Oakland Airport (North Field): Administration Building Expansion – Oakland CA

Description

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) modernized and expanded the administration building at the original Oakland Municipal Airport (now the North Field of Oakland International Airport). The project was sponsored by the Port of Oakland and cost $70,000.

The work added 8500 square feet, doubling the floor space of the building in order to house new offices of the Civil Aeronautics Board, including airway traffic control, air carrier section, private flying division, air safety board, airway communications station, and general inspection section, plus an office for the US weather service.  The building also served as passenger terminal for a time.

The renovated building was dedicated on the 10th of January, 1940 and a bronze plaque installed.  The charming Art Moderne building still stands along Earhart Road and is used by a private company.  We have not found the plaque.

Next door is an older building from the 1920s that served as the first terminal for the old Municipal Airport, then as the International Terminal before the modern airport was built to the southwest of the old municipal airport in the 1950s. This building is claimed to be the first airport hotel anywhere in the country.