San Jose International Airport History

8/22/2019 San Jose International Airport History

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San Jose International AirportBy Pat Loomis

The San Jose International Airport had its birth in the declining years of the

Great Depression, when San Jose had a population of less than 68,000 and its

economy was linked to the thousands of acres of orchards that stretched out from its

city limits.

Aviation enthusiasm had been growing since the early 1920s when World War

I fly boys returned to put on exhibitions and conduct flying schools.

The little private air fields were inadequate, the runways, mud holes in winter,

were not long enough and lighting was poor.

Pioneering the idea of a major municipal airport were such men as Ernest

Renzel, Jr., Norman Breeden, Joseph Lowry, Pat LeDeit, Alden Campen, and early

aviator, Robert Fowler.

Topping the list was Renzel, wholesale grocer, member of the Junior Chamber

of Commerce and Rotary Club, whose name became linked to the steps that led to

land acquisition, funding and development up through the war years and beyond.

Many were involved, but if any one man can be called the father of todays

huge multi-million dollar International Airport, it should probably be Ernest Ernie

Renzel, Jr.

1938

Most histories of San Joses airport began with a meeting held in 1938,

attended by members of the local chapter of the National Aeronautic Association, a

group of young aviation enthusiasts, members of the San Jose Junior Chamber of

Commerce and Exchange Club.

However, a search of aviation news in the files of the San Jose Mercury News

shows as early as November 1928, voters rejected a $400,000 bond proposal to

provide a municipal airport, and in January 1929, a citizens airport committee was

formed, made up of three representatives each from the Merchants Association, San

Jose Realty Board, American Legion Post 89, San Jose Flying Club, Building Trades

Council, Central Labor Association, and the Chamber of Commerce. Also on this

early committee were Andrew Swickard, representing the County Surveyors Office,

City Engineer William Popp, and Robert Fowler.

The committee first met on January 22, 1929, and letters were sent to 118

realtors asking for offers of suitable land. Among the sites offered were several that


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History of San Jose International Airport Pat Loomis, AuthorPage 2

were to be studied a decade later. These included the William Prusch property on

the southwest corner of King and Story Roads, the David Kampfen land on the

southeast corner of King and Story, the Joseph C. Azevedo property on Story Road,

and a portion of the old Stockton ranch north of Newhall Street, then in the estate of

Mary Ives Crocker.

The 1929 committee selected the already existing flying field on Alum Rock

Avenue at Capitol Avenue (later site of James Lick High School). The Crocker land,

offered by realtor W.L. Atkinson, was the committees second choice, and its 400-

plus acres could have been purchased for $350,000. It was rejected on grounds the

site was not suitable because of poor drainage, unfavorable soil conditions, and costs

of building runways.

The same objections were to hold up approval of the same site beginning 10

years later.

For several months, airmail planes flew to Oakland out of the Alum Rock

airport, which was leased by Hudson Mead and Newton Orr, but before the end of

the year the field was ordered closed because of dust problems it created.

The airmail service to Oakland was resumed a short time later at a new San

Jose Airport on King Road just south of Story Road, a level 20 acres bought by West

American Aviation Co. from dairyman J.C. Azevedo. Mead and Orr were in charge of

the airfield and offered flying lessons, taxi service, charter trips, and crop dusting

service.

San Jose businessmen raised the money to install lights at the field in 1930,

and the airport continued to serve up through the decade. Earl C. Bradford and

Breeden were other operators of the airport.

Several commercial flights flew in and out of the King Road airport, one

making daily stops en route from San Diego to Vancouver, and Pacific Air Transport

operated the airmail flights to Oakland until 1933.

In the 1930s, San Jose State Teachers College (now university) operated an

aviation instruction school at the airport.

Late in 1935, Robert and Cecil Reid opened the Garden City Airport on Bonita

Avenue east of McLaughlin Avenue and south of San Antonio Street, which lasted

until 1938 when the port was condemned by the state for the extension of Highway

101. Reids Hillview Airport, at its present site, began operation the following year.

The Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) was created by an act of Congress in

1938, and Howard Hughes set a new around-the-world speed record flying from


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California and back in three days, 19 hours, 14 minutes and 28 seconds. Perhaps

these events helped to contribute local interest in a municipal airport San Jose could

be proud of.

As early as January 1938, a site in the Laurelwood area north of San Jose was

being considered. According to a newspaper story January 22, two officials from the

U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce approved the site for emergency landings when San

Francisco was fogged in. Commercial airliners were then using Moffett Field

(completed in 1933) or Livermore when San Francisco and Oakland were blanketed

in fog, and figures showed San Jose averaged only 18 foggy days a year, and that on

80 percent of those days the fog was gone by 10:00 a.m.

1939

The following year, the 1938 groups met in March of 1939 with civic leaders

and the newly created Central Airport Committee, headed by Joseph Lowry, realtor

with Cooper-Challen Realty Co. Clyde L. Fischer, president of the City Council,

suggested the airport committee meet with the Council. Another speaker was

Renzel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Aviation Committee.

A meeting of the committee was held March 14, 1939, with the City Council in

which City Manager Clarence B. Goodwin noted a large majority of the municipal

airports in the United States were operated at a loss, and Breeden, San Jose Airport

operator, who referred to the King Road port as a mud hole along a cow pasture,

claimed a municipal airport could be self-supporting.

LeDeit, member of the Central Airport Committee, noted any money we

invest in the property for an airport is a good, sound investment.

Council President Clyde Fischer appointed a seven-man committee to study

the issue. Ernest Renzel, Jr., was elected chairman. Others on the committee were

LeDeit, John Benevento, M.R. Bookwalter, Lowry, P.G. Robinson and Oran Slaght.

Options were obtained on several pieces of property, including four

considered back in 1920 - - the Crocker property, Kampfen and Prusch lands, and

the San Jose Airport site on dairyman Azevedos King Road land.

From the beginning, it was apparent the Crocker property was the front

runner.

In a 1985 interview, Renzel recalled when the airport was first broached, he

asked County Assessor Hayden Pitman where he thought would be a good spot for


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an airport. Pitman recalled this chapter in the airport history in a letter to Renzel in

March 1986:

As I remember, the Mary Ives Crocker property consisted of nearly 500 acres

and was the only property in one ownership of this size near or adjacent to

the City of San Jose. Mary was dead and the property, as a trust, was

handled by a large San Francisco firm.

Every year the agent protested to me about what in his opinion was

excessive amount of taxes levied against the property. The use of the

property in those years was strictly agricultural, the primary crop being

onions. Every so often the Los Gatos Creek and the Guadalupe would

overflow and flood a portion of the land. The trustees would not spend a

dime to improve the property, so there it sat waiting for something to

happen. It did.

You [Renzel] looking toward the future of San Jose and the Santa

Clara Valley, came to see me as County Assessor, because our office had

detailed maps of all properties in Santa Clara County.

You asked me if I knew of any property which might be suitable for

an airport. I immediately thought of the Crocker trust and showed you maps

of the property. Shortly thereafter the agent for the trust called me and

stated the trustees of the property had been contacted about selling and what

did I think of it. I remember telling him the trustees were not farmers and he

agreed.

It wasnt long before the property was sold and an airport was born.

I doubt if my advice had much to do with the sale.

From an economic standpoint the airport from the very beginning was

a huge success. Within the first year of its operation, 10 times more

assessed value was added to the assessment rolls from the properties in the

airport area than was lost by removal of the Crocker trust because of its

acquisition by a public agency, and the assessment rolls have been increasing

ever since.

Mrs. Crocker was the widow of Henry J. Crocker of the family which

included railroad magnate Charles Crocker. She owned several pieces of property in

Santa Clara County at the time of her death in an automobile crash near Menlo Park

in 1929. In getting an option on the 483.63 acres of land between Newhall Street


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and Brokaw Road, Renzel and the city dealt with Bronte M. Aikins, San Francisco

attorney for the six heirs.

Renzel recalled Aikins said the heirs wanted $625 an acre, but he told him

(Aikins) he doubted if the city could raise that kind of money, so we finally arrived

at $300 an acre.

In April 1939, the heirs of Mrs. Crockers estate agreed to accept the citys

offer for the land. A letter to Renzel May 20, 1930, from Aikins noted the heirs of

the estate had approved an option of the entire 483.398 acres of the Stockton

Ranch at $300 an acre. The option was for four months, and was signed by all of

those entitled to distribution of Mrs. Crockers estate and sent to Renzel in a letter

from Aikins dated June 5, 1939.

