Jackson Heights Life

Jackson Heights was once home to Holmes Airport, which covered about 220 acres southwest of where LaGuardia Aiport sits today.  Holmes Airport was the site of many signiificant landmarks in early aviation history, and saw its share of wacky occasions as well.  Here are some links I dug up from searching the internet and the NY Times archives:

• Sunday Throngs Pack New Holmes Airport; Crowd Put at 100,000 Views the Queens Flying Field--Many Planes Try Out Runways. (NY Times, 3/18/1929).  The second day's operation at the Holmes Airport on Northern Boulevard, Jackson Heights, attracted more than 100,000 sightseers yesterday, according to estimates of the Queens police, who had difficulty in keeping the thoroughfares about the airport open to traffic.
• Sunday Crowds at New Airport Bring Circus Flavor to Queens (NY Times, 3/31/1929).  The Holmes Airport has become the Sunday mecca of parents with children to air and of throngs who feel the urge of going somewhere.
• Thousands Take $1 Plane Rides in Test To Learn if Fear or Expense Defers Flying (NY Times, 4/21/1930).  An experiment to determine whether it was fear or expense that prevented the general public from flying was conducted yesterday by Thomas L. Hill, president of the American Society for the Promotion of Aviation, and Ivan R. Gates, head of the Gates Flying Service, at the Holmes Airport, Jackson Heights.
• Attempted blimp landing at Empire State Building in 1931 (NY Times, 4/23/2006)
• Video of the Fourth Annual Pigeon Chuck-Up, 1932
• 64 Airplanes Race to Pie-Eating Line; 'Treasure Hunt' Winner Gets Back to Holmes Field in 28 Minutes. Read Directions in Flight. 54 Pilots Return to Judges at End of 30-Mile Course With 'Finds' From Other Ports. (NY Times, 11/12/1934).  Sixty-four airplanes of all types flew from Holmes Airport at Jackson Heights yesterday on a combination air treasure hunt and pie-eating contest.
• Base for the first aerial traffic reports in 1936 (NY Times, 11/15/1998)
• Fight on Queens Airport Fails (NY Times, 4/7/1937).  Supreme Court Justice Ernest E. L. Hammer denied yesterday an injunction sought by the owners of the Holmes Airport in Jackson Heights, Queens, to restrain the city from proceeding with the development of North Beach Airport. The plaintiffs had argued that the Proposed expenditure of $8,444,300 would be a waste of money.

North Beach Airport eventually became LaGuardia Airport; part of the Holmes Airport site was developed by Bulova, and the rest is history.

Of course, even though there's very little information available online about Holmes Airport, you can still purchase merchandise!

Here's a postal cover from Holmes' first day of operation