San Jose International Airport and 50 years of Blood Sweat and Tears. This post is very long The San Jose International Airport had its birth in the declining years of the Great Depression, when San Jose had a population of less than 68,000 and its economy was linked to the thousands of acres of orchards that stretched out from its city limits. Aviation enthusiasm had been growing since the early 1920s when World War I fly boys returned to put on exhibitions and conduct flying schools. The little private air fields were inadequate, the runways, mud holes in winter, were not long enough and lighting was poor. Pioneering the idea of a major municipal airport were such men as Ernest Renzel, Jr., Norman Breeden, Joseph Lowry, Pat LeDeit, Alden Campen, and early aviator, Robert Fowler. Topping the list was Renzel, wholesale grocer, member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club, whose name became linked to the steps that led to land acquisition, funding and development up through the war years and beyond. Many were involved, but if any one man can be called “the father” of today’s huge multi-million dollar International Airport, it should probably be Ernest “Ernie” Renzel, Jr. 1938 Most histories of San Jose’s airport began with a meeting held in 1938, attended by members of the local chapter of the National Aeronautic Association, a group of young aviation enthusiasts, members of the San Jose Junior Chamber of Commerce and Exchange Club. However, a search of aviation news in the files of the San Jose Mercury News shows as early as November 1928, voters rejected a $400,000 bond proposal to provide a municipal airport, and in January 1929, a citizens airport committee was formed, made up of three representatives each from the Merchants’ Association, San Jose Realty Board, American Legion Post 89, San Jose Flying Club, Building Trades Council, Central Labor Association, and the Chamber of Commerce. Also on this early committee were Andrew Swickard, representing the County Surveyor’s Office, City Engineer William Popp, and Robert Fowler. The committee first met on January 22, 1929, and letters were sent to 118 realtors asking for offers of suitable land. Among the sites offered were several that History of San Jose International Airport Pat Loomis, Author were to be studied a decade later. These included the William Prusch property on the southwest corner of King and Story Roads, the David Kampfen land on the southeast corner of King and Story, the Joseph C. Azevedo property on Story Road, and a portion of the old Stockton ranch north of Newhall Street, then in the estate of Mary Ives Crocker. The 1929 committee selected the already existing flying field on Alum Rock Avenue at Capitol Avenue (later site of James Lick High School). The Crocker land, offered by realtor W.L. Atkinson, was the committee’s second choice, and its 400-plus acres could have been purchased for $350,000. It was rejected on grounds the site was not suitable because of poor drainage, unfavorable soil conditions, and costs of building runways. The same objections were to hold up approval of the same site beginning 10 years later. For several months, airmail planes flew to Oakland out of the Alum Rock airport, which was leased by Hudson Mead and Newton Orr, but before the end of the year the field was ordered closed because of dust problems it created. The airmail service to Oakland was resumed a short time later at a new San Jose Airport on King Road just south of Story Road, a level 20 acres bought by West American Aviation Co. from dairyman J.C. Azevedo. Mead and Orr were in charge of the airfield and offered flying lessons, taxi service, charter trips, and crop dusting service. San Jose businessmen raised the money to install lights at the field in 1930, and the airport continued to serve up through the decade. Earl C. Bradford and Breeden were other operators of the airport. Several commercial flights flew in and out of the King Road airport, one making daily stops en route from San Diego to Vancouver, and Pacific Air Transport operated the airmail flights to Oakland until 1933. In the 1930s, San Jose State Teacher’s College (now university)operatedan aviation instruction school at the airport. Late in 1935, Robert and Cecil Reid opened the Garden City Airport on Bonita Avenue east of McLaughlin Avenue and south of San Antonio Street, which lasted until 1938 when the port was condemned by the state for the extension of Highway 101. Reid’s Hillview Airport, at its present site, began operation the following year. The Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) was created by an act of Congress in 1938, and Howard Hughes set a new around-the-world speed record flying from History of San Jose International Airport Pat Loomis, Author California and back in three days, 19 hours, 14 minutes and 28 seconds. Perhaps these events helped to contribute local interest in a municipal airport San Jose could be proud of. As early as January 1938, a site in the Laurelwood area north of San Jose was being considered. According to a newspaper story January 22, two officials from the U.S. Bureau of Air Commerce approved the site for emergency landings when San Francisco was fogged in. Commercial airliners were then using Moffett Field (completed in 1933) or Livermore when San Francisco and Oakland were blanketed in fog, and figures showed San Jose averaged only 18 foggy days a year, and that on 80 percent of those days the fog was gone by 10:00 a.m. 1939 1939 The following year, the 1938 groups met in March of 1939 with civic leaders and the newly created Central Airport Committee, headed by Joseph Lowry, realtor with Cooper-Challen Realty Co. Clyde L. Fischer, president of the City Council, suggested the airport committee meet with the Council. Another speaker was Renzel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Aviation Committee. A meeting of the committee was held March 14, 1939, with the City Council in which City Manager Clarence B. Goodwin noted “a large majority of the municipal airports in the United States were operated at a loss,” and Breeden, San Jose Airport operator, who referred to the King Road port as a “mud hole along a cow pasture,” claimed a municipal airport could be self-supporting. LeDeit, member of the Central Airport Committee, noted “any money we invest in the property for an airport is a good, sound investment.” Council President Clyde Fischer appointed a seven-man committee to study the issue. Ernest Renzel, Jr., was elected chairman. Others on the committee were LeDeit, John Benevento, M.R. Bookwalter, Lowry,P.G. Robinson and Oran Slaght. Options were obtained on several pieces of property, including four considered back in 1920 - - the Greg Crocker property, Kampfen and Prusch lands, and the San Jose Airport site on dairyman Azevedo’s King Road land. From the beginning, it was apparent the Crocker property was the front runner. In a 1985 interview, Renzel recalled when the airport was first broached, he asked County Assessor Hayden Pitman where he thought would be a good spot for an airport. Pitman recalled this chapter in the airport history in a letter to Renzel in March 1986: “As I remember, the Mary Ives Crocker property consisted of nearly 500 acres and was the only property in one ownership of this size near or adjacent to the City of San Jose. Mary was dead and the property, as a trust, was handled by a large San Francisco firm. “Every year the agent protested to me about what in his opinion was excessive amount of taxes levied against the property. The use of the property in those years was strictly agricultural, the primary crop being onions. Every so often the Los Gatos Creek and the Guadalupe would overflow and flood a portion of the land. The trustees would not spend a dime to