Pan American Field

Miami has been linked to aviation since before World War I.  During the late 1920's, however, aviation became a centerpiece of the area’s future.  Juan Trippe founded Pan American Airways on October 28, 1927, and the airline began providing mail service between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba.  The airline completed the first passenger flight to Cuba on January 16, 1928.

In late 1928, the Seminole Fruit and Land Company sold to Pan American Airways a 116-acre tract of land situated on the south side of Northwest 36^th Street, just west of 42^nd Avenue in Miami Springs.  Pan American Airways named the tract of land Pan American Field and began construction of an airport at that site.

The artwork, by South Florida artist Erik Speyer, depicts the airport’s terminal building. Costing approximately $50,000.00 to construct and featuring, among other accouterments, a domed glass and stucco roof structure, a restaurant, and separate waiting rooms for arriving and departing passengers, the terminal building was the first modern and truly elegant passenger terminal built in the United States.

Captain Edwin Musick piloted a Pan American Airways Sikorsky S-38 on the first scheduled flight to depart from Pan American Field, a September 15, 1928 flight from Miami to Key West carrying two passengers and 340 pounds of mail destined for Havana, Cuba.  By the end of 1928, Pan American Airways conducted direct flights to Havana from Pan American Field, where it transferred its operations.

Pan American Airways dedicated the airport and terminal building on January 9, 1929–a ceremony highlighted by aviation great Charles A. Lindbergh, who piloted a Sikorsky S-38 to inaugurate regular passenger and mail service to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The following year, 8,600 passengers and 20 tons of cargo moved through Pan American Field.  Pan American Airways later moved its operation to the Dinner Key seaplane base in Miami.  Pan American Field operated as an overhaul and maintenance facility until 1934, when Eastern Airlines moved its operations to the site.  In 1937, National Airlines joined Eastern Air Lines at the site, which became known as the 36^th Street Airport.

Today, the site of the 116-acre Pan American Field, sits towards the northeast corner of Miami International Airport, a 3,230-acre facility that is among the busiest international passenger and cargo complexes in the United States, handling about thirty million passengers and two million tons of cargo annually.  After eighty years, aviation remains at the heart of Miami’s economy.

Acknowledgments and Additional Information

Anania Bandklayder Blackwell Baumgarten Torricella & Stein wishes to thank Erik Speyer for his courteous extension of permission to reproduce his artwork at anania-law.com.

For photographs and additional historical information regarding Miami International Airport, please visit the Federal Aviation Administration’s summary entitled Miami International Airport and Tower History, the Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records maintained by Archives & Special Collections, Otto G. Richter Library, University of Miami, or the Pan American Heritage Web Site