The option was extended in October of 1939 and again in June of 1940. The

extension bore the signatures of Henry J. Crocker, Mary Julia Crocker, Scully and

Marion Phyllis Crocker, individually, William L. McLaine, Henry J. Crocker, and C.H.

Lamberton as trustees of the trusts created by the will of Mary Ives Crocker.

The Crocker property was part of Rancho El Potrero de Santa Clara (the

pasture lands of Santa Clara), granted in 1844 by Mexican governor Manuel

Micheltorena to James Alexander Forbes, a Scot who became a Mexican citizen and

British vice-consul. In 1847, Forbes sold the rancho to Commodore Robert Field

Stockton, military governor since the U.S. conquest of California in 1846. The sale

price was $15,000 for 1,939.03 acres as confirmed by the U.S. government in the

1850s.

Commodore Stockton established a nursery for the propagation of fruit trees

and had a number of prefabricated homes shipped around the Horn from New

England for a subdivision called Alameda Gardens. One of these, known as the

White House, stood at Newhall and Spring Streets on airport property until moved

to Agnew Road and Bayshore in 1946.

The committee felt the Crocker land had the advantage of being close to

Moffett Field, as well as San Jose, and agreed with those who had inspected the

Laurelwood area a year earlier that the climate was right.

There was a lot happening in Santa Clara County in 1939, both related and

unrelated to aviation. The Civil Aeronautics Administration pilot training program

began at San Jose State College. The U.S. Senate voted $4 million for an

aeronautics laboratory (NASA) as Moffett Field.


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San Jose was building a bridge over Los Gatos Creek connecting Bird Avenue

and Montgomery Street, and Permanente cement plant was being built in the hills

above Cupertino to supply cement for construction of Shasta Dam.

Col. Charles Lindbergh inspected Moffett Field July 4, and there were two

plane crashes, one at the Almaden CCC camp and the other on Mt. Hamilton. A local

cow, Johanna Hester Prilly, set a world milk production record. Hewlett-Packard Co.

began manufacturing electronic devices in David Packards Palo Alto garage.

Nationally, aviation news in 1939 included the flight of the first American-

made helicopter and the beginnings of commercial trans-Atlantic

commercial/passenger air service with a flight from New York to France.

The first clouds of war loomed in Europe with the invasion of Hitlers army

into Poland on September 1, while Santa Clara Valley hunters were enjoying the first

day of dove season.

It was first proposed to ask the voters to pass a bond issue to pay for the

land and build the airport, but it was recalled the last bond issue to pass in San Jose

was in 1911 when the city wanted to buy some horses for the fire department.

Renzel remembered he talked to John Lynch (city clerk) who said San Jose

would never pass a bond issue.

But, Lynch said, you could go for a tax levy which only requires a majority

vote.

Finally, the City Council decided on a three-year, 10 cent tax levy to buy the

airport property. The election was set for May 6, 1940.

1940

Arthur Ayres, regional airport engineer for CAA, wrote, prior to the election:

Undoubtedly the proposed site had several qualifying features accessibility

to town and its proximity to the Bayshore highway and since it is located within

the city limits it should be an easy matter to zone the surrounding area.

Among the unfavorable features Ayres pointed out, were the 55-foot power

line, a 45-foot water tower, and the Guadalupe River meandering along one side of

the site. He said removal of the obstacles and straightening the river would probably

be the greatest cost of development and should be done first.

However, he said, it is my opinion this site can be developed. This

statement was later repudiated by the CAA on the grounds the agency had made no

study of alternative sites.


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A banquet was held in April 1940 to launch the election campaign for the

three-year tax increase. It was held at the DeAnza Hotel and sponsored by the

Central Airport Committee. Edward R. Sharp, administrative officer of the new

federal air research station being built at Moffett Field, spoke at the dinner and

expressed surprise that a city as large and progressive as San Jose had no

modern municipal airport. He said development of the research station at Moffett

would undoubtedly attract industries. Chairman Renzel said, San Jose must

capitalize on the fastest growing industry in America, the aeronautics industry.

Speakers at a later luncheon to push the vote included Jacqueline Cochran,

foremost American aviatrix, and Frank Fuller, holder of the transcontinental Bendix

speed record.

The Junior Chamber of Commerce was in charge of getting out the vote for

the May election, but it just so happened, Renzel recalled, the weekend before the

election there was a Jaycee state convention in Long Beach and because San Jose

wanted Parker Hathaway to be elected state vice-president, they all went down there

to support him.

The day of the election, May 6, there was nobody around so three of us went

down to the Chamber of Commerce and became the get-out-the-vote committee.

Clyde McDonald, Bob Robb and I sat there all day telephoning, and Im satisfied that

if we hadnt done that the measure wouldnt have passed. We had to switch only

112 votes.

Youd think, Renzel said, it would be like shooting fish in a rain barrel

everybody would be for it but the vote was 11,002 yes and 10,780 no.

There was never any open organized opposition, but there apparently was

behind the scenes opposition, Renzel said. He believes the Southern Pacific,

Clayton & Co. real estate, the First National Bank, the San Jose Mercury, all of whom

made up a cozy close relationship, may have been the reason for the slim passage

of the measure.

He said there were some aginners such as City Councilman Clark Bradley,

who said, according to Renzel, Why get a great big piece of property like this for an

airport? Its like building a four-story garage for one automobile.

Renzel, looking back at the close vote, noted if the measure hadnt passed

some smart realtor would have bought the whole works, 483 acres for $145,000.

It was the biggest steal in real estate history.


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In July 1940, W.F. Carroll, District Airport Engineer of the CAA, came up from

Santa Monica to inspect the airport site. He repeated what San Jose already knew

that the No. 1 problem was removal of the high-tension line along the eastern border

of the air field, but he seemed generally impressed with the site.

He provided a set of CAA requirements for the airport, needed to apply for

federal funds, and city crews worked through the summer preparing surveys on

which to base contour maps preliminary to grading.

Hopes fluctuated up and down that summer as Congress kicked around a

proposed $40 million fund to construct 250 new commercial airports, but when a bill

was finally passed, San Jose was not on the list of sites for air fields.

Also disappointing was the Armys disqualification of San Jose for an air force

base or retraining field because of its proximity to the citys center of population.

This had seemed a great advantage from a civilian standpoint, but the Army feared

enemy bombs dropped on the air field could wipe out the city.

In November 1940, the City Council appointed nine men to act in a consulting

capacity for the airport. The nine were Renzel, Lowry, LeDeit, Wally Longwitz, Dr.

Lawrence Foster, Alden Campen, Eddie Hawkins, Clyde McDonald and George Harter,

the latter chairman of a new group called Civic Progress Committee. City Engineer

W.L. Popp and his assistant, Harold J. Flannery, were also added to the committee.

In 1940, the first commercial flight using pressurized cabins flew from

LaGuardia Field to Burbank, California.

Besides the airport, other San Jose projects underway in 1940 included a

municipal ball park. San Jose State College was building a library, and a new dome

was under construction at Lick Observatory. The County paid $35,000 for 97 acres

of the Macomber horse ranch on Tully road for fairgrounds on October 2, 1940.

Census figures for San Jose showed a population of 68,298.

Ernest H. Renzel, Jr. was selected Young Man of the Year by the Junior

Chamber of Commerce for his work on the airport project.

In this year, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England, and the

first McDonald hamburger stand opened near Pasadena. The first peacetime military

draft in U.S. history began October 29.

The CAA, in 1940, had suggested the city prepare an obstacle map showing

the height of all structures, trees and other obstacles within a two-mile radius of the

airport, and indicated a definite decision would be made on the basis of this plan.


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1941

In February 1941, Assistant City Engineer Flannery announced preparation of

the obstacle map, and also that trees along Newhall Street were being removed as a

hazard to aviation.

City Manager Goodwin also announced at this time that development plans

must eliminate any structure, highway or other obstruction with 700 feet of a major

runway.

Flannery said all plans for the airport must be approved by the Civil

Aeronautics Board (CAB) before application can be made for Works Progress

Administration (WPA) grading and constructing of runways.

(WPA assistance had been discussed and it was felt by the city it would be

available to alleviate some of the costs to the city in construction of the airport.)

