. However, he noted the airport had grown to the point where it contributed more than $600,000 in gross revenues and more than $100,000 in net revenues to the city treasury. Only a couple of years ago, the article noted, the biggest percentage of the airports net revenues came from agricultural pursuits. lands acquired for future expansion of the port. Even last year (1962) agricultural operations accounted for about $45,000 of the airports profits from
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New runway lighting and instrument landing systems were installed at the airport in 1963, along with the ports own fire-rescue facility, a 4-unit hangar for larger plans, and concrete parking aprons. Improvements totaled nearly $1,500,000. It was in 1963 the San Jose airport commission was formed, and at its first meeting on October 16 the seven member commission recommended the City Council uphold the planning commissions denial of a $1 million apartment complex project on Ruff Drive within the airports landing pattern. Former Mayor Paul Moore was elected chairman of the new airport commission, whose members were Dave Tatsuno, Gene Verbrugge, Alfred A. Alves, Harry J. Williams, Robert Clark, and Dr. Edmund Elligott. United Air Lines, American Air Lines, and TransWorld Airways were negotiating in 1963 to make San Jose an alternative port for provisional landings and departure points. The first such permit was issued to United in November, allowing the airline to use the San Jose Port when San Francisco International Airport was closed due to weather. San Jose and the entire nation and world were stunned by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. This was the year Martin Luther King made his I have a dream speech. Weight Watchers was founded by a New York housewife, and first class postal rates went up from 4 to 5 cents an ounce. Happenings making news around the city in 1963 were construction of the Community Bank Building, a landmark looming above the citys skyline, and the explosion which wrecked J.C. Penney, Co. and Thrifty Drug Store at First and Santa Clara Streets, killing five persons. This year the county set a new record for murders and murder trials, the most dramatic being the conviction of Dr. Geza De Kaplany for the bizarre killing of his beautiful wife. The City Council changed the name of Rosa Street to Hedding on June 10, 1963. Widening of San Carlos Street to four lanes between Market and Fourth P.G. Robinson, who had been on the 1939 committee for Streets was completed. the airport, died. 1964 The big airport news in 1964 was start construction of the new terminal building next to the control tower. Carl N. Swenson Co. was awarded the contract on
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a bid of $1.4 million and ground-breaking ceremonies April 27 were conducted by Mayor Robert Welch and City Manager Hamann. Tower controllers on July 6 announced the airports millionth flight. This was the year the San Jose State aeronautics program moved out to a five-acre site on airport land along Coleman Avenue. The SJS aeronautics program dates back to 1935, four years before the first moves toward a municipal airport were made, and nearly a decade before there was a School of Engineering (of which aeronautics became a part) at SJS. Thomas Leonard came to San Jose State in 1946 and in 1952 became head of aeronautics at the college. Between those years aeronautics students shared basement quarters with engineering in the old science building and then moved into a couple of quonset huts on the south side of the campus between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Leonard and his wife took a summer to visit universities and colleges in the east to see how they handled aeronautics, and decided the SJS department needed to get out to Municipal Airport. San Jose State dealt directly with Sacramento in those days, and Leonard and the college administration began negotiations to get land at the San Jose Municipal Airport. The city was very cooperative and agreed to lease the five acres, but the state wanted to buy the land on which to put an aeronautics building. It was a lot of work on Toms part, Nissen said in a 1987 interview. The state finally agreed to lease the land, and I believe it was the only case up to that time where a state college facility was built on leased land. Leonard, who agrees the aero lab at the airport is the only one in the state college system so located, recalls the building was dedicated in May 1964. Later in the same year, Leonard received one of many awards for his part in aviation and aerospace education. This was the Wheatley Award given by United Airlines. The airport had a rash of minor problems toward the end of 1964, including an invasion of millions of sow bugs which slicked runways after a rain, and which were closely followed by sea gulls flying in for a free lunch. The incident, needless to say, made aircraft landings tricky. About this time, Mrs. Virginia Shaffer, a member of the City Council, voiced opposition to the city entering into a contract with a firm installing pay toilets at the airport. She said she found the plan most distressing. Two weeks later, the City
