Rockwell Field
Encyclopedia
Rockwell Field was an Army air base located in Coronado, California
, near San Diego. It shared the area known as North Island with Naval Air Station North Island
from 1912 to 1935. Its functions were eventually moved to March Field so that the naval air station could take over the whole area. Historic and architecturally significant Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings from Rockwell Field are now the 'Rockwell Field Historic District of the North Island' base and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
pilots, and North Island was the school's first permanent location. The Aviation School was officially established on North Island in 1912.
In 1910, climatic conditions, flat terrain, good beaches and protected stretches of water attracted Glenn H. Curtiss, aviation pioneer and Wright Brothers
' competitor, to North Island, where he founded an aviation school. At that time North Island really was an island, separated from South Coronado on the Silver Strand
peninsula by a narrow bight of water. Both North Island and South Coronado were privately owned, but North Island had not been developed. In January 1911, Curtiss signed a contract with the owner of North Island to use the land for three years for a flying school, which was established in February 1911. Curtiss invited the Army and the Navy to send officers to his new school for flying training. The Army sent three airmen to the Curtiss school in early 1911, but they were ordered to Texas
before completion of their training. During the winter of 1911 to 1912, the Navy sent three pilots to the Curtiss school for flying training.
The Army's Signal Corps Aviation School relocated the Curtiss
airplane group from its original location at College Park, Maryland
, to North Island during November to December 1912 instead of to Augusta, Georgia
, as it had the previous winter. The Wright
group, organized as the 1st Provisional Aero Squadron
, came to North Island after mobilizing in Texas in March. The Army flyers established a tent camp at the north end of North Island, and for about a year, the Signal Corps Aviation School rented airplanes and hangar
s constructed for the Curtiss school. None of the buildings from this early period, constructed on the north end of the island, are still extant. Existing historic and architecturally significant buildings reflect the use and development of Rockwell Field from 1918 to 1935.
On July 20, 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School was named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in the crash of Wright Model B
, Signal Corps 4, at College Park on September 28, 1912. Also in July, the United States Congress
authorized the President
to proceed with the taking of North Island for Army and Navy aviation schools. There was a needed for trained military pilots as the United States had entered World War I earlier in the year. President Woodrow Wilson
signed an Executive Order in August 1917 for condemnation of the land, which was still privately owned. The Army turned over the north end of the island to the Navy and relocated to the south end of North Island, the location of the Rockwell Field Historic District. The Navy's first occupancy of North Island occurred on September 8, 1917, but Congress did not authorize the purchase of North Island, for $6,098,333, until July 1919. The Army selected well-known Detroit industrial architect, Albert Kahn, to develop a site and building designs. Permanent construction of Kahn's design began in mid-1918. During World War I, Rockwell Field provided training for many of the pilots and crews sent to France
. It also was the source of men and aircraft for the 6th Aero Squadron, and the 7th Aero Squadrons, which established the first military aviation presence in Hawaii
and the Panama Canal Zone
, respectively.
After World War I, construction came to a complete standstill. Rockwell Field was demoted from one of the major United States Army Air Service
training fields on the West Coast to an Aviation General Supply and Repair Depot in 1920 and redesignated again as Rockwell Air Intermediate Depot in 1922. By 1922 there were only 10 officers, two warrant officers, 42 enlisted men, and 190 civilians employed at the airfield.
However, the base figured in numerous historic achievements in aviation during the 1920s. Lt. Jimmy Doolittle
landed there in September 1922 after establishing a new record for the first transcontinental flight within a single day. The first nonstop transcontinental flight, originating at Roosevelt Field, New York, was accomplished by Army pilots and ended at Rockwell Field in May 1923. On June 27 of that year, pilots from Rockwell Field (Capt. Lowell H. Smith and 1st Lts. John P. Richter, Virgil Hine, and Frank W. Seifert) conducted the first complete aerial refueling
between two airplanes. In the first week of 1929 the field was an operating location for another air refueling operation, in which a Douglas C-1
transport performed 27 sorties refueling the modified Atlantic-Fokker C-2 nicknamed the Question Mark. Charles A. Lindbergh's flight from New York
to Paris
in May 1927 originated at Rockwell Field on North Island on May 10, 1927, when Lindbergh began the first leg of his journey.
As the Navy's emphasis began shifting from seaplanes to the land planes used on aircraft carrier
s, its requirement for land increased. Eventually, agreement was reached within the War Department to grant the Navy complete control of North Island. After visiting the air station and the Army airfield on an inspection tour in October 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an Executive Order transferring Rockwell Field and all of its buildings to the Navy. The Army moved most of their aircraft to March Field in Riverside, California
, but it took another three years to completely phase-out Army activities at North Island.