City Engineer Popp, Flannery and Goodwin went to Santa Monica in March

1941, to meet with the CAA officials and to deliver the obstacle map.

Results of that meeting were not overly encouraging.

The CAA first suggested the City of San Jose abandon the Crocker site

entirely. Then, it submitted its own suggested layout for the site which included

clearing all approach zones to a 30:1 ratio and proper steps to protect such

approaches; stringent zoning and enforcement and purchase of air rights and

acquisition of the lands before construction of the port was started. It recommended

more property be acquired to permit extension of runways, minimizing turning and

approach hazards.

The CAAs Supervisor of Airports Arthur Ayres, said if all these things were

done, then we will not raise further objections to this site.

By the summer of 1941, WPA had been so much curtailed it begun to appear

San Joses chances of getting a grant for construction were slim.

A letter from Ayres to Renzel dated June 10 refers to plans for development

of the airport prepared by Paul Birmingham, who had joined the City of San Jose as

municipal airport engineer, and who subsequently was credited with developing the

entire concept of the airport as it existed at the time of his death in the late 1960s.

In the letter, Ayres said the CAA had no knowledge of any possible allocation

of funds for the San Jose airport. He said a board composed of the Secretaries of

War, Navy and Commerce designated the locations for development of civil airports

as recommended as essential to national defense, and in view of the heavy


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concentration of flight activity in this whole Bay Area, it is doubted that such a

recommendation would be made.

Ayres, writing June19, noted it was mandatory that lands upon which

construction occurs under a CAA program be owned in fee simple by the sponsoring

agency. It is desirable that long-term options be arranged toward acquisition of all

lands northwest encompassed in the master plan, he said.

With the CAAs continued opposition, the airport committee grew impatient

and began urging the city to go ahead without the agencys support of WPA funds. It

was argued San Jose might not achieve a great airport, but they could have one that

is usable.

It was proposed the remaining obstructing trees be cut down, the power line

removed, the runway graded and oiled. Also, it was suggested a campaign be

launched to attract aeronautical industries to the area.

The City Council refused to bow to the wishes of the airport committee,

arguing that without the CAAs approval the airport could not be used for commercial

purposes and could not qualify for WPA aid or labor.

So it was back to the drawing board and the city began work on a new master

plan for the airport. It was to be ready to go back to the CAA on January 1, 1941,

and an application for a WPA grant was to go to Washington on February 1.

Then came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and all civilian airport

construction came to an end.

Looking back on 1941, the war in Europe was touching the U.S. and its people

long before that December day of infamy.

National defense activities picked up in 1941 and both civil aeronautics and

military authorities adopted more stringent policies regarding airport requirements.

In March, the San Jose unit of the National Guard was inducted into the Army.

On a sunny day in August, the USO Hospitality House at the south end of the City

Plaza was constructed.

On December 9, just two days after the Japanese attack on Hawaii, San Jose

had its first wartime blackout. This same day the first U.S. troops arrived to protect

the city.

Precinct captains were named December 12 by the Civilian Defense Council,

and on December 19 Brig. Gen. Robert C. Richards, Jr., arrived in San Jose to take

command of the Army headquartered in the Commercial and Knights of Columbus

buildings.


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1942

Navy blimps for submarine patrol took over Moffett Field on January 11,

1942, and tire and sugar rationing boards opened in February.

In spring 1942, Japanese residents of the county were evacuated to inland

camps, and vacant lots were being planted to victory gardens.

The war deflated the building boom and residential construction was frozen.

The only two major building projects in San Jose in 1942 were construction of Food

Machinerys $200,000 addition and the Anglo California National Bank.

The citys 1942-43 budget of $1,028,000 was the first in San Joses history to

exceed a million dollars.

On October 10, 1942, street lights were shielded. Gasoline rationing started

in November. City Engineer William Popp who had been instrumental in the early

planning of the airport, died November 28 and was succeeded by Harold Flannery.

The San Jose Mercury Herald bought the San Jose Mercury News.

Russell E. Pettit, secretary manager of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce,

announced receipt of a letter from James G. Ray, vice president of Southwest

Airways in Phoenix, Arizona, saying the Army and Navy had asked the Civil

Aeronautics Board to investigate the need for a feeder line for airmail service on the

west coast with a stop in San Jose.

Pettit and the Chamber also endorsed Henry J. Kaisers plan to build cargo

planes in the Santa Clara Valley, and suggested the plant be located on undeveloped

municipal airport land, neither of which came to pass.

The war in Europe and the Pacific escalated with headlines informing

Americans of the round-up of Jews by Hitlers government and the fall of Bataan,

Corregidor and the Solomon Islands to the Japanese.

K rations were packaged for U.S. troops by the Wrigley Company of Chicago.

The last U.S. automobile to be produced until after the war rolled off the Ford

assembly line in February as auto plants turned to production of materials for war.

1943

There were floods in Alviso to start off 1943, and later that spring San Jose

State College reserves were called to active duty in the armed forces. Food

Machinery Corp. tested its first armored tank, and San Jose formed its first

recreation department.


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In July 1943, the San Jose Merchants Association voted unanimously against

parking meters for downtown San Jose, and 600 Mexican Nationals arrived to help

with the harvest in the valley. On October 4, the City Council voted to buy the 11-

acre Brassy Orchard at 16th and William Streets for $12,571 to add to Coyote Park

after the war. Schools were closed a week in December 1943 because of an

influenza epidemic.

Allied forces captured Guadalcanal and invaded Southern Italy. Benito

Mussolini and his cabinet resigned July 25. Rationing of meat, shoes, butter, cheese,

flour, fish and canned goods began. The Chinese exclusion acts of 1882 and 1902

were repealed.

During the early war years, San Jose played a waiting game as far as its

municipal airport was concerned. The CAA was still holding up approval of the site,

although letters received by Renzel and the city officials from R.W.F. Schmidt of the

CAA kept the locals hopes alive.

On August 31, 1943, Schmidt wrote to Renzel, noting While we are a long

way from being sold on the airport site, the City of San Jose has now, if it can be

expanded properly across Brokaw Road, the power line removed, Guadalupe River

relocated, adequate clearances obtained and protected by enforceable zoning, we

can see no alternative but to proceed on the basis of developing the present

municipally-owned site.

I feel this airport would be devoted primarily to industrial and cargo

operation, however, and that private flying would have to be provided with one or

two other airports, Schmidt said.

Then on December 28, 1944, Schmidt wrote to then City Manager John

Lynch, noting among other points, the city should state it recognizes the necessity

for acquisition of lands north of Brokaw Road and south of Newhall Street to protect

any building and runway investment lying between the two thoroughfares, and that

closure of one or both may become necessary in contemplation of expansion to a

larger class of airport or to increase safety in operations.

Schmidt said there should be an admission from the city that CAA approval is

qualified and not a blanket sanction. He said he was surprised at the reluctance of

the city to formally accede to these admissions because the need for clarification of

position is so evident in all recommendations for city and community planning.

Schmidt in an informal note to Renzel March 23, 1945, said he wanted him

to know you can say to anyone, anywhere, any time, that the CAA has approved the


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site with certain recommendations which we are following and thats that. In this

and other letters Schmidt emphasized the amount of time four years and more

the CAA had devoted to San Joses Municipal Airport.

1944

Stepped-up production in county war plants marked the year 1944 with major

contracts including 30 generators ordered by Russia from Joshua Hendy Iron Works

in Sunnyvale and government contract awarded Food Machinery Corp. for

amphibious tractors.

Plans for extension of Bayshore Highway from East Santa Clara Street south

were presented to the County Board of Supervisors.

Politics shook City Hall with election of the Progress Committee slate to fill

City Council seats. New councilmen were Renzel, Fred Watson, James W. Lively, Ben

Carter, Albert Ruffo, and Roy H. Rundle. City Manager Goodwin was forced to resign

and was replaced by City Clerk John Lynch. William C. Brown became police chief

and Lester OBrien fire chief.

Topping world news in 1944 was D-Day, marking the June 6 landing of

176,000 allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. President Roosevelt was re-

elected to a fourth term, and the G.I. Bill of Rights was enacted by Congress.