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Council overruled her objection and approved a contract by which the city and the toilet lock company would split profits. Action on complaints, the City Council agreed to allow the new airport commission to act on airport matters other than just those referred by the council, except land use and zoning matters, which still must be referred by the council. The Pacific Aviation Directory for 1964 lists San Jose Municipal Airport at 401 Newhall Street. Firms at the port included Cardinal Airways, Flightland Co., FMC Air Transportation Department, Lockheed Missile & Space Co., Harris Airmotive, Pacific Aero Sales, Sierra Aircraft Co., Shaws Aircraft, San Jose Aircraft, Wright Bros., San Jose Avionics, Inc. and car rentals. In 1964, the Kennedy half-dollar was showing up on change in San Jose shops and zip codes were beginning to be required by the post office. This was the year Arizona Republican Senator Barry Goldwater was defeated by Lyndon Johnson for the presidency, the U.S. Surgeon Generals report linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer, former President Herbert Hoover died at 90, an 8.4 earthquake rocked Alaska, and topless bathing suits were introduced. Marcellus Clay became world heavyweight boxing champion. 1965 In February 1965, the San Jose City Council authorized a quarter of a million dollar bank loan to build hangars and parking strips at the airport, to be paid off by lease of the facilities. May set a new record with 27,828 operations logged at San Jose Municipal Airport, according to air controllers. It was also announced San Joses port ranked as the 16th busiest airport among 278 in the nation where the FAA operated control towers. The new terminal building was opened September 16, 1965, with a ribboncutting ceremony presided over by Mayor Joseph Pace, Airport and Chamber of Commerce officials. Formal dedication was delayed for completion of the restaurant and cocktail lounge. Harold Flannery, City Engineer in the pre-war years of the airport, and Director of Public Works for 22 years until his retirement in 1964, recalled that during the terminal opening ceremonies a visitor came up to me saying Nothing will every fly out of here except puddle jumpers. Cassius
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Boy was he wrong! The Airport has been a success from the start, Flannery said in a 1985 interview, two years before his death. Regarding the new terminal, Airport Manager Nissen said, We took the philosophy that we did not want it to look like a big building or the Taj Mahal. We felt we could have better service and get more passengers if it looked small keeping the selling point we had for convenience. We did the whole thing in-house. We had our own engineering group and we had Hollis Logue, the architect, Nissen recalled in the 1987 interview. In October 1965, San Jose Municipal Airport controllers were awarded third place in the annual Air Traffic Control Associations facility of the year competition. Application for San Francisco-Oakland Helicopter Airlines service to San Jose was filed with the CAB, and the move won support from local Congressmen Charles S. Gubser and Don Edwards. In October, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) announced Automatic Terminal Information Service would be installed at the San Jose Municipal Airport to give pilots weather and field data for safer landings. Civil rights issues in Southern Californias city of Watts and in Selma, Alabama, touched San Jose and the nation during 1965. Area National Guardsmen were sent to Watts to quell the disturbance. Delegations of local students, The Japanese clergymen, lawyers, and full-time civil rights workers went to Selma. San Jose voters approved a new city charter in 1965. Friendship Garden in Kelley Park was formally opened by visiting dignitaries from San Joses sister city in Japan. Also opened this year was Good Samaritan Hospital. In June, Ernest Renzel, Jr., who had helped San Jose financially with the purchase of Kelley Park, came to the rescue again when the city needed money to buy Trader Lew Bohnetts collection of carriages and other items of history. U.S. bombers pounded North Vietnam and U.S. Marines landed at Da Nang. On June 28, a full-fledged combat offensive by U.S. troops began. 1966 Completion of the terminal and the addition of airline service by Pacific Southwest Airlines were 1966s two major milestones as remembered by Nissen, Renzel and the many who had been pushing and tugging for more than two decades in the frustrating, slow development of the San Jose Municipal Airport.
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Up until 1966, Pacific Airlines had been able to hang on to its monopoly and remain the only large air carrier flying out of San Jose. Late in 1965, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) and Air California filed applications to operate flights between San Jose and Los Angeles and early in 1966 PSA got its permit in time to begin flight operations in May. PSAs success in getting the permit and in its flight service 800 percent more passengers in July than Pacific Airlines had carried under its monopoly were incentives to other airlines to apply for permits to serve San Jose. These included United Air Lines and Western Airlines, but it was to be months before either was flying in or out of San Jose. It was noted in newspaper articles that the airport was one of the few city departments paying its own way. The airport, under the administration of Nissen, had 40 employees and an operating budget of $1.1 million in 1966. Jack Harper was the assistant manager. These were in addition to 40 small T-hanger units, 24 medium-sized hangers and 14 aircraft shelters rented to some of the owners of the 500 private planes. Tie-down facilities for other private aircraft were provided and the old main terminal building converted to general aviation use, continued to