improve the property, so there it sat waiting for something to happen. It did. “You [Renzel] looking toward the future of San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley, came to see me as County Assessor, because our office had detailed maps of all properties in Santa Clara County. “You asked me if I knew of any property which might be suitable for an airport. I immediately thought of the Crocker trust and showed you maps of the property. Shortly thereafter the agent for the trust called me and stated the trustees of the property had been contacted about selling and what did I think of it. I remember telling him the trustees were not farmers and he agreed. “It wasn’t long before the property was sold and an airport was born. I doubt if my advice had much to do with the sale. “From an economic standpoint the airport from the very beginning was a huge success. Within the first year of its operation, 10 times more assessed value was added to the assessment rolls from the properties in the airport area than was lost by removal of the Crocker trust because of its acquisition by a public agency, and the assessment rolls have been increasing ever since.” Mrs. Crocker was the widow of Henry J. Crocker of the family which included railroad magnate Charles Crocker. She owned several pieces of property in Santa Clara County at the time of her death in an automobile crash near Menlo Park in 1929. In getting an option the 483.63 acres of land between Newhall Street History of San Jose International Airport Pat Loomis, and Brokaw Road, Renzel and the city dealt with Bronte M. Aikins, San Francisco attorney for the six heirs. Renzel recalled Aikins said the heirs wanted $625 an acre, but he told him (Aikins) he doubted if the city could raise that kind of money, “so we finally arrived at $300 an acre.” In April 1939, the heirs of Mrs. Crocker’s estate agreed to accept the city’s offer for the land. A letter to Renzel May 20, 1930, from Aikins noted the heirs of the estate had approved an option “of the entire 483.398 acres of the Stockton Ranch at $300 an acre.” The option was for four months, and was signed by all of those entitled to distribution of Mrs. Crocker’s estate and sent to Renzel in a letter from Aikins dated June 5, 1939. The option was extended in October of 1939 and again in June of 1940. The extension bore the signatures of Henry J. Crocker, Mary Julia Crocker, Scully and Marion Phyllis Crocker, individually, William L. McLaine, Henry J. Crocker, and C.H. Lamberton as trustees of the trusts created by the will of Mary Ives Crocker. The Crocker property was part of Rancho El Potrero de Santa Clara (the pasture lands of Santa Clara), granted in 1844 by Mexican governor Manuel Micheltorena to James Alexander Forbes, a Scot who became a Mexican citizen and British vice-consul. In 1847, Forbes sold the rancho to Commodore Robert Field Stockton, military governor since the U.S. conquest of California in 1846. The sale price was $15,000 for 1,939.03 acres as confirmed by the U.S. government in the1850s.Commodore Stockton established a nursery for the propagation of fruit trees and had a number of prefabricated homes shipped around the Horn from New England for a subdivision called Alameda Gardens. One of these, known as “the White House,” stood at Newhall and Spring Streets on airport property until moved to Agnew Road and Bayshore in 1946. The committee felt the Crocker land had the advantage of being close to Moffett Field, as well as San Jose, and agreed with those who had inspected the Laurelwood area a year earlier that the climate was right. There was a lot happening in Santa Clara County in 1939, both related and unrelated to aviation. The Civil Aeronautics Administration pilot training program began at San Jose State College. The U.S. Senate voted $4 million for an aeronautics laboratory (NASA) as Moffett Field. San Jose was building a bridge over Los Gatos Creek connecting Bird Avenue and Montgomery Street, and Permanente cement plant was being built in the hills above Cupertino to supply cement for construction of Shasta Dam. Col. Charles Lindbergh inspected Moffett Field July 4, and there were two plane crashes, one at the Almaden CCC camp and the other on Mt. Hamilton. A local cow Johanna Hester Prilly, set a world milk production record. Hewlett-Packard Co. began manufacturing electronic devices in David Packard’s Palo Alto garage. Nationally, aviation news in 1939 included the flight of the first American made helicopter and the beginnings of commercial trans-Atlantic commercial/passenger air service with a flight from New York to France. The first clouds of war loomed in Europe with the invasion of Hitler’s army into Poland on September 1, while Santa Clara Valley hunters were enjoying the first day of dove season. It was first proposed to ask the voters to pass a bond issue to pay for the land and build the airport, but it was recalled the last bond issue to pass in San Jose was in 1911 when the city wanted to buy some horses for the fire department. Renzel remembered he talked to John Lynch (city clerk) who said San Jose would never pass a bond issue. “But,” Lynch said, “you could go for a tax levy which only requires a majority vote.” Finally, the City Council decided on a three-year, 10 cent tax levy to buy the airport property. The election was set for May 6, 1940. 1940 Arthur Ayres, regional airport engineer for CAA, wrote, prior to the election: “Undoubtedly the proposed site had several qualifying features… accessibility to town and its proximity to the Bayshore highway … and since it is located within the city limits it should be an easy matter to zone the surrounding area.” Among the unfavorable features Ayres pointed out, were the 55-foot power line, a 45-foot water tower, and the Guadalupe River meandering along one side of the site. He said removal of the obstacles and straightening the river would probably be the greatest cost of development and should be done first. “However,” he said, “it is my opinion this site can be developed.” This statement was later repudiated by the CAA on the grounds the agency had made no study of alternative sites A banquet was held in April 1940 to launch the election campaign for the three-year tax increase. It was held at the DeAnza Hotel and sponsored by the Central Airport Committee. Edward R. Sharp,administrative officer of the new federal air research station being built at Moffett Field, spoke at the dinner and expressed “surprise” that a city “as large and progressive as San Jose” had no modern municipal airport. He said development of the research station at Moffett would undoubtedly attract industries. Chairman Renzel said, “San Jose must capitalize on the fastest growing industry in America, the aeronautics industry.” Speakers at a later luncheon to push the vote included Jacqueline Cochran, foremost aviatrix, and Frank Fuller, holder of the transcontinental Bendix speed record. The Junior Chamber of Commerce was in charge of getting out the vote for the May election, but it just so happened, Renzel recalled, “the weekend before the election there was a Jaycee state convention in Long Beach and because San Jose wanted Parker Hathaway to be elected state vice-president, they all went down there to support him. “The day of the election, May 6, there was nobody around so three of us went down to the Chamber of Commerce and became the get-out-the-vote committee. Clyde McDonald, Bob Robb and I sat there all day telephoning, and I’m satisfied that if we hadn’t done that the measure wouldn’t have passed. We had to switch only 112 votes.” “You’d think,” Renzel said, “it would be like shooting fish in a rain barrel … everybody would be for it …“but the vote was 11,002 yes and 10,780 no.” “There was never any open organized opposition, but