“The End”

In February 1959, after Miami International Airport moved to its new 20th Street location, passenger operations at Pan Am’s historic 1928 36th Street airport terminal were discontinued. Substantially altered from its original appearance and long deemed outmoded and inadequate, the terminal seemed destined to become something of a white elephant, serving no distinct purpose. At one point, it was used to house a kitchen for flight catering services. At another, it housed federal export control offices.

In late 1962, the historic building was simply torn down, razed to make way for a $6.2 million expansion (later revised to $7 million) of Pan Am’s MIA base. The demolition was widely recognized as the end of an era.

A model for the country

When the terminal was inaugurated, in January of 1929, it was the first “purpose-built” passenger terminal in the nation, designed specifically to provide comfortable waiting and lounge facilities for commercial air travelers at a time when such air travel was still very much in its infancy. As the first official Port of Entry for airline travelers on the U.S. mainland, there were special areas set aside for customs and health officials. It also had a restaurant and tearoom. For thirty years, from 1929 until 1959, the building was a foremost hub of both Miami and international aviation. It served not only Pan Am, but Eastern, National and several other airlines, and after being acquired by the Dade County Port Authority on January 1, 1946, Delta and innumerable others. For decades, the sight of its distinctive domed roof for arriving passengers was a welcome beacon, signaling that they had arrived in Miami.

Out with the old, in with the new…

By May 16, 1964, the proposed expansion that had necessitated the demolition of the old terminal had become a reality. Where once stood “Old Roundtop” was now an architecturally stunning, ultra-modern Pan Am Latin American Division administration building. Nearby, to the west, was a huge new jet overhaul base.

Shortly after the inauguration, the new administration building acquired a nickname around the airport — the Taj Mahal. The name was given because of the building’s similarity to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, a deliberate design decision made to reflect Pan Am’s global reach.  Those who are familiar with the building continue to call it by that name today.  In 1965, the Administration Building was additionally modified to accommodate Pan Am’s first centralized flight service training school, which became known as Pan Am’s Stewardess College.  The Stewardess College included classrooms, student training facilities, grooming rooms, galleys and a full-scale mock-up of a jet clipper cabin.  From that time forward Pan Am’s main stewardess training programs were centralized in Miami.

The new jet overhaul base was given the mission of keeping Pan Am’s entire fleet of 72 jets and 57 propeller aircraft flying.  Covering a two-block area and called a City within a City, the new facility included 660,000 square feet of air-conditioned space.  Hangars, shops and offices, as well as two 350-seat cafeterias, a medical department, a personnel department, base security offices and credit union offices were all housed in the new 36^th Street complex.