1945

James M. Nissen, former Naval aviator and Pan Am pilot, was test flying at

Ames Laboratory at Moffett Field in 1945 when he and James Mathiesen, a college

friend who had served in the same Navy squad and who had gotten out of the Navy

the year before, heard San Jose was interested in trying to get an airport together

and came down to see what we could do.

On November 14, 1945, the City Council voted to lease 16 acres of airport

land to Nissen.

Ill never forget that evening with the City Council, Nissen said in a March

1986 interview.

It was in the old council chambers (Market Street City Hall) where you sat

nice and close to the council members with one rail separating the audience.

I wanted a lease of at least two years, so if the city cancelled in the event

federal funds became unavailable for development I would have some damages and

at least get my money back.


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The council agreed on the two years and said the city would pay some

damage if it had to cancel me out. Everything was fine until some John Doe in the

audience got up and said you cant do that the city cannot commit itself to any

liability greater than the rent theyre going to receive on the land. (Nissen had

offered to pay $20 an acre).

So, Nissen chuckled, the council declared a recess and went into City

Manager John Lynchs office to discuss it. It was decided I would get a one-year

lease with the option of renewing, and that I would take the gamble and there would

be no damages. Everybody thought I was crazy to get into it for only one year, and

they were probably right.

The City Council in approving the lease agreed that if federal funds were

made available during the year, Nissens rent would be refunded and any buildings

he had put up could be removed.

Nissen, Mathiesen, and Ray Stephens, a mechanic at Ames Laboratory,

formed a company called California Aviation Activities. Each of the three put in

$2,000. They planned a small runway, office and hangar.

By the mid-1940s the city had paid for the last of the original parcels

purchased from the Crocker estate and was buying more land, most of which was

leased for vegetable growing.

While Clarence Goodman was still city manager, he noted that although the

airport property had not been converted to the purpose for which it was bought, it

was playing an important role in the war effort by producing food.

In January of 1945 the city bought five fire trucks for $56,000. The San Jose

Historic Landmarks Commission was created, the Hyde-Sullivan study for a sewage

treatment plant was authorized, and a $1,700,000 bond issue to build storm sewers

was passed. Ernest Renzel, Jr. was mayor of San Jose.

On July 20, 1945, the city bought 69 acres of dairyman Martin J. Hass

property to add to the airport land.

World War II ended in 1945. President Roosevelt died and his vice-president,

Harry Truman, succeeded to the presidency.

The Beechcraft Bonanza single-engine private plane was introduced in 1945,

ballpoint pens went on sale, and frozen orange juice was pioneered in that year.

Late in 1945, the city sold 90 acres of airport land to Food Machinery Corp.

for $62,258, the amount the property was appraised by the San Jose Realty Board.


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FMC wanted the land because of its need for expansion, the company officials

said they would be forced to move out of Santa Clara County if the site could not be

obtained.

The property on Campbell Avenue with 10 acres along the Southern Pacific

tracks was needed for FMCs new Bean-Cutler Division of the company, laboratories

and administrative headquarters.

Its sale was protested and a lawsuit filed in 1946 charging bids should have

been called for and there should have been a vote of the people. The suit also

claimed there should have been a public auction.

Businessman John McEnery was a major protestant, paying for a large ad in

the form of an open letter to the public in the San Jose Mercury.

The matter was argued in Superior Court and while Judge John D. Foley

overruled the first two points in the lawsuit, he held that under the California General

Laws the City Council should have sold the land at public auction.

There was a lot of criticism that the price the city accepted for the 90 acres

was too low. City Manager John Lynch answered the city was interested in factors

other than price, especially in the industrial growth of the city and keeping FMC with

its high assessed valuation and large payroll in San Jose.

(FMC executive Emiel T. Nielsen, Jr. in 1987 disclosed taxes paid to that date

on the 90 acres amount to $30 million and salaries and wages paid by FMC came to

$1.7 billion.)

In the midst of the FMC controversy in 1945, Lynch noted the city, even at

the price paid for the 90 acres, had made a good profit on its original investment.

Cost of the land to the city in 1940 was $27,000, so sale to FMC would show a profit

of more than $35,000, plus rental on the land over five years.

The FMC sale was not resolved for another year (1946), at which time profit

to the city would more than double.

1946

Activity at the little flying field out on airport land began picking up early in

1946.

Nissen was still living in Los Angeles and working as an experimental test pilot

at North American in March, commuting back and forth to Los Angeles in a BT 13 he

bought after first trying commuting via commercial airlines. The family looked for a


16/49


place to buy in Southern California, but decided they didnt want to live there, Nissen

said.

Finally I decided Id come back. The operations at San Jose (California

Aviation Activities) had gotten into financial problems and I felt I either had to come

back and run it or just let it go with what I had in it, Nissen said.

The company borrowed some money and got a G.I. contract. The office and

hanger were built early in 1946.

I remember the hanger. I wanted to put up a temporary building, because it

was only for a couple of years, but the citys chief building inspector, Bob Lotz, said

there was no such thing as a temporary building and Renzel and everybody agreed

with him. So we had to build the hanger to code. It was over where the main

runway is now, Nissen recalled in that 1986 interview.

We had a fair amount of rain that winter (1945-46), Nissen said, and the

land which was planted to cauliflower was not only smelly but was adobe and hard to

work. We were begging and borrowing every farmers tractor and disc we could to

work the ground, and we did sometimes until 11 or 12 at night or until it rained

and we had to stop.

The company had a flight school and began flying off the little runway (less

than 3,000 feet long) in the spring of 1946, about the time Nissen and his partners

leased another 64 acres.

Although the airport was a private venture, which continued until 1948, the

fact it was operating out on municipal airport land gave a boost to the dreams of

those who had been pushing for the port so many years.

The CAA in February 1946 approved a plan for development of municipal

airport with a runway of 4,500 feet (Class 3), and in May enactment of the Federal

Airport Act provided financial support for construction of airport facilities.

Air service was granted to San Jose in June, authorizing Southwest Airways to

stop in San Jose on flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles, but because the

runway was only 2,300 feet, the airport could not meet CAA landing specifications for

DC-3s and therefore could be no service.

Along about this time, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission, silent

during the five years since San Jose agreed to buy the Crocker acres for an airport

site, suddenly decided it was against the location.


17/49


Commission Chairman W.B. Weston and Commissioner W.W. Curtner

expressed opposition to the municipal airport site, Curtner noting the expense to the

general public in the removal of power lines and changes of roads.

This was in mid-July 1946, at a meeting in which the commission granted a

permit to Arthur J. Monti of Sunnyvale to operate a Class B flying field at Bayshore

Highway and Lawrence Station Road.

The permit was hotly protested by San Jose City Attorney Robert Cassin, City

Engineer Flannery and City Planning Engineer Michael Antonacci. They argued the

closeness of Montis field would prevent CAA approval of the San Jose airport, thus

eliminating any federal funds for the port.

The people of San Jose voted for the [Crocker] site and we have $200,000

invested in the project, Antonacci said. It is our [the citys] duty to protect the

peoples interest in it.

City Engineer Flannery said, 10 years ago, San Jose looked forward to the

airport at the present site, acquired it, and has never abandoned that intention. It

looks like the commission is doing all it can to kill the San Jose airport.

On August 26, 1946, the County Board of Supervisors authorized spending

$5,000 to settle the controversial issue of where the San Jose Municipal Airport

should be located. County Planning Commission Chairman Weston had asked for

$10,000 to hire impartial and competent airport engineers to survey the situation.

City officials approved the move, as did Renzel, who said, This is a special

project and with the various planning groups occupied with other things, I think it is

in order that a study be made by men who know about the special problems of the

location of airports.

Newly hired City Manager O.W. Hump Campbell promised the closest

cooperation between the city and county in the survey by the General Airport Co. of

Stamford, Connecticut. Campbell was hired in June.

The survey was completed in December with the recommendation of the

survey team that San Jose should immediately develop its municipal airport as a

Class 4 port at its present site.

The engineering company considered four other sites, three in the area of

Trimble Road and Agnews State Hospital, and one on Monterey Highway between

Tully and Senter Roads, but agreed the present site was the best.


18/49


The County Planning Commission accepted the report and the CAA announced

satisfaction with the site and also confirmed its earlier approval of future extension of

the runway across Brokaw Road.

Proposed closure of Brokaw Road had raised a storm of protest from Santa

Clara because it was a major artery into that city.

