Baltimore Municipal Airport ("Harbor Field") is a former airport and

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

airfield about 6 miles southeast of

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

, Maryland, on an artificial peninsula. Construction began in 1929 with a seaplane base and was completed in 1941. It closed on 30 December 1960. The western half of the airport was within the city of Baltimore, whereas the eastern half was in

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

, in

Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Baltimore County partly surrounds but does not include the independent city ...

. Today the former airfield is the site of the Dundalk Marine Terminal, a multi-use shipping facility of the

Port of Baltimore The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a Port, shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's la ...

Official names

*1929-1941 Baltimore Municipal Airport *1942-1945 Baltimore Army Airfield *1946-1950 Baltimore Municipal Airport *1950-1960 Harbor Field *1960–present Dundalk Marine Terminal

History

Colonial-era

The grounds of the former "Baltimore Municipal Airport" along the shores of the lower Colgate Creek, was the original location of the first church building for St. Paul's Parish of the old

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, the established state church then of the colonial-era

Province of Maryland The Province of Maryland was an Kingdom of England, English and later British colonization of the Americas, British colony in North America from 1634 until 1776, when the province was one of the Thirteen Colonies that joined in supporting the A ...

, and one of the original 30 parishes designated for the Colony and the one for the newly established in

Baltimore County, Maryland Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland. The county is part of the Central Maryland region of the state. Baltimore County partly surrounds but does not include the independent cit ...

, in 1692. It is the oldest church in both Baltimore County and the city of

. After 1706, when an official tobacco port had been established at Baltimore Town along Whetstone Point on the Northwest Branch of the River by authority of the

Maryland General Assembly The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower ...

for shipping and imports, there was enough that local citizens petitioned the legislature to lay out a town which was authorized in 1729 and followed the next year by an official "Original Survey" laying out lots of land. As the official Anglican Church for the county, it was decided to move the Parish to the new Baltimore Town, so Lot#19 was purchased from

Charles Carroll of Annapolis Charles Carroll II (April 2, 1702 – May 30, 1782) known as Charles Carroll of Annapolis to distinguish him from his similarly named relatives, was a wealthy Maryland planter and lawyer. His father was Charles Carroll the Settler, (I – the ...

in 1730 and construction of a new brick building (the first in Baltimore Town) was begun at the southeast corner of Forest (later North Charles Street) and St. Paul's Lane (later East Saratoga Street) on a cliff overlooking a bend to the east in the old

Jones Falls The Jones Falls is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 stream in Maryland. It is impounded to create Lake Roland before running through the city of Baltim ...

stream.

20th century

Construction of "Baltimore Municipal Airport" began in 1929 under authority and exertions of the municipal government of the City of Baltimore. The airport was planned as a replacement for the smaller Logan Field of the 1920s, which was next to the planned site of the new airport. It was built on an artificial peninsula built from dredged harbor silt alongside the old Colgate Creek on the "Patapsco Neck" peninsula, which ends and juts out into the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...

between the

Patapsco River The Patapsco River ( ) mainstem is a river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal portion forms the harbor for the city of Baltimore. With its South Branch, the Patapsco forms the northern border of Howar ...

to the south and Back River in the north at

Sparrows Point Sparrows Point is an industrial area in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, adjacent to Edgemere. Named after Thomas Sparrow, landowner, it was the site of a very large industrial complex owned by Bethlehem Steel, known ...

and

North Point North Point is a mixed-use urban area in the Eastern District, Hong Kong, Eastern District of Hong Kong. Located in the northeastern part of Hong Kong Island, the area is named after a cape between Causeway Bay and Tsat Tsz Mui that projects ...

. Lower Colgate Creek flowed into the Patapsco River and is today the site of the Dundalk Marine Terminal facility of the

Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland, on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's largest port facil ...

. A seaplane facility was opened by

Pan American Airlines Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

in 1932, and by 1937 Imperial Airlines began operation out of the airport (seaplane use subsequently declined, and by the end of the 1940s the seaplane facilities had fallen into disuse). Various airlines and "Pan Am" seaplanes (known as "Clippers") used the facility until

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Problems with the harbor silt led to lengthy delays and the facilities for land-based aircraft weren't ready for use until 1941. Civil traffic was suspended in 1942, when the

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical ri ...

took over the airfield. The Army Air Corps used "Baltimore Army Airfield" as a

I Fighter Command I Fighter Command was a United States Army Air Forces intermediate command responsible for command and control of the fighter operations within the First Air Force during World War II. It was initially established in June 1941 as the 1st Inter ...

training airfield. Units assigned to the airfield were the

324th Fighter Group 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

(6 July-28 October 1942); 353rd Fighter Group (26 October 1942 – 27 May 1943), and the

358th Fighter Group 358th may refer to: * 358th Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit * 358th Fighter Group, inactive United States Army Air Force unit *358th Fighter Squadron The 358th Fighter Squadron is part of the 495th Fighter Group at ...

(28 April-28 May 1943). Beginning in 1943, it was transferred to the

Air Technical Service Command An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosphere ...

as a repair and maintenance sub-depot for the

Middletown Air Depot Middletown may refer to: Places Ireland *Middletown, a townland south of Courtown in County Wexford United Kingdom * Middletown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, a village * Middletown, Cumbria, a village in Lowside Quarter parish, Cumbria, Eng ...

