Beginning in 1928, before LAX or Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, the first major airport in the Los Angeles area was Grand Central Airport in Glendale. It offered the first paved runway west of the Rocky Mountains and served as the departure point for the nation’s first transcontinental airline service. During World War II, the airport became a center of military activity. The airport served as base of operations for Army Air Corps P-38 Lightings that provided air protection for Los Angeles at the onset of the war.
Grand Central Airport appeared as a backdrop in many early films. Most notably was a scene in the film Casablanca staring Humphry Bogart. After the war, the airport main runway was shortened to allow for a connecting road between San Fernando Road and Riverside Drive. This, in effect, prevented larger commercial aircraft operations. At the same time, most commercial airline service in the region moved to LAX.In 1959, the airport finally closed. It was too small for the operation of jetliners.
The terminal building is now stripped of its ornamental lighting and detailing; some was stolen and some has possibly been put into storage. The building was damaged in the 1994 earthquake and is unsafe for habitation. Prudential Insurance acquired the airport after its closure and rebuilt it as an industrial park. The Walt Disney Company leased space there for its Imagineering division. Most of the animatronics for Disneyland were designed and built here. Disney eventually purchased the land in 1997.
Disney plans to transform the site into a tree-shaded media campus and restore the historic Grand Central Air Terminal and control tower (all that remains of the old airport) as a visitor center.
The air terminal is located at 1310 Air Way in Glendale.The cache is a cammoed 8” Rubbermaid container with various goodies within. Please sign the logbook and check out this monument to early aviation.