Chapman Field – International Airport in 1925?

The story of how Chapman Field in Cutler almost became South Florida's first commercial airport in 1925.

Cover: Front page of the Miami Tribune on August 25, 1925.

On August 25, 1925, the Miami Daily News and Miami Tribune ran headlines suggesting that Chapman Field, a former military training base in South Dade, might be transformed into a commercial aviation hub if a group of Detroit investors had their way. Leading the effort was Reed Chambers, a decorated World War I pilot and member of the famed 94th Aero Squadron, who had fought in France alongside aviation pioneer Eddie Rickenbacker. Chambers would later partner with Rickenbacker to launch an airline company.

Although the headlines stirred excitement about the possibility of Chapman Field becoming South Florida’s first official airport, the airfield’s future was far from certain. After the U.S. Army decommissioned the base in the years following World War I, competing interests emerged over how the land should be used. What follows is the story of Chapman Field’s early years, and of how the dream of turning it into a commercial airport in 1925 was a short-lived idea.

Formation of Chapman Field in 1918

Figure 1: Chapman Field air strip in 1918. Courtesy of Florida State Archives.

When the United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, Congress allocated $640 million to expand military aviation. With this funding, the government assumed control of several private aviation schools, among them Curtiss Field in Miami, and established new facilities, including the Dinner Key seaplane base in Coconut Grove.

By early 1918, the Army was searching for a site in Florida to host an Aerial Gunnery School. Two of Miami’s leading pioneers, Frank Shutts, founder of the Miami Herald, and Everest Sewell, then president of the Miami Chamber of Commerce, became strong advocates for bringing the school to South Florida. Although they did not yet have a specific site in mind, both men were confident they could secure suitable land if Miami were selected.

On April 14, 1918, the U.S. Army Signal Corps awarded Miami the long-sought aerial gunnery school. With this decision, South Florida gained its third major aviation training station, representing all three military branches: the Navy at the Dinner Key seaplane base, the Marines at the Curtiss flight school, and now the Army with its new gunnery facility.

A site was soon chosen along Biscayne Bay, about 15 miles south of downtown Miami in Cutler, Florida. The land was assembled from two parcels, 195 acres owned by William H. Browne of King County, New York, and 695 acres belonging to the Avocado Land Company of Jackson County, Missouri. During its development, the new installation was known simply as the Cutler Aerial Gunnery Field, or more commonly, Cutler Field.

Construction at the site continued through the summer of 1918, with completion expected by September and ready for fliers by sometime in early December. In mid-November, the airfield was formally dedicated and renamed Chapman Field, honoring Victor Chapman, the first American pilot killed in action. A member of the famed Escadrille Américaine, Chapman had volunteered with the French Foreign Legion in August 1914 and was killed in aerial combat during the Battle of Verdun on June 21, 1916.

Yet, only days after the dedication, the war ended abruptly. The Armistice of November 11, 1918, eliminated the need for the gunnery school, and Washington ordered remaining construction to stop immediately. Although the Army maintained control of Chapman Field for several years, the installation was ultimately decommissioned in 1921.

Army Decommissions Airfield in 1921

Figure 2: Entrance to Chapman Field in 1920s. Courtesy of Friends of Chapman Field.

In 1921, the War Department declared Chapman Field surplus property and placed it up for sale. Transferring the title proved complicated, but word of the pending abandonment reached the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry. The news quickly caught the attention of Dr. David Fairchild, head of the Bureau’s Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction in Miami.