Below, an aerial photograph of Wold-Chamberlin Field in Minneapolis, MN. This image is from the airport book cited in the left sidebar. The field was named for local World War I aviator heroes Ernest Groves Wold and Cyrus Foss Chamberlain, the first two area pilots who gave their lives in combat during World War I. Please direct your browser to this link for more history of the airport.

Wold-Chamberlin Field, 1933

Below, the data printed about Wold-Chamberlin in the same book. Note American and Northwest Airways were based there.

Wold-Chamberlin Field Data, 1933

Below, an Army Signal Corps image of the Wold-Chamberlin in 1930. This image was taken from about the 9 o'clock position on the photograph above. There appear to be at least two changes in the structures on the field during the three years between these images. If you compare the two, the building at 1 o'clock from the field circle in the 1930 photo is missing from the 1933 image. And a new building appears in the 1933 photo at about 10 o'clock from the circle, out near the road. The site of the new building looks like only cleared land in the 1930 image.

Photo contributor Tim Kalina (right sidebar) says of this image, "This original photo was taken by the 109th Aerial Squadron, Minnesota National Guard (as you’ll see by the handwritten caption on the back of the photo). The paper even appears to be hand-cut as it’s not quite square....

Wold-Chamberlin Field, June 25, 1930 (source: Kalina)

He continues, "The 109th was based at the field, in the buildings seen at the top center of the photo. I believe there was also a Naval Air Reserve Squadron [corroborated by airport data, above] based at these same buildings. The buildings at the left are the commercial hangers, along with the main terminal building. The two lower hangers have U.A.L. lettered on their roofs and these are the hangers of Universal Air Lines. Universal also had a flying school here (Universal Flying School) and it’s located in the bottom hanger. Those small biplanes on the tarmac there are probably connected with the flying school.

"The top hanger (the light colored one) is owned by Northwest Airways. You can read N.W.A. On it’s roof.
The terminal building is located between the UAL and NWA hangers."

Below, the annotation that appears in pencil on the back of the photograph above. The Army was very precise in identifying the date, altitude and time of day for their aerial images.

Wold-Chamberlin Field, 1930, Annotation (source: Kalina)

---o0o---

UPLOADED: 01/30/09 REVISED: