Remembering the Monrovia Airport

Not long ago, small local airports dotted the landscape in Southern California.  In the San Gabriel Valley alone, Pasadena, Altadena, Rosemead, Arcadia, Alhambra, El Monte, and Monrovia each had one.  Today, El Monte’s airport is still in existence while all the others have disappeared.  When the area that would become the Monrovia Airport was first leased in 1928, planes were still something of a novelty, and airports would draw spectators just to watch them in flight.

The Monrovia Airport was located between Shamrock Avenue (west) and Mountain Avenue (east), and Huntington Drive (north) and the 210 Freeway (south).  This former general aviation airport was originally known as the "Foothill Flying Field".  It was described as having a single, 2,700-foot unpaved northeast/southwest runway.  In 1953, the airport was closed for unknown reasons.

In 1937, Patrick McDonald opened the Airdrome restaurant near the Monrovia Airport. Hamburgers were 10 cents, and all-you-can-drink orange juice was five cents. In 1940, the entire, original octagonal building was moved to San Bernardino, where it was renamed "McDonald's" (after Patrick and his two sons, Maurice and Richard).  It wasn’t until 1953 that they began franchising the restaurant, in1961 they were bought out by Ray Kroc.

So in one sense, it could be said that the McDonalds of today had its beginning in Monrovia, even though, according to the historical account given on the McDonald's website, the company began in 1940 with the move to San Bernardino.

Another note of historical interest about the airport was that the film, The Big Noise (1944), starring comedians Laurel and Hardy, had a small portion of the movie shot at the Monrovia airport. Unfortunately for them and fans of the airport and its history, the film is considered by some to be one of their worst cinematic efforts.

Former Monrovia resident Dorothy (Zerell) Jefferson has documented her early memories of visits to the airport and writes, “… there were some Sundays when my mother wanted some time to herself, and dad would take me with him and drive to the local airport.  He was always very excited about the planes we would see, and I became excited too as he talked about the pilots and what activities might be occurring that day. Most every Sunday there were parachute jumps performed and I would hold my breath as I watched for the parachute to open.  When it did, the jumper would float down to the airstrip where he would be greeted by the yells and clapping of the crowd.  I think we were very fortunate not to witness any accidents, as they were not uncommon.”

Vic Pell is another former Monrovian with memories of the airport. He was a young, native Monrovian who grew up under the traffic patterns of the airport. (He lived on the corner of Shamrock and Lemon, and planes would fly over Lemon Avenue and then turn south for the approach.)  As a teenager, he used to wash airplanes on Mondays (the mechanics didn’t work on those days) and traded his wages for flying lessons.

His first solo occurred at the Monrovia Airport in 1952. He recalls that the south end of the field was covered in goatheads, a plant whose “seeds” had two to three thorns. The thorns were strong enough to puncture the tires of the planes and could cause flats.  Since the runway had a 2.5 degree downslope and the landing approach was also 2.5 degrees, pilots could easily overshoot the runway if not careful and run over the plants, with flat tires a possible outcome.

A special thanks to former Monrovians Dorothy Zerell Jefferson and Vic Pell for sharing their remembrances of their time spent at the airport.