, located near

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg ( ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,099 as of 2020, Harrisburg is the ninth-most populous city in Pennsylvania. It is the larger of the two pr ...

. In 1942, British Prime Minister

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

departed from Baltimore Municipal Airport on a

British Overseas Airways British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) was the British state-owned national airline created in 1939 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II. After the pa ...

Company (BOAC) flight, which is today

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

", after visiting President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in what was at first, a secret trip to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

during the Christmas season for

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

consultations shortly after the U.S. entered

after the

Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service The (IJNAS) was the air arm of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The organization was responsible for the operation of naval aircraft and the conduct of aerial warfare in the Pacific War. The Japanese military acquired its first aircraft in ...

launched a surprise

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, on December 7, 1941, and later on other U.S. air and naval bases in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. Churchill later met with reporters, and addressed an unprecedented joint session of the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

at the U.S. Capitol. BOAC continued to use Harbor Field as its main U.S. Operating Base during the war. BOAC "flying boat" service to Baltimore Municipal Airport ended in 1948. Civil airline service returned to "Baltimore Municipal Airport" in 1946. The airport's runways were not long and were limited to smaller planes. When Friendship International Airport (later

Baltimore-Washington International Airport Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport – also known as Thurgood Marshall Airport, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, and simply as BWI Airport – is an international airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, ...

) opened in 1950, near Linthicum in suburban northern

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...

, airlines almost immediately moved to the new airport, which would later handle transcontinental jetliners. "Baltimore Municipal Airport" was officially renamed "Harbor Field" in 1950. During the 1950s "Baltimore Harbor Field" continued to serve private pilots and business aviation. It was also used as a

Maryland Air National Guard The Maryland Air National Guard (MD ANG) is the aerial militia of the U.S. state of Maryland, and a reserve component of the United States Air Force. It is, along with the Maryland Army National Guard, an element of the Maryland National Guard. A ...

(MDANG) base after the war. Beginning in 1946, the MDANG based its

104th Fighter Squadron The 104th Fighter Squadron (104th FS), nicknamed ''the Fightin' O's'', is a unit of the Maryland Air National Guard 175th Wing stationed at Warfield Air National Guard Base, Middle River, Maryland. The 104th is equipped with the Fairchild Re ...

at the airport. The squadron was originally equipped with piston-powered

P-47 Thunderbolt The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter, and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bombe ...

aircraft, later replaced by

F-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by a team headed by James H. Kin ...

s, but eventually the unit converted to the jet-powered

F-86 Sabre The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...

. In 1957, the 104th relocated to the

Glenn L. Martin Company Airport Martin State Airport is a joint civil-military public use airport located east of the central business district of Baltimore, in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The facility is located within the census-designated place of Middle ...

, of the former aircraft manufacturer

Glenn L. Martin Company The Glenn L. Martin Company, also known as The Martin Company from 1917 to 1961, was an American aircraft and aerospace industry, aerospace manufacturing company founded by aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin. The Martin Company produced many impo ...

further to the east along Eastern Avenue in Middle River whose longer runways was necessary to support jet operations. In addition, the

's 135th Air Commando Group was based at Harbor Field from 1955 until 1960, when it too relocated to the Martin Company Airport. That unit flew twin-engine C-46 Commando and SA-16 Albatross aircraft. In 1958, the airport was purchased by the recently constituted, old

Maryland Port Authority Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

of the State of Maryland for conversion into a marine terminal for port and maritime business and shipping, ending the use of the facility as an airport. The airfield was officially closed on 30 December 1960, following the departure of the last Air National Guard unit. Construction throughout the 1960s removed the runways and other airport structures, and by 1971 almost all physical evidence of the former city airport were gone. A 1990 historic site survey reported on four major structures from the "Airport Era" which were still extant: the old 1930s "

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

"-style Pan American terminal, the Air Station, Hangar #1, and the Air Guard Building.

21st century

The

Maryland Historical Trust The Maryland Historical Trust is an agency of Maryland Department of Planning and serves as the Maryland State Historic Preservation Office. The agency serves to assist in research, conservation, and education, of Maryland's historical and cultur ...

subsequently earlier found these buildings to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, based on their innovative design features and their association with local transportation history. In 2005, the former control tower building, which had become derelict, was torn down. By April 2013, Frederick N. Rasmussen, an historical and nostalgia newspaper columnist at ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news. Founded in 1837, the newspaper was owned by Tribune Publi ...

'', reported that the iconic Pan Am Terminal that he visited five years earlier had been razed, and a substantial piece of Maryland's aviation history was lost.

Notes

References

* Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. .
Minami, Wayde R. "Harbor Field Was Maryland Air Guard's First Post-War Home"

Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields is a website detailing information and first hand memories about airports in the United States which are no longer in operation, or are rarely used. The website was started by Paul Freeman in 1999 as he had d ...

: Maryland, Southeastern Baltimore area, Baltimore Municipal Airport / Harbor Field

External links

{{Airports in the Baltimore-Washington area 1937 establishments in Maryland Airfields of the United States Army Air Forces in Maryland United States Air National Guard Military installations in Maryland Transportation buildings and structures in Baltimore County, Maryland Defunct airports in Maryland