{"nrhp_refnum":"84002141","name":"King Airfield Hangar","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Middleboro Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Taunton","county":"Bristol County","state":"MA","lat":41.88088202600005,"lon":-71.01994594299998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-07-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An airplane hangar of wood with corrugated iron, about 80 by 80 feet, on Middleboro Avenue in East Taunton, Massachusetts, built in 1919 for dairy farmer Henry King.","why_significant":"It is the earliest standing remnant of King's Field, one of New England's first private airports and reputedly the earliest operating commercial airfield in Massachusetts. The hangar housed King's surplus WWI Curtiss Jenny trainer and is an important landmark in the state's aviation history. It retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship and association.","narrative":"Built in 1919 on Middleboro Avenue in East Taunton, this wood and corrugated iron hangar measures roughly 80 by 80 feet. Henry King, a dairy farmer, converted his 50-acre farm into an airfield that year after buying a surplus WWI Curtiss Jenny trainer, and the plane was kept in this building. The Kings started a flying school and offered lessons and sightseeing flights over the Taunton area. In the 1940s and 1950s they ran an air taxi service between eastern seaboard cities, and local industries hangared their own planes there to move goods and materials. A federal airport aid grant in 1959 paid for a paved runway, taxi strips and lighting, and the field became Taunton Municipal Airport. The old hangar sits on a small undeveloped part of the original farm. It is regarded as the earliest standing piece of one of New England's first private airports and is described as vacant, in fair condition, with a past use as storage.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Listed as vacant, in fair condition; later used for storage.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:57.658358-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/89/7897/63789789/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/84002141.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002141/be581a715a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002141/be581a715a-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Airfield_Hangr.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Airfield_Hangr.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63789789","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Airfield_Hangar","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6411219"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/bristol-county/king-airfield-hangar-84002141/"}