Available loose (8.5" x 11"), matted, or in a black wood or metal frame (11"x14")
Bowman Field-1919
National Register of Historic Places
Bowman Field began operation in 1919 as a dirt airfield with one wooden hanger. It is Kentucky's oldest continuously operating airport. Aviation enthusiast Abram H. Bowman leased 50 acres of land from the U.S. Government. The Government acquired this land after confiscating a total of 600 acres from the son of local Mary Breckinridge and her German nobleman husband, Baron Von Zedtwitz. The son had been serving in the German Army in WWI at the time.
Bowman's Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" was flown by Robert Gast and soon began charging for short passenger flights, and traveling barnstormers packed in the crowds. In 1924, passenger service was started by the Yellow Taxi Airline Co. and Eastern and American Airlines followed. Commercial airlines remained until the opening of Louisville International Airport in 1947.
In 1927, Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of Saint Louis flew into Bowman Field, and the photograph still hangs in the lobby of the terminal.
The terminal building was finished in 1929 and expanded in 1937 with Art Deco influences. Concrete runways were added in 1938. Bowman Field has been home to the Air Corps Reserve 456th Pursuit Squadron (1922), the WWII Glider Combat Training School, and an Army Air Force training facility occupied by thousands. It was also home to the Army Air Force's School of Air Evacuation, which trained nurses to give medical care while in flight, and was commended and visited by Eleanor Roosevelt.
Bowman Field now serves private, corporate, and charter aircraft, as well as flight instruction.
