It’s History FLYING HIGH
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Fred Miller on how Ocean City finally got its own modern airport
EVENTY-FIVE years ago, July 4, 1935, Mayor Joseph G. Champion cut a ribbon stretched across a runway and officially opened the municipal airport saying: “In keeping with the advancement of aviation and the growth of Ocean City, we cannot afford to be backward by lacking airport facilities. Our visitors’ horizon has been extended considerably in having guests fly here from distant cities, representing a type who should be welcomed and encouraged to come to Ocean City.” The City of Ocean City, during the administration of Mayor Joseph G. Champion, Commissioner John E. Trout, and Commissioner Reuben W. Edwards, acquired the land for the airport in 1929, paying $87,000 for 124 acres on the west side of Bay Avenue, from 22 nd Street to 28 th Street. A
week after land was purchased, the New York Stock Exchange crashed, beginning the Great Depression. Plans for building a new airport were put aside for lack of money, forcing aviators to continue using a grassy field at 18th Street and Bay Avenue. Locals who owned airplanes came up with some unique ways to help pay for their hobby. They advertised special rates: One-half cent per pound – fifty cents minimum; 25 cents plus one cent per inch of your height; $1 per passenger for 1,000 feet, $2 for 2,000 feet, $3 for 3,000 feet. The Garden Garage, 220 Wesley Avenue, capitalized on people’s desire to fly advertising: “Fly – Free Airplane Ride with the purchase of a LEE TIRE.” On September 7, 1932, Mayor Harry Headley, and Commissioner John E. Trout and Commissioner William H. Campbell, hoping to obtain federal funding, named the undeveloped
airfield Clarke Field in honor of Vincent A. Clarke, Jr. Clarke, a local man who died from blood poisoning on August 11, 1932, gained international fame as the commander of the Los Angeles, the U.S. Navy’s huge (656-feet-long) dirigible. Clarke would often fly over Ocean City just a few hundred feet above Bay Avenue. When he was over his father’s house at Third Street, he would dip the nose of the airship as a salute to his father, who would wave to him from the ground. After Clarke’s death, dirigible commanders continued the nose dip salute when over Third Street and Bay Avenue. On January 5, 1934, Mayor Harry Headley announced the good news from the federal government: “Approximately 400 men will start work soon building this city a modern airport. It is expected that it will practically eliminate unemployment here for the balance of the winter.” Headley continued reporting, “The completed project will cost $100,400, which has been granted to Ocean