there apparently was behind the scenes opposition,” Renzel said. He believes the Southern Pacific, Clayton & Co. real estate, the First National Bank, the San Jose Mercury, all of whom made up a “cozy close relationship,” may have been the reason for the slim passage of the measure. He said there were some “aginners” such as City Councilman Clark Bradley, who said, according to Renzel, “Why get a great big piece of property like this for an airport? It’s like building a four-story garage for one automobile.” Renzel, looking back at the close vote, noted if the measure hadn’t passed some smart realtor would have bought the whole works, 483 acres for $145,000. “It was the biggest steal in real estate history.” In July 1940, W.F. Carroll, District Airport Engineer of the CAA, came up from Santa Monica to inspect the airport site. He repeated what San Jose already knew … that the No. 1 problem was removal of the high-tension line along the eastern border of the air field, but he seemed generally impressed with the site. He provided a set of CAA requirements for the airport, needed to apply for federal funds, and city crews worked through the summer preparing surveys on which to base contour maps preliminary to grading. Hopes fluctuated up and down that summer as Congress kicked around a proposed $40 million fund to construct 250 new commercial airports, but when a bill was finally passed, San Jose was not on the list of sites for air fields. Also disappointing was the Army’s disqualification of San Jose for an air force base or retraining field because of its proximity to the city’s center of population. This had seemed a great advantage from a civilian standpoint, but the Army feared enemy bombs dropped on the air field could wipe out the city. In November 1940, the City Council appointed nine men to act in a consulting capacity for the airport. The nine were Renzel, Lowry, LeDeit, Wally Longwitz, Dr. Lawrence Foster, Alden Campen, Eddie Hawkins, Clyde McDonald and George Harter, the latter chairman of a new group called “Civic Progress Committee.” City Engineer W.L. Popp and his assistant, Harold J. Flannery, were also added to the committee. In 1940, the first commercial flight using pressurized cabins flew from LaGuardia Field to Burbank, California. Besides the airport, other San Jose projects underway in 1940 included a municipal ball park. San Jose State College was building a library, and a new dome was under construction at Lick Observatory. The County paid $35,000 for 97 acres of the Macomber horse ranch on Tully road for fairgrounds on October 2, 1940. Census figures for San Jose showed a population of 68,298. Ernest H. Renzel, Jr. was selected “Young Man of the Year” by the Junior Chamber of Commerce for his work on the airport project. In this year, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of England, and the first McDonald hamburger stand opened near Pasadena. The first peacetime military draft in U.S. history began October 29. The CAA, in 1940, had suggested the city prepare an obstacle map showing the height of all structures, trees and other obstacles within a two-mile radius of the airport, and indicated a definite decision would be made on the basis of this plan. In February 1941, Assistant City Engineer Flannery announced preparation of the obstacle map, and also that trees along Newhall Street were being removed as a hazard to aviation. City Manager Goodwin also announced at this time that development plans must eliminate any structure, highway or other obstruction with 700 feet of a major runway. Flannery said all plans for the airport must be approved by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) before application can be made for Works Progress Administration (WPA) grading and constructing of runways. (WPA assistance had been discussed and it was felt by the city it would be available to alleviate some of the costs to the city in construction of the airport.) City Engineer Popp, Flannery and Goodwin went to Santa Monica in March 1941, to meet with the CAA officials and to deliver the obstacle map. Results of that meeting were not overly encouraging. The CAA first suggested the City of San Jose abandon the Crocker site entirely. Then, it submitted its own suggested layout for the site which included clearing all approach zones to a 30:1 ratio and proper steps to protect such approaches; stringent zoning and enforcement and purchase of air rights and acquisition of the lands before construction of the port was started. It recommended more property be acquired to permit extension of runways, minimizing turning and approach hazards. The CAA’s Supervisor of Airports Arthur Ayres, said if all these things were done, “then we will not raise further objections to this site.” By the summer of 1941, WPA had been so much curtailed it begun to appear San Jose’s chances of getting a grant for construction were slim. A letter from Ayres to Renzel dated June 10 refers to plans for development of the airport prepared by Paul Birmingham, who had joined the City of San Jose as municipal airport engineer, and who subsequently was credited with developing the entire concept of the airport as it existed at the time of his death in the late 1960s. In the letter, Ayres said the CAA had no knowledge of any possible allocation of funds for the San Jose airport. He said a board composed of the Secretaries of War, Navy and Commerce designated the locations for development of civil airports as recommended as essential to national defense, and “in view of the heavy construction occurs under a CAA program be owned in fee simple by the sponsoring agency. It is desirable that long-term options be arranged toward acquisition of all lands northwest encompassed in the master plan, he said. With the CAA’s continued opposition, the airport committee grew impatient and began urging the city to go ahead without the agency’s support of WPA funds. It was argued San Jose might not achieve a great airport, but they could have one that is usable. It was proposed the remaining obstructing trees be cut down, the power line removed, the runway graded and oiled. Also, it was suggested a campaign be launched to attract aeronautical industries to the area. The City Council refused to bow to the wishes of the airport committee, arguing that without the CAA’s approval the airport could not be used for commercial purposes and could not qualify for WPA aid or labor. So it was back to the drawing board and the city began work on a new master plan for the airport. It was to be ready to go back to the CAA on January 1, 1941, and an application for a WPA grant was to go to Washington on February 1. Then came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and all civilian airport construction came to an end. Looking back on 1941, the war in Europe was touching the U.S. and its people long before that December “day of infamy.” National defense activities picked up in 1941 and both civil aeronautics and military authorities adopted more stringent policies regarding airport requirements. In March, the San Jose unit of the National Guard was inducted into the Army. On a sunny day in August, the USO Hospitality House at the south end of the City Plaza was constructed. On December 9, just two days after the Japanese attack on Hawaii, San Jose had its first wartime blackout. This same day the first U.S. troops arrived to protect the city. Precinct captains were named December 12 by the Civilian Defense Council, and on December 19 Brig. Gen. Robert C. Richards, Jr., arrived in San Jose to take command of the Army headquartered in the Commercial and Knights of Columbus buildings. 