The historic and architecturally significant buildings of Rockwell Field form the southeastern quadrant of what is today the Naval Air Station, North Island (NAS North Island). The buildings were designed in the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival Style
s. The Kahn-designed Mission Revival Field Officers Quarters (later married officers quarters) are reinforced concrete-framed, in-filled with hollow terra cotta
tile and finished in buff color stucco
. Kahn's Mission Revival hangar
s (Buildings 501, 502 and 503 from 1918) are similar in materials with red clay tile, gable
d roofs. They were built to the same plan: a rectangle
, 135 feet by 70 feet, with 30 feet clear to the ceiling. A low, flat-roofed, lean-to on the east side of each contained offices. Located on the bluff edge at the North Island end of the Coronado-North Island causeway, the Army-Navy Gate House/Meter Room (Building 505, 1918; later Meter House) functioned as the gatehouse
for both Rockwell Field and NAS San Diego. This group of buildings reflects the War Department's plan to create buildings that would be appropriate for Southern California, and illustrates Kahn's "Spanish military" design implemented at Rockwell Field.
Coronado, California
Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...
, near San Diego. It shared the area known as North Island with Naval Air Station North Island
Naval Air Station North Island
Naval Air Station North Island or NAS North Island is located at the north end of the Coronado peninsula on San Diego Bay and is the home port of several aircraft carriers of the United States Navy...
from 1912 to 1935. Its functions were eventually moved to March Field so that the naval air station could take over the whole area. Historic and architecturally significant Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings from Rockwell Field are now the 'Rockwell Field Historic District of the North Island' base and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
The field was originally called the Signal Corps Aviation School. It was the first U.S. Army school to provide flying training for militaryMilitary
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
pilots, and North Island was the school's first permanent location. The Aviation School was officially established on North Island in 1912.
In 1910, climatic conditions, flat terrain, good beaches and protected stretches of water attracted Glenn H. Curtiss, aviation pioneer and Wright Brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
' competitor, to North Island, where he founded an aviation school. At that time North Island really was an island, separated from South Coronado on the Silver Strand
Silver Strand
Silver Strand may refer to:* Silver Strand , an action film directed by George Miller* Silver Strand Beach, a beach neighborhood in the city of Oxnard, California, also referred to locally as Silverstrand Beach...
peninsula by a narrow bight of water. Both North Island and South Coronado were privately owned, but North Island had not been developed. In January 1911, Curtiss signed a contract with the owner of North Island to use the land for three years for a flying school, which was established in February 1911. Curtiss invited the Army and the Navy to send officers to his new school for flying training. The Army sent three airmen to the Curtiss school in early 1911, but they were ordered to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
before completion of their training. During the winter of 1911 to 1912, the Navy sent three pilots to the Curtiss school for flying training.
The Army's Signal Corps Aviation School relocated the Curtiss
Glenn Curtiss
Glenn Hammond Curtiss was an American aviation pioneer and a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry. He began his career as a bicycle then motorcycle builder and racer, later also manufacturing engines for airships as early as 1906...
airplane group from its original location at College Park, Maryland
College Park, Maryland
College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S...
, to North Island during November to December 1912 instead of to Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
, as it had the previous winter. The Wright
Wright Company
The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them in 1909 in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing on their invention of the practical airplane. It maintained a...
group, organized as the 1st Provisional Aero Squadron
1st Reconnaissance Squadron
The 1st Reconnaissance Squadron is a United States Air Force reconnaissance training unit based at Beale Air Force Base, near Marysville, California. It is the oldest squadron in the Air Force, and the first organization to be established as a U.S. military flying unit...
, came to North Island after mobilizing in Texas in March. The Army flyers established a tent camp at the north end of North Island, and for about a year, the Signal Corps Aviation School rented airplanes and hangar
Hangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
s constructed for the Curtiss school. None of the buildings from this early period, constructed on the north end of the island, are still extant. Existing historic and architecturally significant buildings reflect the use and development of Rockwell Field from 1918 to 1935.
On July 20, 1917, the Signal Corps Aviation School was named Rockwell Field in honor of 2nd Lt. Lewis C. Rockwell, killed in the crash of Wright Model B
Wright Model B
|-See also:-References:* * * * * * -External links:* *...
, Signal Corps 4, at College Park on September 28, 1912. Also in July, the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
authorized the President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
to proceed with the taking of North Island for Army and Navy aviation schools. There was a needed for trained military pilots as the United States had entered World War I earlier in the year. President Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
signed an Executive Order in August 1917 for condemnation of the land, which was still privately owned. The Army turned over the north end of the island to the Navy and relocated to the south end of North Island, the location of the Rockwell Field Historic District. The Navy's first occupancy of North Island occurred on September 8, 1917, but Congress did not authorize the purchase of North Island, for $6,098,333, until July 1919. The Army selected well-known Detroit industrial architect, Albert Kahn, to develop a site and building designs. Permanent construction of Kahn's design began in mid-1918. During World War I, Rockwell Field provided training for many of the pilots and crews sent to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It also was the source of men and aircraft for the 6th Aero Squadron, and the 7th Aero Squadrons, which established the first military aviation presence in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and the Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
, respectively.