rent space for aircraft sales, instruction, rental and charter services. At this time (1966), San Jose was still primarily a general aviation airport with most of its takeoffs and landings by light aircraft. The more than 348,000 takeoffs and landings in the fiscal year 1965-66 put the airport in ninth place among the nations 300 FAA-regulated fields. The formal dedication of the $2 million airport terminal, already more than a year old, was held November 6, 1966. It was not large enough to adequately accommodate all the commercial airlines wishing to lease space. The same month a $3 million airport bond issue, defeated in February, was approved by voters. During the year, the San Jose City Council voted a half-million dollar loan for runway and taxiway improvements and to qualify for a $150,000 federal grant. Also, 36 new hangars were constructed in 1966 on the east side of Coleman Avenue to relieve the parking problem for private planes. Free parking at the airport was halted after Nissen reported the city was losing an estimated $60,000 annually.
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The City Council late in 1966 approved preliminary plans for a $200,000 restaurant, bar and coffee shop to occupy the terminals second floor. In other matters, San Jose voters turned down a move to return the seat of city government downtown. this year. The Redevelopment Agency initiated San Joses San Antonio Plaza project, and the Mercury News successfully kept Swift & Co. from building a meat packing plant in San Jose. U.S. bombing of North Vietnam began in January 1966, and other events of the year included founding of the National Organization of Women (NOW), the start of the Medicare program of health care for the elderly, and seating of Mahatma Gandhis daughter as prime minister of India. The television series, Star Trek was born this year. 1967 In 1967, United, Western, American, Trans-World and Delta Airlines, all operating ticket counters in the new terminal, were authorized by CAB to fly any of their San Francisco routes east out of San Jose, but none began long distance flights immediately. Air California became the third airline to serve San Jose (not counting San Francisco-Oakland helicopter service), inaugurating flights to Orange County in October. In July 1967, the San Jose Municipal Airport control tower learned it had won the FAA award for best in the 11 western states, based on lowest number of operational errors and other criteria. The airport commission approved opening of an area north of the terminal for automotive rental service. In August, the federal allocation of nearly $300,000 for lengthening and strengthening the main runway was announced. The work would enable the port to handle the largest of jet airliners. San Jose voters in 1967 rejected five charter amendments designed to provide funds for library, police, fire, and other departments. Ronald James became the first directly elected mayor since 1916. The Pacific Telephone building was constructed at San Fernando Street and Almaden Avenue. The new main U.S. Post Office on Meridian Avenue was dedicated March 13, and Stanford Universitys linear accelerator was completed
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The nation was rocked by anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and race riots. The worlds first heart transplant was performed in Capetown, South Africa, and the U.S. population passed the 200 million mark. 1968 In 1968, following a report from Stanford Research Institute determining Santa Clara County contained 22 percent of the population of the entire Bay Area and originated 25.5 percent of the air passengers, the City Council agreed San Jose would need a larger airport. The report showed that since 1950 the population of the county had doubled, but the air passenger percentage had tripled. Passenger volume for 1968 reached one million. In November, the City Council awarded $707,900 contract to Herwig Construction Co. for expansion of the terminal building. The contract provided for a two-story addition with a 440-foot south concourse, more airline gates and offices. Lengthening of the main runway, adding 1,113 feet to extend the runway to 7,425 feet, was accomplished by October. Jet aircraft had no trouble landing at San Jose the following November when fog socked in San Francisco and Oakland ports. A restaurant and coffee shop were finally opened in August 1968, allowing passengers a choice instead of only the snack bar. Noise problems in the approach area cropped up in the late 1960s with PSAs turbo-prop engines. Although Nissen remembers we had some good neighbors around the airport and rattling dishes didnt cause too many complaints at first, with increased traffic the noise problem grew. He said the airport worked with airline pilots to develop noise abatement procedures and the city started buying up homes in the approach area to the south. Nissen said the FAA declined to help with the buying of homes, so the city went ahead and did it, and were eventually reimbursed by the FAA. On the matter of noise abatement, San Jose Municipal Airport was really the forerunner in working out this problem. Actually, it was Nissen who worked with the pilots to cut down on the noise. He awarded plaques for noise abatement procedures. PSA was the best airline to work with, Nissen said, and PSA got a lot of publicity for cutting down the noise by making steeper approaches.