1942 Navy blimps for submarine patrol took over Moffett Field on January 11, 1942, and tire and sugar rationing boards opened in February. In spring 1942, Japanese residents of the county were evacuated to inland camps, and vacant lots were being planted to “victory gardens.” The war deflated the building boom and residential construction was frozen. The only two major building projects in San Jose in 1942 were construction of Food Machinery’s $200,000 addition and the Anglo California National Bank. The city’s 1942-43 budget of $1,028,000 was the first in San Jose’s history to exceed a million dollars. On October 10, 1942, street lights were shielded. Gasoline rationing started in November. City Engineer William Popp who had been instrumental in the early planning of the airport, died November 28 and was succeeded by Harold Flannery. The San Jose Mercury Herald bought the San Jose Mercury News. Russell E. Pettit, secretary manager of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, announced receipt of a letter from James G. Ray, vice president of Southwest Airways in Phoenix, Arizona, saying the Army and Navy had asked the Civil Aeronautics Board to investigate the need for a feeder line for airmail service on the west coast with a stop in San Jose. Pettit and the Chamber also endorsed Henry J. Kaiser’s plan to build cargo planes in the Santa Clara Valley, and suggested the plant be located on undeveloped municipal airport land, neither of which came to pass. The war in Europe and the Pacific escalated with headlines informing Americans of the round-up of Jews by Hitler’s government and the fall of Bataan, Corregidor and the Solomon Islands to the Japanese. K rations were packaged for U.S. troops by the Wrigley Company of Chicago. The last U.S. automobile to be produced until after the war rolled off the Ford assembly line in February as auto plants turned to production of materials for war. 1943 There were floods in Alviso to start off 1943, and later that spring San Jose State College reserves were called to active duty in the armed forces. Food Machinery Corp. tested its first armored tank, and San Jose formed its first recreation department. July 1943, the San Jose Merchants Association voted unanimously against parking meters for downtown San Jose, and 600 Mexican Nationals arrived to help with the harvest in the valley. On October 4, the City Council voted to buy the 11-acre Brassy Orchard at 16th and William Streets for $12,571 to add to Coyote Park after the war. Schools were closed a week in December 1943 because of an influenza epidemic. Allied forces captured Guadalcanal and invaded Southern Italy. Benito Mussolini and his cabinet resigned July 25. Rationing of meat, shoes, butter, cheese, flour, fish and canned goods began. The Chinese exclusion acts of 1882 and 1902 were repealed. During the early war years, San Jose played a waiting game as far as its municipal airport was concerned. The CAA was still holding up approval of the site, although letters received by Renzel and the city officials from R.W.F. Schmidt of the CAA kept the locals’ hopes alive. On August 31, 1943, Schmidt wrote to Renzel, noting “While we are a long way from being sold on the airport site, the City of San Jose has now, if it can be expanded properly across Brokaw Road, the power line removed, Guadalupe River relocated, adequate clearances obtained and protected by enforceable zoning, we can see no alternative but to proceed on the basis of developing the present municipally-owned site. “I feel this airport would be devoted primarily to industrial and cargo operation, however, and that private flying would have to be provided with one or two other airports,” Schmidt said. Then on December 28, 1944, Schmidt wrote to then City Manager John Lynch, noting among other points, the city should state “it recognizes the necessity for acquisition of lands north of Brokaw Road and south of Newhall Street to protect any building and runway investment lying between the two thorough fare and that closure of one or both may become necessary in contemplation of expansion to a larger class of airport or to increase safety in operations.” Schmidt said there should be an admission from the city that CAA approval is qualified and not a blanket sanction. He said he was “surprised at the reluctance of the city to formally accede to these admissions because the need for clarification of position is so evident in all recommendations for city and community planning.” Schmidt in “an informal note” to Renzel March 23, 1945, said he wanted him to know “you can say to anyone, anywhere, anytime, that the CAA has approved the site with certain recommendations which we are following … and that’s that.” In this and other letters Schmidt emphasized the amount of time … “four years and more” … the CAA had devoted to San Jose’s Municipal Airport. 1944 Stepped-up production in county war plants marked the year 1944 with major contracts including 30 generators ordered by Russia from Joshua Hendy Iron Works in Sunnyvale and government contract awarded Food Machinery Corp. for amphibious tractors. Plans for extension of Bayshore Highway from East Santa Clara Street south were presented to the County Board of Supervisors. Politics shook City Hall with election of the Progress Committee slate to fill City Council seats. New councilmen were Renzel, Fred Watson, James W. Lively, Ben Carter, Albert Ruffo, and Roy H. Rundle. City Manager Goodwin was forced to resign and was replaced by City Clerk John C. Brown became police chief and Lester O’Brien fire chief. Topping world news in 1944 was D-Day, marking the June 6 landing of 176,000 allied troops on the beaches of Normandy. President Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term, and the G.I. Bill of Rights was enacted by Congress. James M. Nissen, former Naval aviator and Pan Am pilot, was test flying at Ames Laboratory at Moffett Field in 1945 when he and James Mathiesen, a college friend who had served in the same Navy squad and who had gotten out of the Navy the year before, heard San Jose was interested in trying to get an airport together and “came down to see what we could do.” On November 14, 1945, the City Council voted to lease 16 acres of airport land to Nissen. “I’ll never forget that evening with the City Council,” Nissen said in a March 1986 interview. “It was in the old council chambers (Market Street City Hall) where you sat nice and close to the council members with one rail separating the audience. “I wanted a lease of at least two years, so if the city cancelled in the event federal funds became unavailable for development I would have some damages and at least get my money back. “The council agreed on the two years and said the city would pay some damage if it had to cancel me out. Everything was fine until some John Doe in the audience got up and said ‘you can’t do that … the city cannot commit itself to any liability greater than the rent they’re going to receive on the land.’ (Nissen had offered to pay $20 an acre). “So,” Nissen chuckled, “the council declared a recess and went into City Manager John Lynch’s office to discuss it. It was decided I would get a one-year lease with the option of renewing, and that I would take the gamble and there would be no damages. Everybody thought I was crazy to get into it for only one year, and they were probably right.” The City Council in approving the lease agreed that if federal funds were made available during the year, Nissen’s rent would be refunded and any buildings he had put up could be removed. Nissen, Mathiesen, and Ray Stephens, a mechanic at Ames Laboratory, formed a company called California Aviation Activities. Each of the three put in $2,000. They planned a small runway, office and hangar. By the mid-1940s the city had paid for the last of the original parcels purchased from the Crocker estate and was buying more land, most of which was leased for vegetable growing. While Clarence Goodman was still city manager, he noted that although the airport property had not been converted to the purpose for which it it was bought, it was playing an important role in the war effort by producing food. In January of 1945 the city bought five fire trucks for $56,000. The San Jose Historic Landmarks Commission was created, the Hyde-Sullivan study for a sewage treatment plant was authorized, and a $1,700,000 bond issue to build storm sewers was passed. Ernest Renzel, Jr. was mayor of San Jose. for a large ad in the form of “an open letter to the public” in the San Jose Mercury. The matter was argued in Superior Court and while Judge John D. Foley overruled the first two points in the lawsuit, he held that under the California General Laws the City Council should have sold the land at public auction. There was a lot of criticism that the price the city accepted for the 90 acres was too low. City Manager John Lynch answered the city was interested in factors other than price, especially in the industrial growth of the city and keeping FMC with its high assessed valuation and large payroll in San Jose. (FMC executive Emiel T. Nielsen, Jr. in 1987 disclosed taxes paid to that date on the 90 acres amount to $30 million and salaries and wages paid by FMC came to $1.7 billion.) In the midst of theFMC controversy in 1945, Lynch noted the city, even at the price paid for the 90 acres, had made a good profit on its original investment. Cost of the land to the city in 1940 was $27,000, so sale to FMC would show a profit of more than $35,000, plus rental on the land over five years. The FMC sale was not resolved for another year (1946), at which time profit to the city would more than double. 1946 Activity at the little flying field out on airport land began picking up early in 1946. Nissen was still living in Los Angeles and working as an experimental test pilot at North American in March, commuting back and forth to Los Angeles in a BT 13 he bought after first trying commuting via commercial airlines. The family looked for a History of San Jose International Airport place to buy in Southern California, but decided they didn’t want to live there, Nissen said. “Finally I decided I’d come back. The operations at San Jose (California Aviation Activities) had gotten into financial problems and I felt I either had to come back and run it or just let it go with what I had in it,” Nissen said. The company borrowed some money and got a G.I. contract. The office and hanger were built early in 1946. “I remember the hanger. I wanted to put up a temporary building, because it was only for a couple of years, but the city’s chief building inspector, Bob Lotz, said there was no such thing as a temporary building and Renzel and everybody agreed with him. So we had to build the hanger to code. It was over where the main runway is now,” Nissen recalled in that 1986 interview. “We had a fair amount of rain that winter (1945-46),” Nissen said, “and the land which was planted to cauliflower was not only smelly but was adobe and hard to work. We were begging and borrowing every farmer’s tractor and disc we could work the ground, and we did … sometimes until 11 or 12 at night or until it rained and we had to stop.” The company had a flight school and began flying off the little runway (less than 3,000 feet long) in the spring of 1946, about the time Nissen and his partners leased another 64 acres. Although the airport was a private venture, which continued until 1948, the fact it was operating out on municipal airport land gave a boost to the dreams of those who had been pushing for the port so many years. The CAA in February 1946 approved a plan for development of municipal airport with a runway of 4,500 feet (Class 3), and in May enactment of the Federal Airport Act provided financial support for construction of airport facilities. Air service was granted to San Jose in June, authorizing Southwest Airways to stop in San Jose on flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles, but because the runway was only 2,300 feet, the airport could not meet CAA landing specifications for DC-3s and therefore could be no service. Along about this time, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission, silent during the five years since San Jose agreed to buy the Crocker acres for an airport site, suddenly decided it was against the location. Commission Chairman W.B. Weston and Commissioner W.W. Curtner expressed opposition to the municipal airport site, Curtner noting the expense to the general public in the “removal of power lines and changes of roads.” This was in mid-July 1946, at a meeting in which the commission granted a permit to Arthur J. Monti of Sunnyvale to operate a Class B flying field at Bayshore Highway and Lawrence Station Road. The permit was hotly protested by San Jose City Attorney Robert Cassin, City Engineer Flannery and City Planning Engineer Michael Antonacci. They argued the closeness of Monti’s field would prevent CAA approval of the San Jose airport, thus eliminating any federal funds for the port. “The people of San Jose voted for the [Crocker] site and we have $200,000 invested in the project,” Antonacci said. “It is our [the city’s] duty to protect the people’s interest in it.” City Engineer Flannery said, “10 years ago, San Jose looked forward to the airport at the present site, acquired it, and has never abandoned that intention. It looks like the commission is doing all it can to kill the San Jose airport.” On August 26, 1946, the County Board of Supervisors authorized spending $5,000 to settle the controversial issue of where the San Jose Municipal Airport should be located. County Planning Commission Chairman Weston had asked for $10,000 to hire “impartial and competent” airport engineers to survey the situation. City officials approved the move, as did Renzel, who said, “This is a special project and with the various planning groups occupied with other things, I think it is in order that a study be made by men who know about the special problems of the location of airports.” Newly hired City Manager O.W. “Hump” Campbell promised “the closest cooperation” between the city and county in the survey by the General Airport Co. of Stamford, Connecticut. Campbell was hired in June. The survey was completed in December with the recommendation of the survey team that San Jose should immediately develop its municipal airport as a Class 4 port at its present site. The engineering company considered four other sites, three in the area of Trimble Road and Agnews State Hospital, and one on Monterey Highway between Tully and Senter Roads, but agreed the present site was the The County Planning Commission accepted the report and the CAA announced satisfaction with the site and also confirmed its earlier approval of future extension of the runway across Brokaw Road. Proposed closure of Brokaw Road had raised a storm of protest from Santa Clara because it was a major artery into that city. While the study was underway by the Connecticut firm, Nissen requested $4,000 from the city for improvements to his existing runway, drainage, cutting of trees and removal of power lines. The runway had been graded and rolled by the first week in December when a two-engine cargo plane carrying a consignment of pianos for Frank Campi’s Music Store in San Jose attempted to land at the airport. After circling the field eight times, the pilot decided the dirt runway was too dangerous. The FMC-airport land sale matter resurfaced again in the fall of 1946. In September of that year, FMC released the city from the sale and a public auction was held October 24. High bidder was FMC. This time the company paid $140,000 for the 90 acres; more than double the original price and only $5,000 shy of what the city paid for the entire 483 acres of airport land. Attorney Victor A. Chargin, representing FMC, paid the required 10 percent down payment following the bidding, handing over fourteen $1,000 bills to Councilman Renzel, who announced the money would go into the airport fund. “Chargin handed me all that money,” Renzel recalled, “and I handed it to Police Chief Brown just as quick. This was in the old City Hall in the upstairs council chambers. Brown ran downstairs and put the $14,000 in the police department safe in the basement.” The city was continuing to buy land for the airport, adding 49 acres in November 1946, from the estate of Manual Rogers. This piece was north of Brokaw Road near Kifer Road and was needed to protect the main runway with height limitations. The city was informed federal monies would be available to help finance the purchase of this and other pieces, as well as airport construction costs. Also in November, the city applied for $100,000 in federal funds to aid in construction of the municipal airport, and the following January the Civil Aeronautics Administration in Washington, D.C., approved a grant of $107,313. Estimated cost of the first unit of work to bring the airport up to standards of a Class 3 port was $222,300 Another major event of the year 1946 involving airport land was the establishment of Airport Village. It grew out of an earlier city housing development called Victory Village and involving trailers. It was established on a 9-acre city park site on Polhemus Street (later named Taylor) between Walnut and Irene Streets. The state granted San Jose $311,080 for construction of Airport Village on airport land at Coleman and Newhall Streets to further ease the housing shortage. On January 22, 1946, the City Council had established the Department of Emergency Housing to handle the problem which was expected to become acute when veterans returned from military duty. Lester Keaton, coordinator for San Jose’s civilian defense forces, was placed in charge of the emergency housing projects. In shopping around for housing units for Airport Village, he discovered 206 new prefabricated steel barracks still in their crates in an Army ordinance depot. The City was able to obtain them free of charge and shortly before Christmas the first Veterans’ families moved in. Keaton was kept busy that first year and into the next scrounging materials such as fittings for sewers, electrical wire, toilets and plumbing fittings from Camp Shoemaker and other government installations. The Federal Public Housing Authority in Redwood City supplied 150 kegs of nails and 40,000 square feet of plywood. Other supplies came from Pleasanton, Pomona, and as far away as Salt Lake City. A total of 356 units were constructed and occupied, with Veterans paying from $30 to $40 a month. From the beginning, Airport Village made money for the city. During 1946, the former San Jose Airport on King Road was sold to four couples, the Richard B. Richmonds, J.H. Channells, C.E. Goodrichs, and H.B. Barnicks, who continued to lease to several air schools. A restaurant was opened at Reid-Hillview Airport on Cunningham Avenue. Other significant happenings during 1946 included start of construction of the $400,000 overpass at Bayshore and East Santa Clara Street, talk of moving the City Hall north, opening of the second Santa Clara County Fair in September (the war had cancelled fairs after the first was held in 1941), and installation of parking g meters in the downtown area on a one-year trial basis.. A 10-foot granite shaft honoring aviation pioneer, John J. Montgomery, was unveiled at the University of Santa Clara in April. San Jose’s population in 1946 was 80,734. The Philippines gained independence from the U.S. on July 4, 1946. Strikes idled some 4.6 million U.S. workers during the year, and the U.S. Mint issued the Franklin D. Roosevelt dime. 1947 In April 1947, CAA District Engineer C.B. Worthley told City Engineer Flannery State and federal aid would be forthcoming for San Jose’s municipal airport development and land acquisition. Flannery said state authorities had agreed to finance land acquisition on a 50-50 basis with the city up to $28,630 maximum, and would also reimburse the city for the cost of planning the airport. Worthley assured Flannery federal money stood back of airport construction costs on a 54-46 per cent basis, and for 25 per cent of the cost of any land acquisition. Flannery also announced the CAA had granted San Jose top priority in the state for airport development. Paul V. Birmingham, former San Jose manager of WPA, was named assistant civil engineer by Flannery in March, with the responsibility of steering San Jose’s municipal airport to completion. Among non-airport events in 1947 were approval of a 66-acre site at North First and Rosa (later Hedding) Streets for a civic center, opening on June 4 of the $400,000 Alum Rock overpass on Bayshore Highway, with completion of the 8-mile extension of Bayshore in East San Jose later in the month. Voters approved the $2,500,000 Lexington Dam project in October, and in December Howard W. Campen was named first county counsel. Also that month, the Santa Clara County Air Pollution District was formed, and San Jose barbers announced they were raising the price of haircuts to $1.25. Radio KEEN went on the air June 21, 1947, from its studio in Hotel De Anza. Rosemary Gardens tract was expanding across Guadalupe River from the municipal airport. National news in 1947 included authorization by Congress of a Central Intelligence Agency and passage of the Taft-Hartley Act over President Harry Truman’s veto. The largest aircraft ever built, Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose, made its first and only one-mile flight in San Diego. Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first black baseball player in the major leagues. 1948 “Nine years of community effort bore fruit” on June 21, 1948, when Ernie Renzel remembers word was received of the airport’s final approval by the CAA. Renzel also remembers an incident that occurred early in 1948 before final CAA approval of the airport. “Frazier Reed, president of Clayton & Co. real estate, phoned to ask that I meet with him and the chief engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad. We met at Clayton & Co. on West Santa Clara Street. “Frazier said the S.P. wanted to develop a switching yard on the airport property, and since I was chairman of the City Council committee on lands, parks and public structures, he’d like our recommendation to do this. “I said I would tell the committee of the request, but was sure it would not approve, since it would interfere with the airport development. He replied that there wouldn’t be any change of the CAA approving the site. I disagreed, naturally. “Then in June Ray Hess, chief engineer of the CAA in San Francisco, gave final approval. Maybe it was a coincidence, but he was fired within 30 days. Later he told me, he was sacked for approving the San Jose airport.” San Jose officially received its federal airport grant of $185,180 (applied for in 1945) in mid-1948 and in August, Leo F. Piazza Paving Co. was awarded the contract to build the first permanent runway with a low bid of $314,000. The vote to accept by the City Council was unanimous, although Councilman Clark Bradley expressed doubt the airport site was the proper location and predicted the airport there become a “municipal white elephant.” The contract was signed August 4 and ground-breaking ceremonies were held August 8. Airport Engineer Birmingham said the runway would be 4,500 feet long, 150 feet wide, and hard-surfaced, with a long taxi-way. Dirt for the sub-base was hauled from Razorback Ridge in lower Alum Rock Park and granite from Watsonville. A Chamber of Commerce report on the airport