Alhambra's Heliport

By Gary Frueholz, Dilbeck Real Estate

The tenth hole of the Alhambra Municipal Golf Course was not always a golf course.

In the 1950's Alhambra's civic leadership along with the largest private helicopter company in the United States had the vision of incorporating an emerging technology with a plot of land in the eastside of our city. This vision would create a transportation link to the new Los Angeles International Airport being planned in Westchester and also increase efficiency of regional mail service.

And during this time Alhambra became one of the leading hubs of helicopter transportation in Southern California. The Civil Aeronautics Administration reported in its 1954 annual report (fiscal year) that the Los Angeles area had become the nation's commercial center of helicopter service. The 27,111 helicopter departures during 1954 in the Los Angeles metropolitan area outpaced both New York and Chicago.

Alhambra itself had a scheduled annual 917 departures with 52 tons of mail and cargo being delivered to the city in 1954. This was approximately four times the business volume of its neighboring competitor, the City of Rosemead with its heliport. And the company providing this service was called Los Angeles Airways.

Los Angeles Airways was America's largest private helicopter company during the 1950's and was headquartered at Los Angeles's International Airport. It was the first private helicopter endeavor to sign a mail delivery contract with the United States Postal Service in 1947 and at its zenith Los Angeles Airways served Disneyland, Newport Beach, and various southland cities such as Alhambra.

Alhambra did have some helicopter service to the city at a remaining portion of the old airport at Valley Boulevard and New Avenue which had not been taken by post World War II housing construction in the late 1940's. And a heliport on the roof of the Alhambra Post Office had been contemplated. But as the city moved into the 1950's land on the east side of town, where the Municipal Golf Course now is, was dedicated to a new heliport.

Alhambra established the new heliport approximately a half mile east of Chapel Avenue where the tenth hole of the Alhambra Municipal Golf Course now resides. The heliport was accessed via an asphalt access road that lead into the heliport's parking lot (see map).

The heliport itself was a circular arrangement of asphalt pavement that ran approximately 150 feet in diameter. There was a modest covered seating area for passengers and chain link fencing separating the landing pad from the passenger area and parking lot. Los Angeles Airways provided service with the classic Sikorsky S-55 helicopters.

Helicopters, like airplanes, had a tremendous evolution during the first half of the twentieth century. Their ability to land in a very limited area and vertically take off fascinated city planners and entrepreneurs with the idea of circumventing traffic congestion and availing travelers of the most direct routes to destinations.

Passenger service from Alhambra to Los Angeles International Airport was inaugurated on May 25, 1955 with passengers on the inaugural flight including Alhambra Mayor D'Arcy Quinn, Post-Advocate Managing Editor Warner Jenkins, and Los Angeles Airways President Clarence Belinn. Approximately a crowd of 100 spectators watched the initial passenger landing in Alhambra.

Flight time to Los Angeles International Airport was seventeen minutes and a ticket from Alhambra to LAX a few years later cost $5.45 in 1959. The Sikorsky S-55 helicopters cruised at 1,200 feet at 85 miles per hour.

Plans for upgrading the Alhambra Heliport were considered over the years, but the advance of another technology ultimately sealed the fate of the heliport. During the 1950's and 60's the United States vigorously engaged in the construction of freeways. As Los Angeles added more freeways and drivers appreciated the convenience of cars, the 17 minute travel time to Los Angeles International Airport by helicopter became less valued by local travelers.

By the summer of 1963 passenger stops at the Alhambra Heliport were discontinued. And shortly after this the heliport was closed as the US Postal service struck more mail contracts with commercial airlines, increasingly utilized the flexibility of trucks, and local residents complained of chopper noise.

Events of 1968 would forever alter Los Angeles Airways. That year Los Angeles Airways suffered two of the worst helicopter crashes in U. S. history. In May a helicopter carrying 23 persons leaving Disneyland disintegrated in mid-air and crashed in Paramount. Less than three months later a Disneyland bound helicopter crashed in Compton with 21 passengers and crew. Neither crash had any survivors.

As the attraction of helicopter transportation faded, Los Angeles Airways would cease operations in 1971. But during the post World War II period when cities and entrepreneurs acted on big dreams, Alhambra and Los Angeles Airways had a brief period of using an exciting new technology with Alhambra 's Heliport.

Special thanks to Mary Beetz and the Alhambra Historical Society for their contributions to this story.

Gary Frueholz is a realtor with Dilbeck Real Estate, a past member of the Alhambra Planning Commission, a certified Senior Real Estate Specialist, and can be reached at 626-318-9436. See his stories at www.garysstories.com.