Mitchel Air Base & Flight Line Historic District (East Garden City, New York)

 NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, interesting place, historic district, New Deal Depression Relief Project [1933-1945]

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Mitchel Field opened first as an army base in 1919, and first expanded in 1929 in a building program which replaced wooden shacks with elegant brick buildings that turned it into a major installation. The buildings included everything from private homes to dormitories, gyms, a theater, radio station, and a library. The center parade ground created a parklike atmosphere to contrast the military buildings.

The Army Air Corps Base was designed and engineered by the Army Corps of Engineers (possibly H.L. Parrish as lead) and built by the Ralph Jannotto Construction Company, a local Long Island contractor. Much of the field’s construction was also assisted by workers funded through the Works Progress Administration. Mitchel Field was built on a national standardized design established by the Office of the Quartermaster General demarcating building types, building locations, and general street and landscape plans, making it similar in concept to other Army Air Corps fields built around the country at the same time.

Mitchel Field closed in 1961. Many of the former buildings are intact, reused for educational purposes. The commissary building is still used as a commissary. Dozens of former officers' quarters--some of which are used today to house military personnel stationed in the area--still grace the tree-lined streets. The Firefighters Museum and Children's Museum of Long Island are housed in former hangars. The larger brick buildings are classrooms or administrative offices for Nassau Community College. The headquarters of the First Bomber Command is now used as Building 105 for Nassau CC. Although the complex is no longer used for aviation, a TRACON facility which regulates air control is still located nearby.