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Historic
Memphis Airport |
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...in
Vintage Photos
and Postcards |
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Memphis entered the air age in 1927 when Mayor Watkins
Overton created the Municipal Airport Planning
Commission. Their first task was to choose a site
for the airport. They chose Ward Farm, a 200 acre
tract located 7 miles from Downtown, where there was
room for future growth. The Memphis Municipal
Airport, consisting of 3 hangers and a sod runway, was
dedicated June 14, 1929. By the following year,
the airport had its first lighted runway and as many as
15 passengers a day arriving and departing from the
airport. The two carriers serving the airport were
American Airways and Chicago & Southern Airlines.
J. Walker Canada, Jr, piloted the first plane to land at
the new field, |
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By 1956 a
new Airport Planning Commission was named and their first order of
business was to plan a new terminal to meet the demands of the "Jet
Age". That new terminal, designed by architect Roy Harrover,
was dedicated in 1963 and the name of the Airport was changed to
Memphis Metropolitan Airport. The name was changed again in
1969 to Memphis International Airport, to reflect the city's
status as a point for international passengers and cargo to enter
and exit. |
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Click on the small photos to see an
enlargement. |
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The Airport
Opening 1929 |
Airport
Circa 1929 |
Airport
Circa 1929 |
Opening
Air Show 1929
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For the
opening of the new airport in 1929, a tremendous air show was
produced. More than two hundred planes and pilots flew in to
celebrate the opening. The sod runway was improved in 1934
when 3 asphalt diagonal runways were constructed. |
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The Airport 1934 |
1936 |
1938 |
1937 New Terminal planned |
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The first
modern terminal was built in 1938 to meet the demands for increased
commercial passenger service. Four new Carriers came to
Memphis in 1939 after the modern terminal opened - Braniff,
Capital, Eastern, and Southern Airlines. With them
came the DC-3 aircraft and the "air age" was well on its way. |
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1929 Americn
Airlines |
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Braniff,
Capital, Eastern, Southern Airlines and the DC-3 aircraft come
to Memphis in the late 1930s and 1940s |
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The Airport Planning Commission spent over $50,000 and made
numerous trips to Washington to get Memphis on the U. S. airmail
route. It worked. The first official Airmail letter arrived
in Memphis via a Ford Tri-motor plane at 11:30 AM on June 15, 1931.
It was from New York and traveled to Memphis via Cincinnati. |
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First Airmail 1931 |
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First Airmail to Memphis |
First Airmail |
First Airmail |
Vintage Airmail Service |
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However, before that 1931 flight to deliver OFFICIAL U. S.
Air Mail, mail had been delivered by air to Memphis as early as
1918. This vintage photo by Memphis photographer, Clifford
Poland shows the first delivery of mail by air. |
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When the United States entered
World War II, the U.S. Army assumed control of the Memphis airport
facilities. The airport was used as a hub for sending aircraft
overseas and was responsible for the delivery of critically-needed
items to every theater of the war. The military use of the
airport halted any real airport expansion and progress but as soon as the war ended
airport officials began
responding to demands for passenger travel. By 1947 the
original terminal was enlarged and a Master Plan was begun to improve the
runways for larger planes. By 1949 six major carriers were
landing in Memphis. |
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1941 |
Aerial
view 1941 |
1943 |
1949-50 |
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1950's |
1953 |
Vintage |
Korean Vets
1951 |
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1954 |
Airfield 1956 |
1962 |
Data Sheet |
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There
was also an airport on Mud Island, dedicated in 1959.
Owned by Memphis and leased for private operation, it was the
first airport in the U.S. built so close to a downtown.
Business travelers were the primary travelers. There was a
great slogan, "You're strictly uptown when you land downtown".
The Mud Island airport closed in 1964. |
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1964 Last flight -Mud Island |
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By the
late 1950s, the
Airport Planning Commission announced that it would build a spacious
new terminal to
accommodate the new jets. When the
$5.5 million terminal opened in 1963, the airport name was
changed to Memphis Metropolitan Airport, and it featured 22 gate
positions - enough space for seven airlines to operated daily flights.
The new terminal was designed by architect Roy Harrover in the
Contemporary New Formalism Style. The building has received
national praise and awards from the American Institute of Architects.