While the study was underway by the Connecticut firm, Nissen requested

$4,000 from the city for improvements to his existing runway, drainage, cutting of

trees and removal of power lines.

The runway had been graded and rolled by the first week in December when

a two-engine cargo plane carrying a consignment of pianos for Frank Campis Music

Store in San Jose attempted to land at the airport. After circling the field eight

times, the pilot decided the dirt runway was too dangerous.

The FMC-airport land sale matter resurfaced again in the fall of 1946.

In September of that year, FMC released the city from the sale and a public

auction was held October 24. High bidder was FMC. This time the company paid

$140,000 for the 90 acres; more than double the original price and only $5,000 shy

of what the city paid for the entire 483 acres of airport land.

Attorney Victor A. Chargin, representing FMC, paid the required 10 percent

down payment following the bidding, handing over fourteen $1,000 bills to

Councilman Renzel, who announced the money would go into the airport fund.

Chargin handed me all that money, Renzel recalled, and I handed it to

Police Chief Brown just as quick. This was in the old City Hall in the upstairs council

chambers. Brown ran downstairs and put the $14,000 in the police department safe

in the basement.

The city was continuing to buy land for the airport, adding 49 acres in

November 1946, from the estate of Manual Rogers. This piece was north of Brokaw

Road near Kifer Road and was needed to protect the main runway with height

limitations. The city was informed federal monies would be available to help finance

the purchase of this and other pieces, as well as airport construction costs.

Also in November, the city applied for $100,000 in federal funds to aid in

construction of the municipal airport, and the following January the Civil Aeronautics

Administration in Washington, D.C., approved a grant of $107,313. Estimated cost

of the first unit of work to bring the airport up to standards of a Class 3 port was

$222,300.


19/49


Another major event of the year 1946 involving airport land was the

establishment of Airport Village.

It grew out of an earlier city housing development called Victory Village and

involving trailers. It was established on a 9-acre city park site on Polhemus Street

(later named Taylor) between Walnut and Irene Streets.

The state granted San Jose $311,080 for construction of Airport Village on

airport land at Coleman and Newhall Streets to further ease the housing shortage.

On January 22, 1946, the City Council had established the Department of

Emergency Housing to handle the problem which was expected to become acute

when veterans returned from military duty. Lester Keaton, coordinator for San

Joses civilian defense forces, was placed in charge of the emergency housing

projects.

In shopping around for housing units for Airport Village, he discovered 206

new prefabricated steel barracks still in their crates in an Army ordinance depot. The

City was able to obtain them free of charge and shortly before Christmas the first

Veterans families moved in.

Keaton was kept busy that first year and into the next scrounging materials

such as fittings for sewers, electrical wire, toilets and plumbing fittings from Camp

Shoemaker and other government installations. The Federal Public Housing

Authority in Redwood City supplied 150 kegs of nails and 40,000 square feet of

plywood. Other supplies came from Pleasanton, Pomona, and as far away as Salt

Lake City.

A total of 356 units were constructed and occupied, with Veterans paying

from $30 to $40 a month. From the beginning, Airport Village made money for the

city.

During 1946, the former San Jose Airport on King Road was sold to four

couples, the Richard B. Richmonds, J.H. Channells, C.E. Goodrichs, and H.B.

Barnicks, who continued to lease to several air schools. A restaurant was opened at

Reid-Hillview Airport on Cunningham Avenue.

Other significant happenings during 1946 included start of construction of the

$400,000 overpass at Bayshore and East Santa Clara Street, talk of moving the City

Hall north, opening of the second Santa Clara County Fair in September (the war had

cancelled fairs after the first was held in 1941), and installation of parking meters in

the downtown area on a one-year trial basis.


20/49


A 10-foot granite shaft honoring aviation pioneer, John J. Montgomery, was

unveiled at the University of Santa Clara in April.

San Joses population in 1946 was 80,734.

The Philippines gained independence from the U.S. on July 4, 1946. Strikes

idled some 4.6 million U.S. workers during the year, and the U.S. Mint issued the

Franklin D. Roosevelt dime.

1947

In April 1947, CAA District Engineer C.B. Worthley told City Engineer Flannery

State and federal aid would be forthcoming for San Joses municipal airport

development and land acquisition.

Flannery said state authorities had agreed to finance land acquisition on a 50-

50 basis with the city up to $28,630 maximum, and would also reimburse the city for

the cost of planning the airport.

Worthley assured Flannery federal money stood back of airport construction

costs on a 54-46 per cent basis, and for 25 per cent of the cost of any land

acquisition.

Flannery also announced the CAA had granted San Jose top priority in the

state for airport development.

Paul V. Birmingham, former San Jose manager of WPA, was named assistant

civil engineer by Flannery in March, with the responsibility of steering San Joses

municipal airport to completion.

Among non-airport events in 1947 were approval of a 66-acre site at North

First and Rosa (later Hedding) Streets for a civic center, opening on June 4 of the

$400,000 Alum Rock overpass on Bayshore Highway, with completion of the 8-mile

extension of Bayshore in East San Jose later in the month.

Voters approved the $2,500,000 Lexington Dam project in October, and in

December Howard W. Campen was named first county counsel. Also that month, the

Santa Clara County Air Pollution District was formed, and San Jose barbers

announced they were raising the price of haircuts to $1.25.

Radio KEEN went on the air June 21, 1947, from its studio in Hotel De Anza.

Rosemary Gardens tract was expanding across Guadalupe River from the

municipal airport.

National news in 1947 included authorization by Congress of a Central

Intelligence Agency and passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over President Harry


21/49


Trumans veto. The largest aircraft ever built, Howard Hughes Spruce Goose, made

its first and only one-mile flight in San Diego. Jackie Robinson signed with the

Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first black baseball player in the major leagues.

1948

Nine years of community effort bore fruit on June 21, 1948, when Ernie

Renzel remembers word was received of the airports final approval by the CAA.

Renzel also remembers an incident that occurred early in 1948 before final

CAA approval of the airport.

Frazier Reed, president of Clayton & Co. real estate, phoned to ask that I

meet with him and the chief engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad. We met at

Clayton & Co. on West Santa Clara Street.

Frazier said the S.P. wanted to develop a switching yard on the airport

property, and since I was chairman of the City Council committee on lands, parks

and public structures, hed like our recommendation to do this.

I said I would tell the committee of the request, but was sure it would not

approve, since it would interfere with the airport development. He replied that there

wouldnt be any change of the CAA approving the site. I disagreed, naturally.

Then in June Ray Hess, chief engineer of the CAA in San Francisco, gave final

approval. Maybe it was a coincidence, but he was fired within 30 days. Later he told

me, he was sacked for approving the San Jose airport.

San Jose officially received its federal airport grant of $185,180 (applied for in

1945) in mid-1948 and in August, Leo F. Piazza Paving Co. was awarded the contract

to build the first permanent runway with a low bid of $314,000. The vote to accept

by the City Council was unanimous, although Councilman Clark Bradley expressed

doubt the airport site was the proper location and predicted the airport there would

become a municipal white elephant.

The contract was signed August 4 and ground-breaking ceremonies were held

August 8. Airport Engineer Birmingham said the runway would be 4,500 feet long,

150 feet wide, and hard-surfaced, with a long taxi-way.

Dirt for the sub-base was hauled from Razorback Ridge in lower Alum Rock

Park and granite from Watsonville.

A Chamber of Commerce report on the airport noted California Aviation

Activities, Inc. was operating complete airport service, including repairs, student

instruction, chartered rides, sales and rentals. Buildings included hanger, shop and


22/49


office, and a repair shop. The runway was surfaced and had lights. FMC also had a

hanger on the airport, the report said.

On October 11, 1948, City Manager O.W. Campbell announced James Nissen

had been selected from among ten candidates to become the first manager of the

San Jose Municipal Airport.

Nissen, who assumed his new job November 1, gave up his affiliation with the

California Aviation Activities which had been operating on the airport site for two

years. Nissens salary was $403 a month.

City Engineer Flannery asked him to make out a budget for the first year,

which he did, setting a figure of $17,000.

I never spent it, Nissen said, and the second year Flannery wanted me to

ask for the same amount, but I said I didnt need it. I put down something like

$8,000, and the third year I didnt want anything.

Nissen said the airport had the support of everybody, the media, taxpayers

association, merchants, and city workers.

