Smith Field National Register of Historic Places Listing

Fort Wayne wanted the sky. In 1919, city leaders bought land north of town, creating one of Indiana's first municipal airports. They called it Paul Baer Municipal Airport. This honored a local World War I flying ace. Tragedy changed things, though. In 1926, pioneer aviator Arthur "Art" Smith crashed his mail plane in a thick Ohio fog. He died instantly. So the city renamed the airfield. Smith Field then became a crucial refueling stop on the early transcontinental airmail route between New York and Chicago. Biplanes in the dark. Ground crews actually burned oil-soaked drums to light up the grass runways for midnight landings.

By the 1930s, the dirt runways got paved. Workers built a handsome Art Deco terminal and hangar in 1930, structures that still stand on the property today. These aren't just empty shells. They represent the golden age of civil aviation, featuring distinct brickwork and arched roofs designed to house massive Ford Trimotors. During World War II, the military used the site to train civilian pilots. Most early municipal airports disappeared under concrete decades ago. Developers bulldozed them for suburbs. But Smith Field survived, earning its spot on the National Register in 2002. It still operates. Local pilots use those same runways today, keeping a century-old aviation legacy alive in the Indiana dirt.