Name/Title
Documents about Alameda Navy Airbase, 1926-1937Entry/Object ID
2012.7.16Scope and Content
Accession No. 12.7.16 A-E
Subject Category: City of Alameda
Date or Period: 1926-1937
Object: File Folders
Description: A-C: Acid-free, legal size manila file folder with documents, marked Navy Airbase Folder # 1, 2, and 3, D: Map, handdrawn in pencil on manila paper, E: Blueline (diazo print / whiteprint) map labelled City of Alameda and Vicinity, California.
Size: A-C: each: L 14 3/4” X W 9”; D: L 16” X W 28”; E: L 22” X W 20”
History of Objects: Folders and maps pertaining to the Alameda Airport as proposed site for Naval Air Station.
A: correspondence about plans for a pacific coast military base. The original offer from the City had lapsed in 1925, but interest picked up again, and Mrs. Belle Lisle promoted this; Mayors Adams,(1929) and Murray (1933-1934) and City Managers Hickok (1926-1934), Bryant (1933-1934) and Fritz (1935) picked up on it. Bryant/Murray appointed a committee of themselves, A.K. Tichenor (Alaska Packers), A.C. Keane (attorney), H. G. Spaulding (Times-Star), Frank Bruzzone (Baker, Hamilton & Pacific Co.), and E.G. Ryder (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway & Chamber of Commerce).
B: correspondence of City Manager Fritz (1936) and Schwanenberg (1937), and Mayors Hans W. Roebke (1936) and Henry A. Weichhart (1937), regarding the proposed Naval Air Station; includes a blueprint map showing sections leased 1927, 1928, 1929; an Aerial photo showing the Alameda Airport with breakwater line of destroyers, and a high altitude aerial photo showing the S.F. Bay Airdrome, Benton Field, and Alameda Airport (operated by Curtiss-Wright until 1933), and copies of published Acts of Congress and the House of Representatives. Also includes the apparent result of the 1930 election (Government Island - Coast Guard grant and Benton Field Army grant).
C: Includes 3 photos, one torn in half, with ‘Alameda Airport’ and ‘Proposed Army Base’ marked in by hand, and irregularly cut off lower and upper edge. Photo shows lines which appear to be from cracks in the negative. A second photo is of a check, the third of a seaplane, stamped on verso by Clyde H. Sunderland, and by office of B. Ray Fritz.
D: depicts different lines of the bulkheads for the proposed site, vs. the original line;
E. initial plans for drydocks and piers, on which the new bulk-head area from D. is marked in red.
Acquired from: City of Alameda
Cataloged: February 18, 2012