noted California Aviation Activities, Inc. was operating complete airport service, including repairs, student instruction, chartered rides, sales and rentals. Buildings included hanger, shop and had been selected from among ten candidates to become the first manager of the San Jose Municipal Airport. Nissen, who assumed his new job November 1, gave up his affiliation with the California Aviation Activities which had been operating on the airport site for two years. Nissen’s salary was $403 a month. City Engineer Flannery asked him to make out a budget for the first year, which he did, setting a figure of $17,000. “I never spent it”, Nissen said, “and the second year Flannery wanted me to ask for the same amount, but I said I didn’t need it. I put down something like $8,000, and the third year I didn’t want anything.” Nissen said the airport had the support of everybody, the media, taxpayers association, merchants, and city workers. “I said I will not ask for a raise until it can come out of airport revenue,” Nissen said. “That was one reason the tax payers got behind the airport … That was on the angel side, but there was the pork side, too. “The city public works crews would be working on Race Street, maybe recapping it, and I had a few chuck holes needed to be filled. So I’d tell Marcus Whaley I had a little problem and why didn’t he fix it and charge it to the Race Street project. Sometimes Flannery would catch us and give us heck. I’d say “Okay, Harold,“ but the repair was done, and the next time we would do the same thing again. “I didn’t mind stealing a little bit from the city, but later on we started making money and they wanted to steal the money from us and I didn’t like that. “We got up to the salary thing … Clark Bradley said we’d always lose money and I said we wouldn’t. He said the day we got in the black “you come to me and I’ll get your raise.” Well, the day came, but if I received the raise it would put the airport back in the red again. “The personnel, the crew, were wonderful,” Nissen recalled. “Anything they could do for the airport to save us paying somebody else, they did it. “The city let us reinvest our revenue as if it was a private operation. That’s an incentive I believe helps hold down costs. “We set up our own books. I got help from San Francisco Airport. We kept our books and the city kept theirs, which was fine. “When the airport revenues would support some raises, I took care of pay increases for employees first and then later went to the civil service and asked for a one-third raise for myself, which was granted.” Nissen said that when he took the airport job he had no intention of staying s long as he did. (He retired in 1975.) “I probably started to leave many times, but there were always new challenges. There were two basic things I’ve always loved, research and development, and they kept me busy.” During 1948, San Jose filed for 100,000 acre feet of water from Folsom reservoir, made final payment on parking meters, made the sales tax permanent, and reached agreement on $63,000 of 22 acres of the Civic Center site. County Supervisors approved the county manager plan. Radio Station KXRX went on the air from its station on Bayshore Highway near McKee Road. Santa Clara’s 1890 jail and city hall at Main and Benson streets were demolished. U.S. railroads shifted from coal-fired steam to diesel-electric locomotives in 1948. President Truman ordered the Army to operate the nation’s railroads to prevent a nationwide rail strike. Citation, with Eddie Arcaro up, won U.S. racing’s Triple Crown. 1949 Finally, on February 1, 1949, ceremonies were held to dedicate the San Jose Municipal Airport. Renzel, who had never given up hope or stopped pushing for the airport since its beginnings a decade before, was master of ceremonies and laude many of the early backers. ity and county officials were taken on a flight over the Valley prior to the dedication ceremonies which brought well-wishers from Moffett Field, San Francisco and other airports, as well as Army and Navy officials. Captain John Dodge, native of Los Gatos and first aeronautical major at San Jose State College, piloted the first scheduled Southwest Airways flight to arrive and depart from the San Jose Municipal Airport. Southwest had been flying out of Moffett Field for the past two years, awaiting the opening of the San Jose port. Completion of the first unit of development heralded San Jose’s first aerial link with the rest of the world, the San Jose Mercury noted. The newspaper pointed out “acquisition of the airport property has been a lucrative one for the city. The site now comprises approximately 600 acres. $140,000 has been derived from rentals of the property for agricultural use and $140,000 was realized from the sale of 90 acres for industrial development (FMC’s Bean Cutler plant). Thus, revenues have been more than double the original price.” In February 1949, a fee schedule was adopted for airport users including, parking and storage fees for private planes, and fees for regularly scheduled airlines. No landing or take off fees were charged for private plans. Also in February, a twin engine DC-3 landed 2,550 baby chicks at the airport. The first phase of the airport construction was to include, besides the 4,500-foot runway, a parking apron, an access road, auto parking, and wooden administration building containing a waiting room, baggage room, offices, and eventually a cafe. In the summer of 1949, the city’s plans for construction of hangers for private planes were protested by private airport operators who feared city competition would cut into their business. Principal protestors were H.A. Barnick of San Jose Airport on King Road and Cecil Reid of Reid-Hillview Airport. Because of the complaints, the City Council in September rejected all bids for hanger construction and agreed to advertise for new bids for two-thirds of the number of small hangers originally planned, or 20 instead of 30. Early in the year a city-county emergency aid station was established. Dial telephone replace the old manual “number please” exchange in San Jose in August. An Air Force B-29 crashed near Calaveras Reservoir September 12, the crew bailing out and landing safely near Milpitas. December saw construction of a replica of the first statehouse in city plaza and a pageant and other programs celebrating the meeting of the first State Legislature in San Jose in 1848. Congress boosted the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents an hour, and a U.S. transcontinental speed record of three hours and 46 minutes was set by an Air Force jet bomber. On February 2, 1950, City Manager Campbell resigned to take a similar position in San Diego. City Engineer Flannery became temporary city manager on March 27, the 100th anniversary of San Jose’s incorporation, until A.P. “Dutch” Haman took the oath of office. He was to serve until November 1969, during which his pro-annexation policy added 1,419 acres to the city and the population climbed from 94,000 to more than 400,000. In April 1950, Airport Manager Nissen announced the next job at the airport would be painting the administration building. He also said a loudspeaker system to announce arrivals and departures was being installed. City Engineer Flannery said in May San Jose would get a share of aviation fuel tax money being divided among California cities and counties. Also in May 1950, Airport Engineer Birmingham received a letter from the CAA district airport engineer in San Francisco approving a $200,000 expansion program at the airport, major costs to be borne with federal funds. The work called for installation of new taxiways, aprons, lights, and other improvements, he said. A Bay Area planning group formed to develop an airport plan for the nine Bay Area counties praised the