Serves Chicago, Illinois Opened 1916 | Closed 1939 | |
Ashburn Flying Field was the first airport built to serve Chicago, Illinois. It opened in November 1916 in Ashburn, a community at the southwest corner of Chicago. The airfield site was a marshy area approximately a square mile in size, and devoid of trees or buildings. It was offered for the use of the US government by the Aero Club of Illinois. Its opening was shortly before the start of a pioneering airmail flight in 1916 by Victor Carlstrom, in a Curtiss biplane, from Chicago to New York City, sponsored by the New York Times. During World War 1, it was a Signal Corps training camp. After the war, it had airmail contracts. It was supplanted by nearby Midway Airport as a major aviation center for Chicago. It closed in 1939. The site is now Scottsdale Shopping center and subdivision.