I said I will not ask for a raise until it can come out of airport revenue,

Nissen said. That was one reason the tax payers got behind the airport That was

on the angel side, but there was the pork side, too.

The city public works crews would be working on Race Street, maybe

recapping it, and I had a few chuck holes needed to be filled. So Id tell Marcus

Whaley I had a little problem and why didnt he fix it and charge it to the Race Street

project. Sometimes Flannery would catch us and give us heck. Id say Okay,

Harold, but the repair was done, and the next time we would do the same thing

again.

I didnt mind stealing a little bit from the city, but later on we started making

money and they wanted to steal the money from us and I didnt like that.

We got up to the salary thing Clark Bradley said wed always lose money

and I said we wouldnt. He said the day we got in the black you come to me and Ill

get your raise. Well, the day came, but if I received the raise it would put the

airport back in the red again.

The personnel, the crew, were wonderful, Nissen recalled. Anything they

could do for the airport to save us paying somebody else, they did it.

The city let us reinvest our revenue as if it was a private operation. Thats

an incentive I believe helps hold down costs.


23/49


We set up our own books. I got help from San Francisco Airport. We kept

our books and the city kept theirs, which was fine.

When the airport revenues would support some raises, I took care of pay

increases for employees first and then later went to the civil service and asked for a

one-third raise for myself, which was granted.

Nissen said that when he took the airport job he had no intention of staying

as long as he did. (He retired in 1975.)

I probably started to leave many times, but there were always new

challenges. There were two basic things Ive always loved, research and

development, and they kept me busy.

During 1948, San Jose filed for 100,000 acre feet of water from Folsom

reservoir, made final payment on parking meters, made the sales tax permanent,

and reached agreement on $63,000 of 22 acres of the Civic Center site. County

Supervisors approved the county manager plan. Radio Station KXRX went on the air

from its station on Bayshore Highway near McKee Road. Santa Claras 1890 jail and

city hall at Main and Benson streets were demolished.

U.S. railroads shifted from coal-fired steam to diesel-electric locomotives in

1948. President Truman ordered the Army to operate the nations railroads to

prevent a nationwide rail strike. Citation, with Eddie Arcaro up, won U.S. racings

Triple Crown.

1949

Finally, on February 1, 1949, ceremonies were held to dedicate the San Jose

Municipal Airport.

Renzel, who had never given up hope or stopped pushing for the airport since

its beginnings a decade before, was master of ceremonies and lauded many of the

early backers.

City and county officials were taken on a flight over the Valley prior to the

dedication ceremonies which brought well-wishers from Moffett Field, San Francisco

and other airports, as well as Army and Navy officials.

Captain John Dodge, native of Los Gatos and first aeronautical major at San

Jose State College, piloted the first scheduled Southwest Airways flight to arrive and

depart from the San Jose Municipal Airport. Southwest had been flying out of Moffett

Field for the past two years, awaiting the opening of the San Jose port.


24/49


Completion of the first unit of development heralded San Joses first aerial

link with the rest of the world, the San Jose Mercury noted.

The newspaper pointed out acquisition of the airport property has been a

lucrative one for the city. The site now comprises approximately 600 acres.

$140,000 has been derived from rentals of the property for agricultural use and

$140,000 was realized from the sale of 90 acres for industrial development (FMCs

Bean Cutler plant). Thus, revenues have been more than double the original price.

In February 1949, a fee schedule was adopted for airport users including,

parking and storage fees for private planes, and fees for regularly scheduled airlines.

No landing or take off fees were charged for private plans.

Also in February, a twin engine DC-3 landed 2,550 baby chicks at the airport.

The first phase of the airport construction was to include, besides the 4,500-

foot runway, a parking apron, an access road, auto parking, and wooden

administration building containing a waiting room, baggage room, offices, and

eventually a cafe.

In the summer of 1949, the citys plans for construction of hangers for private

planes were protested by private airport operators who feared city competition would

cut into their business. Principal protestors were H.A. Barnick of San Jose Airport on

King Road and Cecil Reid of Reid-Hillview Airport.

Because of the complaints, the City Council in September rejected all bids for

hanger construction and agreed to advertise for new bids for two-thirds of the

number of small hangers originally planned, or 20 instead of 30.

Early in the year a city-county emergency aid station was established. Dial

telephone replace the old manual number please exchange in San Jose in August.

An Air Force B-29 crashed near Calaveras Reservoir September 12, the crew bailing

out and landing safely near Milpitas.

December saw construction of a replica of the first statehouse in city plaza

and a pageant and other programs celebrating the meeting of the first State

Legislature in San Jose in 1848.

Congress boosted the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour, and a U.S.

transcontinental speed record of three hours and 46 minutes was set by an Air Force

jet bomber.

1950


25/49


On February 2, 1950, City Manager Campbell resigned to take a similar

position in San Diego. City Engineer Flannery became temporary city manager on

March 27, the 100th anniversary of San Joses incorporation, until A.P. Dutch

Hamann took the oath of office. He was to serve until November 1969, during which

his pro-annexation policy added 1,419 acres to the city and the population climbed

from 94,000 to more than 400,000.

In April 1950, Airport Manager Nissen announced the next job at the airport

would be painting the administration building. He also said a loudspeaker system to

announce arrivals and departures was being installed.

City Engineer Flannery said in May San Jose would get a share of aviation fuel

tax money being divided among California cities and counties.

Also in May 1950, Airport Engineer Birmingham received a letter from the

CAA district airport engineer in San Francisco approving a $200,000 expansion

program at the airport, major costs to be borne with federal funds. The work called

for installation of new taxiways, aprons, lights, and other improvements, he said.

A Bay Area planning group formed to develop an airport plan for the nine Bay

Area counties praised the San Jose site location and predicted its expansion because

of weather, freeway transportation, and the airports location in an independent

trading center.

In August 1950, Leo Piazza Co. was awarded the contract to build a new taxi

strip, warm-up aprons, plane parking areas and other projects with a low bid of

$168,000.

During 1950, there was a move to name the airport for pioneer aviator,

Robert Fowler, who made the first flight from the Pacific to Atlanta coasts in 1913.

Among those favoring the name was Congressman Charles Gubser, who knew Fowler

personally when he lived in Gilroy.

U.S. forces were ordered to Korea in 1950 and the national emergency

resulting called a halt to further improvements at San Jose Municipal Airport. City

Manager Hamann returned from Washington, D.C., in December with word from

federal officials and Congressman Jack Anderson that the CAA would not allocate any

money for development locally for the duration of the crisis.

At the same time, Piazza Construction Co. asked for an extension on its

contract to build the taxiway because of heavy rains.

Victory Village trailers were auctioned December 12, marking an end to the

World War II housing project on Polhemus Street.


26/49


San Joses population in 1950 was 94,044.

1951

Because San Jose did not have a military field, it did not expect any

government grants until the end of the Korean War. However, in 1951 radio

equipment worth $8,000 was donated to the airport, along with a grant to allow

expansion of the runway. Both improvements were for defense purposes allowing

San Jose to provide an emergency landing strip in the event San Francisco and

Oakland airports were bombed.

In June 1951, Nissen announced a teletype machine was to be installed to

enable pilots to comply with a new CAA ruling making it mandatory to file flight plans

and position reports for aircraft within air defense identification zones.

San Jose and Santa Clara reached tentative agreement on the latter citys

sale of part of Laurelwood Farm for airport expansion. It was not to be that easy.

Airport Engineer Birmingham said, Without the land, the airport is a dead

duck. The plan called for extension of Coleman and closing of Brokaw Road.

Other events that made headlines locally in 1951 included dedication of San

Joses central fire station at Market and St. James Streets, construction of the

$1,600,000 Lake Elsman above Los Gatos by the San Jose Water Works, and the

purchase of the 63-acre Kelley estate on Senter Road for a park, in a contractual

deal with the City of San Jose, by Renzel, his wife, Emily, and Alden Campen.

A tornado damaged homes in San Jose and Sunnyvale in January 1951, and

storms brought floods to Alviso at years end.

Nationally, CBS began broadcasting color television programs on a

commercial basis. The I Love Lucy TV program began and Jersey Joe Walcott

won the world heavyweight boxing title.

1952

Improvements at the airport ground to a halt in 1952 as the long land battle

between San Jose and Santa Clara heated up again.

