Historic Charlotte
An illustrated history of the City of Charlotte and the Mecklenburg County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
An illustrated history of the City of Charlotte and the Mecklenburg County area, paired with the histories of companies, families and organizations that make the region great.
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ing up of <strong>Charlotte</strong> was his commitment to<br />
the establishment of a municipal airport,<br />
which still bears his name. Passenger air service<br />
began here on December 10, 1930, but the<br />
Curtis Condor airplane had to land at a private<br />
field. At Mayor Douglas’s insistence, the<br />
<strong>Charlotte</strong> City Council voted on September 3,<br />
1935, to apply for Federal funds from the<br />
Works Progress Administration to build an<br />
airport for <strong>Charlotte</strong>. When Washington<br />
approved the request on November 13th, the<br />
City decided to use the money for land acquisition.<br />
Voter-approved bonds were sold on<br />
March 1, 1936, to pay for the improvements,<br />
including the terminal and the hangar.<br />
Douglas was a prime mover in persuading<br />
the War Department to establish an air station<br />
at <strong>Charlotte</strong> shortly before World War Two.<br />
Dedicated on April 21, 1941, and named<br />
Morris Field in honor of William Colb Morris,<br />
a World War One aviator from Concord,<br />
North Carolina, the air station was devoted<br />
primarily to the training of pilots and the<br />
maintenance of aircraft. Like Camp Greene<br />
during World War One, Morris Field was a<br />
boost to the local economy. “The Army Air<br />
Base at Morris Field became a $6 million government<br />
investment,” boasted the <strong>Charlotte</strong><br />
Observer many years later. <strong>Charlotte</strong> architect<br />
W. R. Marsh designed the buildings, and<br />
Blythe Brothers Construction Company and<br />
Goode Construction Company, both local<br />
firms, built Morris Field.<br />
<strong>Charlotte</strong> and Mecklenburg County had two<br />
other large military installations during World<br />
War Two. The former Ford Motor Company<br />
Plant on Statesville Avenue became the home<br />
of a U. S. Army Quartermaster Depot on May<br />
16, 1941. Lastly, a committee of <strong>Charlotte</strong><br />
businessmen, including Mayor E. M. Currie, R.<br />
S. Dickson, W. Carey Dowd, Jr., and Edwin<br />
Jones, orchestrated a successful campaign to<br />
bring a large Naval Ammunition Depot to<br />
Mecklenburg County in 1942. Located in what<br />
is now the Arrowood Industrial Park and operated<br />
by the U. S. Rubber Company, the facility<br />
✧<br />
<strong>Charlotte</strong> Memorial Hospital. This facility,<br />
which replaced St. Peter’s Hospital, has<br />
grown to become Carolina’s Medical Center<br />
today. The original structure is shown in<br />
the background and a new addition in the<br />
foreground of this 1968 photo.<br />
COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG HISTORIC<br />
LANDMARKS COMMISSION.<br />
CHAPTER X<br />
75
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