San Jose site location and predicted its expansion because of weather, freeway transportation, and the airport’s location in an independent trading center. In August 1950, Leo Piazza Co. was awarded the contract to build a new taxi strip, warm-up aprons, plane parking areas and other projects with a low bid of $168,000. During 1950, there was a move to name the airport for pioneer aviator, Robert Fowler, who made the first flight from the Pacific to Atlanta coasts in 1913. Among those favoring the name was Congressman Charles Gubser, who knew Fowler personally when he lived in Gilroy. U.S. forces were ordered to Korea in 1950 and the national emergency resulting called a halt to further improvements at San Jose Municipal Airport. City Manager Hamann returned from Washington, D.C., in December with word from federal officials and Congressman Jack Anderson that the CAA would not allocate any money for development locally for the duration of the crisis. At the same time, Piazza Construction Co. asked for an extension on its contract to build the taxiway because of heavy rains. Victory Village trailers were auctioned December 12, marking an end to the World War II housing project on Polhemus Street. San Jose’s population in 1950 was 94,044. Nissen announced a teletype machine was to be installed to enable pilots to comply with a new CAA ruling making it mandatory to file flight plans and position reports for aircraft within air defense identification zones. San Jose and Santa Clara reached tentative agreement on the latter city’s sale of part of Laurelwood Farm for airport expansion. It was not to be that easy. Airport Engineer Birmingham said, “Without the land, the airport is a dead duck.” The plan called for extension of Coleman and closing of Brokaw Road. Other events that made headlines locally in 1951 included dedication of San Jose’s central fire station at Market and St. James Streets, construction of the$1,600,000 Lake Elsman above Los Gatos by the San Jose Water Works, and the purchase of the 63-acre Kelley estate on Senter Road for a park, in a contractual deal with the City of San Jose, by Renzels wife, Emily Wagner Rose and Alden Campen. A tornado damaged homes in San Jose and Sunnyvale in January 1951, and storms brought floods to Alviso at year’s end. Nationally, CBS began broadcasting color television programs on acommercial basis. The “I Love Lucy” TV program began and “Jersey Joe” Walcott won the world heavyweight boxing title. 1952 Improvements at the airport ground to a halt in 1952 as the long land battle between San Jose and Santa Clara heated up again. Nissen recalls, “Land acquisition was the big thing in the ‘50s, and the big fight was with Santa Clara over closing of Brokaw Road so we could expand the airport. “I think we were really caught in the middle of the annexation war that was going on then. The airport was used as leverage for the give and take in the annexation fight between San Jose Goulart Caetano and Santa Clara. That’s what made it so interesting. “Also, we had the support we needed. We had the City Council with us, the press, radio, and TV, and Ernie Renzel was a big plus. “He was the real father of the airport, getting the land originally. We had a lot of problems, but we had a tremendous amount of support to carry us through,” Nissen claims. In 1952, Santa Clara changed its mind about its Laurelwood Farm land reserved for industrial and sewage plants, and refused to sell any of it to San Jose. Also, Santa Clara renewed its fight against the closing of Brokaw Road and although the CAA had approved closing of the artery in 1947, the CAA set a hearing in San Francisco in August in compliance with the Federal Airport Act mandating a hearing in event of protests. Although the hearing found that a major airport was required in the area, the location of San Jose Municipal Airport was right, nothing much was resolved as Santa Clara continued to refuse selling land to San Jose for airport expansion. A San Jose witness at the hearing was Pat Ryan, former Santa Clara city trustee and acting mayor, who said a poll of industrialists when San Jose first tried to buy Laurelwood Farm land several years ago advocated “we sell to the City of San Jose about 60 acres, sufficient to complete the airport runway involved. They thought it was a fine idea San Jose was providing an airport for us,” Ryan said. He also noted there was an ironclad agreement between San Jose and Santa Clara that if Brokaw Road is closed, San Jose must provide a satisfactory alternate route. Another land matter which kept the two cities busy most of the summer involved 60 acres of farmer Joseph Gianni’s land north of Kifer Road and south of Bayshore Highway. He had agreed to let Santa Clara annex the land for industrial purposes, but changed his mind when he got a better offer from San Jose. (Gianni died in May 1953, after he had won a court decision against Santa Clara which had annexed his land over his protest. Santa Clara appealed the ruling, but a court decision allowed San Jose to acquire the land from Gianni’s heirs.) On February 6, 1952, a plaque was unveiled at the airport honoring aviation pioneer Robert G. Fowler on the 40th anniversary of the first west-to-east transcontinental flight in which he flew from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Florida. Renzel, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce aviation committee, was master of ceremonies. Mayor Clark Bradley told the crowd at the ceremonies San Jose “is honoring one of its great citizens while he is here to enjoy and participate in the honor. Bob, San Jose has given you a place in its heart and will keep you there forever.” Fowler, who took lessons in flying from the Wright Brothers in Ohio in 1911, talked about crude early aircraft and “the men who had nerve enough to fly ‘em.” Among special guests was Roy Francis, another early San Jose airman who was carrying passengers in his homemade biplane early in the century and who, in 1930, became Superintendent of Mills Field, later to be known as San Francisco International Airport. Fowler died in 1966. His wife, Lenore Vargas Fowler, who died in 1965, pioneered glider and sailplane flying. Her aircraft and other memorabilia were turned over to the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in 1930.) In June 1952, six tons of celery grown by George Takeda and Nakimura Bros. of San Jose were flown to New York markets to alleviate a shortage brought on by heavy rains in the east. During the year, San Jose, under City Manager Hamann, annexed a couple of square miles of land and the population figure jumped over the 100,000 mark for the first time in history. A special census put the figure at 102,148. t was a political year and presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson and vice presidential hopeful Richard Nixon both spoke in San Jose. Fire destroyed the landmark Richmond-Chase Co. dried fruit plant at Edenvale, and Campbell became an incorporated city. The final link-up of San Jose’s $3,000,000 storm sewer separation project was completed November 28, 1952, at Eighth and Jackson Streets. Bond issues for the project amounted to $2,500,000 and the state contributed the remainder. Elsewhere, the year brought death to England’s King George VI and his daughter Elizabeth’s ascension to the throne. General Dwight Eisenhower was elected president of the United States and Rocky Marciano won the world heavyweight boxing title. By the end of 1952, the San Jose Planning Commission had approved an alternate route to Santa Clara’s Brokaw Road, looping up the west side of the airport rom Coleman Avenue to connect with Bayshore Highway. Als
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 23:57:46 +0000
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