In 1969, the airport's name was changed again to Memphis International
Airport to reflect it's status as a point of entry. The
airport terminal capacity more than doubled over the next 10 years. |
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Postcard |
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<
Commercial Appeal . June 7, 1963 . Dedication Issue
Gail des Lauriers of Lexington KY came across a box of old
newspapers that her mother, Mrs. Bradley des Lauriers, had
saved. Among the papers was this 1963 "Dedication
Issue" for the Memphis Metropolitan Airport, which Ms. des
Lauriers graciously forwarded to this website. It's a
large file and may load slowly. Please be patient. |
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June 7, 1963 |
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Memphis
International Airport received a huge boost in 1973 when FedEx was
founded in Memphis, and the company built a sorting facility and an
administration building on the airfield. This package-sorting
complex, now know as the "Super Hub", as well as the company's
around the clock operations, have combined to make Memphis
International the number -one busiest cargo airport in the world for
18 consecutive years. In 2010 it was overtaken by Hong Kong
and is currently #2. |
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Fed Ex |
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In 1985,
Republic Airways chose Memphis as one of its hubs, which dramatically
boosted passenger service. A year later Republic merged
with Northwest Airlines. This began a series of construction
projects so the airport could keep up with the increase in traffic.
These projects included expanding baggage handling facilities,
updating food and beverages facilities, repaving runways,
construction of a new maintenance complex, enlarging passenger
waiting areas, and a new control tower. The Airport Authority
also completed work on their Master Plan which included constructing
a third parallel north-south runway, and building a new
International Arrivals Facility. The new International
Arrivals Facility opened in 1995 and the first flight was Northwest/KLM
Airlines Memphis to Amsterdam. It looked good for Memphis.
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Master
Plan |
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But in 2008, Delta Air Lines purchased Northwest. Although
during the negotiations, Delta promised not to change the
Memphis Hub, they began cutting flights immediately, and the KLM
flight to Amsterdam was dropped in September 2012. Memphis
is just too close to Delta's headquarters in Atlanta. By
the fall of 2013 Delta officially dropped Memphis as a "Hub". |
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Delta |
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As of
August 2013, Memphis International Airport continues to feel the
impact of Delta's cuts. In spite of their disappointment,
airport officials say, at least on the record, that Delta's
downsizing may come with a silver lining, allowing the airport
to attract or recruit other carriers and services that may have
been scared off by Delta's presence. And to help
this work, the Airport Authority board has approved a new
"incentive policy" aimed at making the Airport more attractive
to new air service providers. |
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In 2011, Memphis was
named "the most expensive U. S. airport to fly out of "
- and that's not an honor. |
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Memphis Airport Memorabilia |
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Airport
Souvenir 1930 |
Original
American Logo |
Chicago-So Logo |
Republic
Logo |
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| Aviation
School at the airport |
Braniff Stewardesses 1930s |
C-S Map |
1950
Ad |
C-S
stewardesses 1940s |
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Republic
Postcard |
Hertz Ad |
1st Airmail Stamp 1918 |
"See Tennessee" Tour -1957 |
"See Tennessee" Tour-1957 |
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Memphis Belle arrives 1946
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Matchbook |
AA agent Marilyn Thoni |
Braniff Airline |
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1931
Airmail Stamp |
Control |
TWA
Inagural Flight 1984 |
Police
Patch |
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| Vintage
Airport Hanger |
First
Corvair arrival |
Airport
Canteen WW2 postcard |
Airport
Patch |
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| Cockpit
Ashtray |
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Dobbs House |
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Credits |
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The
Historic-Memphis website does not intentionally post copyrighted
photos and material without permission or credit.
On
occasion a "non-credited" photo might possibly be posted because we
were unable to find a name to give credit. Because of the nature of
our non-commercial, non-profit, educational website, we strongly
believe that these photos would be considered "Fair Use. We have
certainly made no monetary gain, although those using this website
for historic or Genealogy research have certainly profited. If by
chance,
we have posted your copyrighted photo, please contact us, and we'll
remove it immediately, or we'll add your credit if that's your
choice. In the past, we have found that many photographers
volunteer to have their works included on these pages and we'll
also do that if you contact us with a photo that fits a particular
page. |
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The "Historic-Memphis" website would like to acknowledge and thank the
following for their contributions which helped make this website
possible:
Google
Earth, Memphis
Public Library, Memphis University Library, Memphis Law Library,
Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Press Scimitar, Shelby County
Register of Deeds, Memphis City Schools, Memphis Business Men's
Club, Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis City Park Commission,
Memphis Film Commission, Carnival Memphis, Memphis Historical
Railroad Page, Memphis Heritage Inc, Beale Street Historic District,
Cobblestone Historic District, Memphis Historic Districts, Vance
Lauderdale Family Archives, Tennessee State Archives, Library of
Congress, Kemmons Wilson Family, Richard S. Brashier, Lee Askew,
George Whitworth, Woody Savage and many individuals whose assistance is
acknowledged on the pages of their contributions. Special
thanks to Memphis Realtor, Joe Spake, for giving us carte blanche
access to his outstanding collection of contemporary Memphis photos.
We do not have high definition copies of the photos on these
pages. If anyone wishes to secure high definition photos,
you'll have to contact the photographer or the collector.
(To avoid any possibility of contributing to SPAM, we do not
maintain a file of email addresses for anyone who contacts us). |
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