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Other happenings around San Jose in 1968 included annexation of Alviso to San Jose and arrest of 26 parking lot attendants for theft of $100,000 in parking fees. The first heart transplant was performed at Stanford Hospital. Interstate 280 was under construction through San Jose. from 1947-1954, died. Richard M. Nixon became president of the United States, oil was discovered on Alaskas North Slope, Redwood National Park was established along 40 miles of the California coast, and Joe Frazier became the new heavyweight boxing champion after Mohammad Ali was relieved of his U.S. title for refusing induction into the Army. U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King were victims of assassins. San Jose Municipal Airport and the Santa Clara Valley entered the major leagues of air travel in 1969 with the beginnings of transcontinental service. 1969 United Airlines Boeing 727s roared down the main runway bound for Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York, and a dream that began more than 30 years ago was realized. The date was August 20, 1969. In this year, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose airports formed the Bay Area Study of Aviation Requirements (BASAR) with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. BASARs study indicated San Jose would need a larger financing to accommodate a need for a larger airport to meet future needs, and there was talk of buying orchard and farming land north of Bayshore Freeway and below Alviso. Then Airport Manager James Nissen said there was an effort to get private investors. There was opposition from Alviso residents, the San Jose Mercury News and others. We flew approaches to see if San Jose Hospital was in the way, he said, and he said opposition from the newspaper, which had recently moved to its new plant at Highway 17 and Brokaw Road, was eliminated when it was proved the nearby trains made more noise than the airplanes. It was about this time that aviation billionaire Howard Hughes was talking about building a big airport out in the desert. A $100 million had been set aside for Paul Birmingham, an Airport Engineer
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that, Nissen remembered in the 1987 interview, but it started going down the tubes and so we said what about Hughes coming in with that $100 million and buying our land? Francis Fox (who in 1972 was to become Director of Aviation at San Jose Municipal Airport) was Hughes director of aviation in 1969 and he got a group together and came and looked at the site. Hughes Corporation agreed to buy it and sell us the land we needed for the airport, (with the idea of) making their money on development of the peripheral land, Nissen recalled. In all this we couldnt say a word about it publicly because property values would jump if it was know Hughes was after it, Nissen said. Controversy and opposition from the City Planning Commission stalled the move and the Hughes people backed out, so we ended up dropping it. Nationally, the year 1969 saw two astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin, walk on the moon; the average wholesale price for American automobiles reached $2,280; Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Cost with winds of 190 m.p.h. Locally, ground-breaking was held for San Joses Center for Performing Arts, San Jose was named an All-American City, and an era ended with retirement of A.P. Dutch Hamann who had served nearly 20 years as city manager and helped with city growth from 95,044 residents to more than 400,000. Thomas Leonard, Aeronautics Chief at San Jose State College, was named to the Governors Aerospace Aviation Education Committee. All the work, the land battles, the losses and wins at the voting polls, the broken promises, the often frustrating dialogue between the city and the aviation powers, all seemed to have paid off in 1969 as those big planes lifted off on their flights across the continent. The next two decades would see the flying field reach major airport status worldwide and exchange its municipal title to international. By the 1980s, the Valley would be known throughout the world as Silicon Valley, center of the electronic industry. Before the airport reached its 50th birthday, a $33 million expansion project to allow the port to handle 9.6 million passengers a year by 1990 would be underway.
Pat Loomis, Author
Problems some familiar, would still plague growth parking, overcrowding of facilities, noise factors and the need for more land to carry the airport into the 21st century. Raul Regalado would be Director of Aviation in the 1980s and he would echo his predecessor Jim Nissen, saying our City Council and our business leaders have been very supportive and farsighted, allowing us to accomplish the necessary planning and being willing to commit resources. Starting with the little 10-cent tax which provided funds to begin buying the land, the doers greatly outnumbered the aginners, and such names as Renzel, Nissen, Flannery, Hamann, Birmingham, and Leonard must be remembered.

San Jose International Airport History

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San Jose International Airport History

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San Jose International Airport

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dime to improve the property, so there it sat waiting for something to

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aeronautics laboratory (NASA) as Moffett Field.

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annexation fight between San Jose and Santa Clara. interesting.

Thats what made it so

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