Name/Title
La Roe AirfieldEntry/Object ID
3079Description
Photographs of La Roe Airport/ Bedford Airport, Bedford, NY.
Found online: This small general aviation airport was evidently established at some point between 1925-29, as it was not yet listed among active airfields in the 1925 Commerce Department Aeronautical Bulletins (courtesy of Jonathan Westerling). La Roe Airport was started was Dr. K. La Roe & later operated by Webster Schmaling, according to a 1935 NY Times Article. The earliest dated reference which has been located of La Roe Airport was that German parachutist Paul Wintermeyer was killed there in 1929 when his parachute failed to open, according to “Westchester: A Portrait of a County” by Alex Shoumatoff.he earliest depiction which has been located of La Roe Airport was a circa 1930 Westchester County map (courtesy of Thomas Genett), which depicted “La Roe Airport”, owned by Le Roe Airways Inc, and comprising 124 acres.The airport was depicted as being irregularly-shaped, with a complex of many small buildings on the northeast corner. Thomas Genett reported, “I [have] a receipt for my father's first airplane ride.
It was from a company called Mars Flying Service, Bedford Village, NY. In my father's handwriting it noted his first airplane ride 1930 Bedford Airport.”
Amid neighbor noise complaints & the Depression-era economy, La Roe Airport closed in the mid-1930s, according to a written history by Robert Kelly. Bedford Airport was no longer listed among active airfields in the 1945 AAF Airfield Directory (courtesy of Scott Murdock).