Floyd Bennett Field Historic District

Floyd Bennett Field, on Barren Island in Jamaica Bay, Brooklyn, was New York City's first municipal airport. The City Department of Docks built it between 1928 and 1931, following Department of Commerce guidelines that placed hangars in a line beside the runways and close to Flatbush Avenue. The core of the district is four pairs of steel-frame hangars with brick service wings and Art Deco details, a red and black brick administration building in a neo-Georgian style with a control booth, and the original runway layout. WPA crews added runways and joined the hangar pairs in 1936-1938. The Navy took over the field in 1941 and enlarged it, and the National Park Service later acquired it. In the early 1930s it ranked among the country's busiest airports, and its long runways drew record-seeking fliers including Wiley Post, Howard Hughes and Douglas Corrigan. Because it keeps much of its original buildings and setting, it shows how an early municipal airport worked.