After World War I, construction came to a complete standstill. Rockwell Field was demoted from one of the major United States Army Air Service
United States Army Air Service
The Air Service, United States Army was a forerunner of the United States Air Force during and after World War I. It was established as an independent but temporary wartime branch of the War Department by two executive orders of President Woodrow Wilson: on May 24, 1918, replacing the Aviation...
training fields on the West Coast to an Aviation General Supply and Repair Depot in 1920 and redesignated again as Rockwell Air Intermediate Depot in 1922. By 1922 there were only 10 officers, two warrant officers, 42 enlisted men, and 190 civilians employed at the airfield.
However, the base figured in numerous historic achievements in aviation during the 1920s. Lt. Jimmy Doolittle
Jimmy Doolittle
General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, USAF was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a brigadier general, major general and lieutenant general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War...
landed there in September 1922 after establishing a new record for the first transcontinental flight within a single day. The first nonstop transcontinental flight, originating at Roosevelt Field, New York, was accomplished by Army pilots and ended at Rockwell Field in May 1923. On June 27 of that year, pilots from Rockwell Field (Capt. Lowell H. Smith and 1st Lts. John P. Richter, Virgil Hine, and Frank W. Seifert) conducted the first complete aerial refueling
Aerial refueling
Aerial refueling, also called air refueling, in-flight refueling , air-to-air refueling or tanking, is the process of transferring fuel from one aircraft to another during flight....
between two airplanes. In the first week of 1929 the field was an operating location for another air refueling operation, in which a Douglas C-1
Douglas C-1
-References:NotesBibliography* Forden, Lesley. The Ford Air Tours: 1925-1931. New Brighton Minnesota: Aviation Foundation of America, 2003, First edition 1972. No ISBN....
transport performed 27 sorties refueling the modified Atlantic-Fokker C-2 nicknamed the Question Mark. Charles A. Lindbergh's flight from New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in May 1927 originated at Rockwell Field on North Island on May 10, 1927, when Lindbergh began the first leg of his journey.
As the Navy's emphasis began shifting from seaplanes to the land planes used on aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
s, its requirement for land increased. Eventually, agreement was reached within the War Department to grant the Navy complete control of North Island. After visiting the air station and the Army airfield on an inspection tour in October 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt issued an Executive Order transferring Rockwell Field and all of its buildings to the Navy. The Army moved most of their aircraft to March Field in Riverside, California
Riverside, California
Riverside is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, and the county seat of the eponymous county. Named for its location beside the Santa Ana River, it is the largest city in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area of Southern California, 4th largest inland California...
, but it took another three years to completely phase-out Army activities at North Island.
The historic and architecturally significant buildings of Rockwell Field form the southeastern quadrant of what is today the Naval Air Station, North Island (NAS North Island). The buildings were designed in the Mission Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival Style
Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture
The Spanish Colonial Revival Style was a United States architectural stylistic movement that came about in the early 20th century, starting in California and Florida as a regional expression related to history, environment, and nostalgia...
s. The Kahn-designed Mission Revival Field Officers Quarters (later married officers quarters) are reinforced concrete-framed, in-filled with hollow terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
tile and finished in buff color stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
. Kahn's Mission Revival hangar
Hangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
s (Buildings 501, 502 and 503 from 1918) are similar in materials with red clay tile, gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d roofs. They were built to the same plan: a rectangle
Rectangle
In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is any quadrilateral with four right angles. The term "oblong" is occasionally used to refer to a non-square rectangle...
, 135 feet by 70 feet, with 30 feet clear to the ceiling. A low, flat-roofed, lean-to on the east side of each contained offices. Located on the bluff edge at the North Island end of the Coronado-North Island causeway, the Army-Navy Gate House/Meter Room (Building 505, 1918; later Meter House) functioned as the gatehouse
Gatehouse
A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...
for both Rockwell Field and NAS San Diego. This group of buildings reflects the War Department's plan to create buildings that would be appropriate for Southern California, and illustrates Kahn's "Spanish military" design implemented at Rockwell Field.
See also
Source
- National Park ServiceNational Park ServiceThe National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
's National Register of Historic PlacesNational Register of Historic PlacesThe National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
and Regional Offices, in partnership with Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical ParkDayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Parkthumb|left|200 px|The Wright Flyer III, now in Carillon Historical Park, shown being flown by Orville Wright on October 4, 1905, over [[Huffman Prairie]] near Dayton...
, United States Air ForceUnited States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers.