Etan Does LA 238: Grand Central Air Terminal (Glendale | Los Angeles aviation history

National Register visit 238: Grand Central Air Terminal 📍1310 Air Way, Glendale

The Grand Central Air Terminal (GCAT) was the first airport in LA to specialize in commercial air flight. In other words, they catered to actual passengers with predictable airline schedules, instead of one-off private flights by leather-helmeted pilots in custom monoplanes (though they did plenty of that too). For about a decade after opening in 1929, GCAT was THE place to fly and be flown. It was even the official terminus for the first-ever cross-country air service from New York to Los Angeles.

The terminal itself was BEAUTIFUL, with a classic Spanish colonial waiting room and a zig-zag moderne air traffic control tower, guarded by cast-concrete sentinels holding airplane propellers, all courtesy of architect Henry Gogerty. The message: we’re arriving in the old romanticized version of Southern California, and taking off into the future!

These days, GCAT is owned by Disney, which uses it as office space and also an event rental space. While it’s been closed to air traffic since 1959, GCAT’s gorgeous terminal building – restored by Disney to its near-original condition – is one of the best-preserved emblems of the early days of commercial aviation in Los Angeles.

GCAT is very rarely open to the public these days; I explored the property at a private Art Deco Society of Los Angeles event earlier this year. But it’s worth keeping your upcoming events radar switched on in case there’s another opportunity coming down the runway.

Thanks to Steven Spiegel for his picture clearance prowess.

I'm visiting all 600+ LA landmarks on the National Register of Historic Places. Read more about this one and many more at EtanDoesLA.com: https://etandoesla.com/238-grand-cent...

Photo credits:
📷1: Mott Studios: GCAT, late 1920s (CA State Library)
📷2: GCAT, 1930s (Burbank Public Library)
📷3: Aerial view of GCAT, February 28, 1932 (PD, via USC Libraries & CA Historical Society)
📷4: Mott Studios: coffee shop, ca. 1930 (CA State Library)
📷5: Entry to The Cockpit, ca. 1937 (Herman J Schultheis Collection / Los Angeles Public Libray)
📷6: Engineering students at GCAT (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

#aviation #glendale #lahistory #aviationhistory #ameliaearhart #airports #WWII #charleslindbergh #nationalregister #disney #imagineering