Baker Airport / Culver City Airport (site) (Culver City, California)

 airport, interesting place, historical layer / disappeared object

According to the book "Los Angeles Aeronautics 1920-1929" by David Hatfield this airport was originally known as Baker Airport.
It was opened in 1927, and was owned by Frank Baker & operated by Bob Blair.
Paul "Pete" Leaman conducted primary flight training at the Culver City Airport starting in the 1930s.
It had 2 runways in an "L" shape.
The Airport Directory Company's 1937 Airports Directory described Culver City Airport as having 2 sod landing strips, with the longest being a 2,400' northwest/southeast strip.
A hangar on the west side of the field had "Culver City Airport" painted on the roof.
Their first planes were listed as a Waco10, an OX-5 Jenny and a Hispano Suiza powered Ryan M-1. Later, when they had a dealership for the Buhl Aircraft Company's planes, it was Buhl Pacific Aircraft company, managed by Bob Blair. Mrs. Margaret Blair was a flyer and she was reportedly active in the flight operations which included flight instruction, passenger and charter flights.
The Blair school taught many notables, including Clark Gable, James Stewart, Ruth Chatterton and Henry Fonda.
The Buhl company and the airport were sold in October, 1928, to Flying Incorporated, owned by William G. McAdoo, Jr., (a former naval aviator), W.E. McManus, Jr., (formerly with the Royal Air Force), and a San Francisco aviator by the name of Lansing Pedis. Their chief pilot was Harry Ashe.
Eventually this airport was named the Culver City Airport, and city founder, Harry Culver, who purchased a plane in 1928, flew out of it. The airport was not actually in Culver City until much later. In the 1920s this unincorporated patch of Los Angeles County was shown on local maps as Mesmer City, a planned real estate subdivision which failed to materialize for a couple of decades.
The Culver City Airport was a progressive little airport, with numerous women pilots, and a it's own Goodyear Blimp. Jean Kleopfer Barker took flying lessons at the age of 16 for $8 a lesson. "Pete" Leaman was the operator/manager of the airport. When this well-known instructor taught her to fly, he asked her if she "ever dropped her cookies," as he prepared her to land through the utility wires, a quick and difficult maneuver.
After the war, a number of locals got their licenses at the Culver City Airport. Many used the G.I. Bill to get their commercial licenses.
Pete Leaman purchased the Culver City Airport in 1941, and ran it for the rest of the airport's life.
Culver City Airport was commonly known as 'Lach Leaman', lach being the Gaelic word for lake, apparently. This was because in winter rains the area just did not drain,
so a flooded-out airport was not an uncommon occurrence."
The Culver City Airport was not depicted at all on the 1942 USGS topo map (but that may have been a case of censorship due to wartime security concerns).
The Aero Design & Engineering Corporation began operations at Culver City Airport in 1944. In 1950, Culver City's Aero Design & Engineering Corporation sold their design to Aero Commander Inc.
Culver City Airport was reportedly closed in 1950.
By 1951 a Mayfair Market had opened on the site of the former Culver City Airport, and behind it Sunkist Park Housing.
The hangar area became an Earl Scheib Store (eventually becoming a Firestone store).
Culver City Airport was no longer depicted at all on the September 1954 USAF LA Sectional Aeronautical Chart, and the airport had been replaced by streets on a 1953 road map.
Much of the property is occupied today by the intersection of the 405 & 90 Freeways.
The surrounding area is densely developed, and not a trace of the former airport appears to remain.

www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/1992/articles/oct_92/o...
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