1920-1930

Pan American Airport transforms Miami into an international gateway

Pan Am’s decision to build a luxurious international airport in Miami marked a turning point in the city’s history, catapulting it to the forefront of international air travel.

*Aerial view of Pan American Field looking south from NW 36th Street (1929)*. *The terminal is at center, flanked by two hangars on the east and **Pan Am Hangar 5** on the west. Photo courtesy UM Richter Library Pan Am Collection*

Miami is chosen for permanent base

After seven months of successful Air Mail and passenger service between Key West and Havana, in May of 1928 Pan American Airways began to explore options for building a larger, permanent base of operations in Miami. In June, following positive meetings with Miami aviation officials and negotiations with W. R. Comfort, president of the Seminole Fruit and Land Company, Pan Am leased 116 acres of land (with an option to buy) on the south side of N.W. 36th Street. Clearing, grading and sodding of the field began almost immediately and construction of a first steel hangar, 100 ft. x 100 ft. was undertaken.

Rapid progress is made

Under the supervision of Pan Am construction supervisor Captain J. E. Whitbeck and Pan Am airport engineer Fred Gelhaus, plans for a luxurious passenger terminal, the first of its kind in the country, were drawn up by the New York architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich. The terminal was to include a passenger waiting lounge, customs and health offices, an observation deck and restaurants. Pan Am’s bids for additional Air Mail Routes that extended beyond Havana to the Caribbean, West Indies and Central America had been approved by U.S. postal officials earlier in the year and the company was eager to move quickly. Arrangements to establish a ticket office and administrative offices in downtown Miami, at the Columbus Hotel, were successfully pursued and completed in early September. Construction of Pan Am hangars and airport facilities in Havana and Santo Domingo began in anticipation of the increased service.

First flight out: September 15, 1928

On September 15, 1928, regularly scheduled mail service between Miami and Havana was begun. At the controls was Pan Am senior pilot Ed Musick in the first of the airline’s twin-engine Sikorsky S-38 amphibians. It should be noted that although this date is frequently cited as the beginning of Pan Am’s NW 36th Street Airport operations, the “airport” at that time consisted only of a single hangar, itself scarcely completed. Work on the terminal building and a second hangar had only just started and the airport was not yet open to the public. “Moving Day” — transfer of the airline’s aircraft, equipment and personnel from Key West to Miami — was November 1, 1928, following completion of rolled rock runways earlier that week. Formal dedication took place in January of the following year (see below).

Aviation is key to future

Miamians eagerly followed every step in the process. As was noted by Miami historian Helen Muir in her book “Miami, U.S.A.,” after the double-whammy of the Hurricane of 1926 and collapse of the real estate boom, “Miamians clung to the promise of aviation as to a life raft in a storm.” At the time, Pan Am was the only U.S. airline to enjoy official government support to operate international routes — an exclusivity which lasted until the end of World War II. The airline’s choice of Miami as its major U.S. hub was welcomed with open arms. A full-page spread in the Miami Herald on October 21 described how the “Eyes of the Nation” were watching Miami’s air progress. A summary of the economic benefits of aviation to the city was published the next day.

At left: Pan Am’s $50,000 terminal under construction, 1928. Photo courtesy Miami-Dade Public Library, Romer collection.

Terminal designated as official U.S. port of entry, first on the U.S. mainland

On October 23, Pan American Airport was officially designated as an international port of entry by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, only the third such port in the nation after Key West and San Juan, PR, and the first on the U.S. mainland. The airport’s crushed rock runways were deemed to be almost complete and a date for the airport dedication — January 8th or 9th — was tentatively set in early November.

A historic photograph of one of the largest airport hangars in the United States, located at the Pan American airport on N.W. Thirty-Sixth Street. The building features a large clear span and is equipped with a shop headquarters and a tower for wind and radio aerials.

Pan Am Hangar 5

Also in December, bids were solicited for construction of the third, and largest, hangar to be added to the airport, Pan Am Hangar 5. The successful bid was made by the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company of Roanoke, VA. Measuring 100 ft. x 120 feet and built to the west of the terminal, Pan Am Hangar 5 was deemed to be the largest in the country at the time of its completion (April 1929). Today, Pan Am Hangar 5 is the oldest building at MIA and the only building that still remains from Pan Am’s 1929 airport. It is a rare, living link to the earliest days of U.S. international aviation.

At left: Pan Am Hangar 5, shortly after construction. Miami Herald, May 12, 1929

Thousands turn out for dedication ceremonies on January 9, 1929

The months of waiting and expectation for Miamians were finally crowned with a magnificent display of aerial preeminence over the week of January 6, 1929. On January 7th, the Municipal Airport in Opa Locka was dedicated with an aerial exhibition of the first All-American Air Maneuvers.

On January 9th, it was Pan Am’s turn. Thousands of spectators turned out to catch a glimpse of aviation celebrities like Amelia Earhart and were kept entertained by the sight of Pan Am planes departing for Havana, Santiago (Cuba), Nassau, Port-au-Prince, Santo Domingo and San Juan. Pan Am’s NW 36th Street Airport was by far the largest, most well-equipped and, for Miami, most important airport to ever be built in the city and the most well-appointed and well-equipped commercial airport in the country.

At left: Thousands of Miamians flocked to the new airport to witness the dedication ceremonies, January 9, 1929. Photo courtesy Gene Banning, “Airlines of Pan American since 1927.”

The week of January 9, 1929 was one of the most significant in Miami aviation history. Over that week, Miami’s transformation as a City of Aviation and gateway to the Americas moved from the realm of wishful thinking to a reality. Within months, Pan Am was operating regularly scheduled passenger service from Miami to the West Indies, Caribbean, Central and South America, launching a new era of international passenger aviation from the tarmac of Miami’s NW 36th Street.

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