Nissen recalls, Land acquisition was the big thing in the 50s, and the big

fight was with Santa Clara over closing of Brokaw Road so we could expand the

airport.

I think we were really caught in the middle of the annexation war that was

going on then. The airport was used as leverage for the give and take in the


27/49


annexation fight between San Jose and Santa Clara. Thats what made it so

interesting.

Also, we had the support we needed. We had the City Council with us, the

press, radio, and TV, and Ernie Renzel was a big plus.

He was the real father of the airport, getting the land originally. We had a

lot of problems, but we had a tremendous amount of support to carry us through,

Nissen claims.

In 1952, Santa Clara changed its mind about its Laurelwood Farm land

reserved for industrial and sewage plants, and refused to sell any of it to San Jose.

Also, Santa Clara renewed its fight against the closing of Brokaw Road and

although the CAA had approved closing of the artery in 1947, the CAA set a hearing

in San Francisco in August in compliance with the Federal Airport Act mandating a

hearing in event of protests.

Although the hearing found that a major airport was required in the area, the

location of San Jose Municipal Airport was right, nothing much was resolved as Santa

Clara continued to refuse selling land to San Jose for airport expansion.

A San Jose witness at the hearing was Pat Ryan, former Santa Clara city

trustee and acting mayor, who said a poll of industrialists when San Jose first tried to

buy Laurelwood Farm land several years ago advocated we sell to the City of San

Jose about 60 acres, sufficient to complete the airport runway involved. They

thought it was a fine idea San Jose was providing an airport for us, Ryan said.

He also noted there was an ironclad agreement between San Jose and Santa

Clara that if Brokaw Road is closed, San Jose must provide a satisfactory alternate

route.

Another land matter which kept the two cities busy most of the summer

involved 60 acres of farmer Joseph Giannis land north of Kifer Road and south of

Bayshore Highway. He had agreed to let Santa Clara annex the land for industrial

purposes, but changed his mind when he got a better offer from San Jose.

(Gianni died in May 1953, after he had won a court decision against Santa

Clara which had annexed his land over his protest. Santa Clara appealed the ruling,

but a court decision allowed San Jose to acquire the land from Giannis heirs.)

On February 6, 1952, a plaque was unveiled at the airport honoring aviation

pioneer Robert G. Fowler on the 40th anniversary of the first west-to-east

transcontinental flight in which he flew from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida.


28/49


Renzel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce aviation committee, was

master of ceremonies.

Mayor Clark Bradley told the crowd at the ceremonies San Jose is honoring

one of its great citizens while he is here to enjoy and participate in the honor. Bob,

San Jose has given you a place in its heart and will keep you there forever.

Fowler, who took lessons in flying from the Wright Brothers in Ohio in 1911,

talked about crude early aircraft and the men who had nerve enough to fly em.

Among special guests was Roy Francis, another early San Jose airman who

was carrying passengers in his homemade biplane early in the century and who, in

1930, became Superintendent of Mills Field, later to be known as San Francisco

International Airport.

(Fowler died in 1966. His wife, Lenore Vargas Fowler, who died in 1965,

pioneered glider and sailplane flying. Her aircraft and other memorabilia were

turned over to the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in 1930.)

In June 1952, six tons of celery grown by George Takeda and Nakimura Bros.

of San Jose were flown to New York markets to alleviate a shortage brought on by

heavy rains in the east.

During the year, San Jose, under City Manager Hamann, annexed a couple of

square miles of land and the population figure jumped over the 100,000 mark for the

first time in history. A special census put the figure at 102,148.

It was a political year and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and vice

presidential hopeful Richard Nixon both spoke in San Jose.

Fire destroyed the landmark Richmond-Chase Co. dried fruit plant at

Edenvale, and Campbell became an incorporated city.

The final link-up of San Joses $3,000,000 storm sewer separation project was

completed November 28, 1952, at Eighth and Jackson Streets. Bond issues for the

project amounted to $2,500,000 and the state contributed the remainder.

Elsewhere, the year brought death to Englands King George VI and his

daughter Elizabeths ascension to the throne. General Dwight Eisenhower was

elected president of the United States and Rocky Marciano won the world

heavyweight boxing title.

By the end of 1952, the San Jose Planning Commission had approved an

alternate route to Santa Claras Brokaw Road, looping up the west side of the airport

from Coleman Avenue to connect with Bayshore Highway. Also, bids were received

for extension of the airports taxiway.


29/49


1953

Three major events marked airport history in 1953.

In June, an estimated 2,000 persons attended ceremonies dedicating a new

taxiway and commemorating the 50th anniversary of powered flight by the Wright

brothers. In July, the City Council appropriated $273,168 for airport expansion,

allowing purchase of 76 more Crocker estate acres north of Brokaw Road, and in

December, the Gianni land sale was cleared by the court, giving the airport another

63 acres.

The June 14 celebration included exhibits of military and civilian aircraft.

Robert and Lenore Fowler displayed an original Wright motor and two gliders flown

by Mrs. Fowler in the 1920s.

A plane built and flown in 1912, owned by airport manager, James Nissen,

and his former partner in the old California Aviation Activities company, James

Mathiesen, was also on display, along with a 1929 Fairchild owned by Cecil Reid, a

helicopter displayed by Hiller Co. of Palo Alto, and cutaways of engines by San Jose

State College aeronautical students.

Ernest Renzel, Jr., was master of ceremonies, and guest speakers included

B.M. Doolin, Director of the California Aeronautics Commission, City Manager

Hamann, Mayor Parker Hathaway, Robert Fowler, and James Nissen. Eight Early

Bird flyers, who had flown before 1914, were introduced. They included Frank T.

Coffyn of Palo Alto, only survivor of the original team of five men Orville Wright

taught to fly in Dayton, Ohio in 1910; S.H. Page of Los Gatos, and Mrs. Ruth Law

Oliver of San Francisco, early stunt flyer.

A caf was added to the administrative terminal complex at the south end of

the airport in 1953.

Effective January 2, 1953, San Joses two justice courts and its police court

became the Municipal Court under the states reorganization of inferior courts

approved by voters in 1950. Municipal judges were Grandin H. Miller, Percy

OConnor and John P. Dempsey. Anthony Nave was elected first chief clerk of the

Municipal Court. The year also marked the 100th anniversary of the introduction of

the states first honeybees, brought from the east by Christopher Shelton to the

Stockton ranch, now the site of the municipal airport. A state plaque

commemorating the anniversary and honoring San Jose City Historian Clyde Arbuckle

was to be dedicated at the airport 29 years later in March 1982.


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In 1953, OConnor Hospital moved from San Carlos and Race Streets to a new

four-story building on Forest Avenue.

During 1953, the DC-7 propeller plan was introduced by Douglas Aircraft,

Joseph Stalin died, the Korean War came to an end, and Playboy magazine began

publication with a nude photograph of screen star Marilyn Monroe. Ben Hogan was

the king of golf, winning the U.S. and British Opens and the Masters Golf

Tournament.

1954

General aviation activities at the San Jose Municipal Airport had increased to

the extent that in 1954 the administration building was filled to capacity and three

temporary barracks were installed.

In May, the CAA approved the airport for federal funds and VOR (visual omni-

range) thus allowing planes to land at night and in bad weather, but in October the

city was turned down by the CAA on its request for $321,000 to finance 54 percent

of the cost of land acquisition for further expansion of the port.

At that time the airport was also excluded from the 1955 federal aid program.

S.A. Kemp, administrator of CAA, said this was due to the necessity of undertaking

more urgent work within the limits of available funds.

However, he assured City Manager Hamann the CAA still felt the airport was a

necessary and integral portion of the national airport system.

A few days later, the city received notification of a surprise donation of

$26,500 from the CAA which Congressman Charles Gubser believed meant San Jose

would get top priority in the 1955 allocation, which it did.

San Joseans in 1954 were paying 29 cents a gallon for gasoline and 92 cents

a pound for steak. School children were taking part in the mass polio immunization

program instituted across the nation. Electronic computers were showing up in

businesses.

A 9.3-mile segment of new Highway 17 between San Jose and Warm Springs

opened on July 2, 1954.

City Manager Hamann recommended a fence be built along the Guadalupe

River on the west border of the Rosemary Gardens tract after a child drowned. The

fence was to be built as part of the airport riverbed realignment project.

Milpitas was looking toward the growth the Ford Motor Co.s new plant would

bring, and leery of being gobbled up by San Jose, incorporated.


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The U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 ruled racial segregation in public schools

unconstitutional.

1955

Early in April 1955, Gubser (R-Gilroy) and San Jose News Washington

correspondent Wes Peyton came in for plaudits for paving the way for San Jose to

obtain $106,175 from the CAA for airport land acquisition.

Councilman Joe Santoro returned from the national capital and reported both

Gubser and Peyton had arranged for him to meet with aeronautics officials and plead

the cause of San Jose for federal funds. Santoro said he learned that in future

requests for airport funds, San Jose must stress the fact that the local airfield is used

for emergency landing by military aircraft. He said 15 such landings in recent years

have saved the government up to $5 million in aircraft.

In October 1955, San Jose and Santa Clara committees met and agreed on a

land swap providing for industrial sites for Santa Clara and airport land for San Jose

in the vicinity of De La Cruz Boulevard, Kifer and Brokaw Roads.

William Bill Werstlein came to San Jose Municipal Airport in 1955 as general

manager of Baker Aircraft Sales with an office in the main terminal building.

The address then was 401 Newhall Street. Ten years later, Newhall became

Airport Boulevard.

There was only one runway, the power lines still looped across airport land,

and the Guadalupe River hadnt been aligned. San Joses biggest revenue check

from the airport property was from the Marchese pear orchard, Werstlein

remembered in a 1988 interview when he was still at the airport as president of

Pacific Aero Sales, Inc.

There were only 51 planes based at the airport in 1955 and 25 percent of the

hangers were empty. Some of the hangers were used to store parts for airplanes.

Werstlein remembered four men, representing four companies, were the

nucleus of corporate aviation in the mid-1950s. They were San Jose attorney James

Boccardo, President of Mayfair Packing Co. Joseph P. Prucci, President of Sun Garden

Packing Frank DiNapoli, and President of Contadina Foods Anthony C. Morice.

They were general aviation, without which there would not have been an

airport, Werstlein said. Flight schools played a major part, also, he said, along with

FMC and Lockheed which flew out of the field.


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Besides Baker Aircraft Sales, Liddell Aviation Co., Southwest Airways, and San

Jose Instrument Service were located at 401 Newhall Street in 1955. Ralph B.

Preston was a pilot for Commercial Dusting Corp. and lived at Airport Village.

Robert Wright had a shop for service and maintenance of planes at the old

terminal 1950 to 1967 and remembers it (the airport) was a small, closely knit

operation where you knew everybody. We used to meet for morning coffee in the

coffee shop , stated Robert Wright.

Wright, who in the 1980s was in business at Reid-Hillview, said he flew for

FMC for a year before opening up the shop at Municipal Airport. At that time FMC

had a little quonset hut on the grounds. Wright was co-pilot and mechanic for FMC

and also worked for Bob Liddell (Liddell Aviation) as mechanic and flight instructor

for a time.

Russell Hill, who probably taught more people to fly than any other local flyer

in those early days, remembers there were a lot of pheasants on the airport after the

war and airport personnel and pilots were allowed to shoot them early in the

morning.

Hill never shot any I was always busy doing something else, but

remembers hitting one with his plane on take-off.

Its been a long time since pheasants were a problem at the airport, Hill

noted in a March 1989 interview.

Hill worked for Wright Bros. in those early years at Muni, and operated a flight

school.

Off-street parking and one-way street programs were instituted in San Jose in

the face of increased traffic in 1955. Voters in February approved a $2,111,100

bond issue for the South Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District to build a

dam on Uvas Creek. Also approved was a $5,150,000 bond issue for County

Hospital renovation and a new County Jail and Juvenile Hall, as well as a $1,975,000

bond issue for development of San Joses portion of the First and Rose Streets civic

center site.

However, by the end of the year, the city and county had no master plan for

the civic center and had not decided where to put the new County Jail or which way

to face the new City Hall.

The City Council established a fee for use of Alum Rock Park, and Ford Motor

Co. opened its new assembly plant in Milpitas. Second Street was extended through

St. James Park. IBM bought 190 acres for a plant at Cottle and Monterey Roads.


33/49


Pre-Christmas storms in 1955 brought widespread flooding to California,

including San Jose which recorded 9.26 inches of rain. The summertime County Fair

was the setting for KNTVs first telecast.

There was civil war in Vietnam, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

resigned, the U.S. Congress approved a hike in the minimum wage from 75 cents to

$1.00, and Disneyland opened in Anaheim.

1956

In 1956, the CAA awarded San Jose $319,150 for land acquisition and

construction of a control tower at the airport, a count having found the number of

daily operations more than the minimum required to qualify for a tower.

Jack Harper, assistant airport manager under Nissen, remembers the first jet

that landed at the airport (by mistake) before the tower was in operation.

It was a Navy Commander flying from Florida to Moffett Field. It was at

night and the pilot was talking to the Moffett control tower and looking at the lights

at San Jose Municipal Airport. He thought he was at Moffett and set down.

I was working that night, Harper said in a telephone interview in 1989, and

someone said a jet had landed. I said no, the runway is only 4,500 feet long, but

he said he saw it come over the fence so I walked out the front door (this was the

old terminal later General Aviation) and I could hear the whine.

I called Nissen and he told me not to let the pilot take off at night. The Navy

came and picked up the pilot and brought him back the next morning.

It was cold and foggy and they had him in an open jeep maybe as

punishment for his mistake, Harper chuckled.

We had a lot of rabbits on the field then and when they heard that jet it

looked like the whole field was covered with popcorn the rabbits by the thousands

were jumping straight up and down. Later, when we finally got the jets, theyd sit

right next to one and never move at take-off probably deaf.

Harper was a ticket agent for Southwest Airways when it served San Jose

through Moffett Field and came to San Jose Municipal Airport in 1950 as a clerk-

typist in the office, working his way up to assistant manager. He retired in 1980.

The California Taxpayers Association reported at the end of 1956 Santa Clara

was still the fastest growing of the 12 Bay Area counties, adding nearly 40,000 to its

population during the year.


34/49


Valves were turned on at San Joses completed sewage treatment plant near

Alviso in November 1956, Mayor Robert Doerr presided at the ceremonies.

A Redevelopment Agency headed by electrical contractor Roy Butcher was

created in October 1956 to administer the citys first project, Park Center.

The worlds first airborne hydrogen bomb was exploded in the Pacific by the

Atomic Energy Commission, Wall Streets Dow Jones average peaked at 521.05 and

Floyd Patterson became world heavyweight boxing champion.

1957

The municipal airports 6-story aluminum tower, built at a cost of $141,000,

was dedicated in ceremonies June 7, 1957. Renzel was in charge of the program, at

which City Manager Hamann noted the tower was the first phase of a construction

project which would provide a terminal building, realignment of the Guadalupe River,

and extension of runways.

Four days later on June 11, voters approved a $3,500,000 bond issue to

finance runway expansion, construction of a new administration building, purchase of

the remainder of needed land, and removal of obstructions. Soon after, federal

funds were forthcoming for realignment of the river.

San Jose State College celebrated its centennial in 1957, San Jose voters

approved $24,550,000 in civic improvement funds, the Greyhound bus depot moved

from Market Street to Almaden Avenue, and IBM moved to its new plant at Cottle

and Monterey Roads.

The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the worlds first man-made Earth

satellite in October, followed in November by Sputnik II which was visible at night

over the Santa Clara Valley.

The first U.S. civil rights law since Civil War reconstruction days was passed

by Congress in 1957, and a new transcontinental speed record of three hours, 20

minutes, 8.4 seconds was set by Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn.

1958

At long last, San Jose and Santa Clara city officials arrived at a compromise in

July 1958 allowing closure of Brokaw Road for runway expansion.

The compromise, in which San Jose would contribute $200,000 toward Santa

Claras road fund and help that city complete De La Cruz Boulevard as a

thoroughfare connecting with Bayshore Highway, allowed San Jose City Manager

Hamann to successfully renew the airports eligibility with the CAA for federal funds.


35/49


The compromise came after the Federal Aviation Administration had opposed

as too costly San Joses idea of a tunnel to put Brokaw Road under the extended

runway for the airport.

An industrial park was under construction on the east side of the airport by

May 1958. Highway 17 wa

Documents

San Jose International Airport History