Richmonders, like most Americans, had few illusions as to the path to war the world was taking in 1941. The largest headline on the New Year’s Day issue of the Richmond Times-Dispatch screamed, “Hitler Promises Reich Total Victory in 1941.” By June, Richmond papers were filled with stories reflecting the coming tide of disruption, conflict, shortages, and for many, the loss of a family member in a land far away. Maps printed amid the headlines helped readers follow the waves of German forces that seemed to be pressing all over Europe.
One concerned Richmonder was Matt
P. Will, who was a real estate developer whose can-do motto was “Where there’s
a Will, there’s a way to build.” He subdivided and built large projects in the
West End such as Glenburnie, Sauer’s Garden, River Road Hills and homes in the
wonderfully self-named Willway Gardens.
The unique signage of one of Matt Will’s 1940s developments (now known as Willway Avenue) is still in place beside Patterson Avenue.
Born in 1897, Will served in
the Navy in World War I and was head of the civil air patrol in Richmond in
World War II. In addition to his extensive real estate ventures, his military
background and his interest in aviation, Will saw a practical need for
airfields located on the outskirts of Richmond. These small air strips would provide
the basic pilot training that a war in Europe would soon demand. They could
also act as assets to the Richmond’s largest airport, Byrd Field (now Richmond
International Airport) and be highly useful in the case of aborted takeoffs or emergency
landings. Will also may have seen a small airport as a valuable asset to his
developments in the future, perhaps imagining a post-war day where commuter
traffic by private plane to other cities would be served by small, suburban
airfields like his.
A rare 1941 image shot from a passing plane by an amateur
filmmaker, showing cars and an airplane parked around the two-story control
tower at Westview Airport. From Abandoned & Little Known Airfields:
Virginia, a valuable resource for researching vanished airfields all over
the country.
In February 1941, the Richmond Times-Dispatch
reported that the new Westview Airport, located on high ground near Horsepen
Road, was ready to open. Matt Will was now listed as the President of Westview
School of Aviation. Plans included a “passenger air station” with repair shops,
hangars for storing planes, and a 1900 ft. runway. Will was careful to note
that about a third of the students in his school were enrolled to prepare for
service in the military. The new airport officially opened June 15, 1941, bringing
the total number of Richmond airports to five: Byrd, Central, Hermitage, Westview,
and Westwood.
Matt Will had a wonderful public relations opportunity in
July 1941 with the announcement that the largest convention of the nation’s model
airplane enthusiasts, contestants, and designers would meet in Richmond and fly
their planes at Westview Airport. A variety of dignitaries would attend along
with what was projected to be 10,000 airplane fans. Among them were the
executive secretary of the Academy of Model Aeronautics, a group from the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, past flying champions, and perhaps
not surprisingly, interested representatives from the military. The one-day
event on September 9, 1941, brought 10,000 contestants from all over the
Eastern United States and was judged a huge success, highlighting local flyers
and their planes, the advantages of small airports, and promoting the model
plane sport. The event at Westview Airport also drew the interest of many young
men to aviation – an important development in the face of a looming war.
Perhaps Westwood Airport’s finest hour: a major meeting and competition
of model aviation enthusiasts that brought thousands to Matt Will’s airfield in
1941. Notice the airport control tower in the distance on the left. Richmond
Times-Dispatch, April 8, 1941.
Not everyone was delighted with having Will’s airport in
their area. A letter to the Editor of the Times-Dispatch the same
September as the model plane convention called Westview “A menace to the
welfare of several thousand people around it,” and attacked the violation of
Henrico County zoning laws, claiming the construction and use of the facility
were out of code and illegal. Sides were drawn up around the controversy, with
the American Legion joining the nearby Rollingwood and the Westhampton Civic
Associations endorsing the idea of Westview being used for military training
for the duration of any crisis. Letters to the Editor in Richmond newspapers
reflected both outraged homeowners and appeals to patriotism in the vital
training of young pilots
Across the river in Chesterfield County, community groups
near Bon Air steadfastly fought a proposal to build an airfield near Huguenot
Road and successfully used the zoning issue to prevent county approval. September
1941 also saw the U.S. Army take control of Byrd Field, forcing private flight
instructors to fly to Westview and leave their planes there, no doubt to the increasing
consternation of local residents. Matt Will’s personal enthusiasm for aviation may
have dimmed a bit after he wrecked his own plane on the edge of the Westview airfield
one afternoon in September 1942, but nevertheless scrambled unhurt from the wreckage.
The unrelenting zoning issue finally brought the end to
Will’s airport. The last straw was the strong opposition to the facility voiced
by the residents of Duntreath, a tiny but apparently influential neighborhood consisting
of several blocks of homes clustered around the Tuckahoe Presbyterian Church. After
a lifetime of only sixteen months, Westview Airport was dead. A small article
in a Richmond newspaper noted on October 12, 1942, that all operations had ended
and the airplanes belonging to the Westview aviation school had been removed to
other airfields. All private instruction by the training school had ceased. The
Richmond News Leader soon reported, “Matt P. Will, president of the
Westview School of Aviation, also announced that in accordance with the orders
of Henrico County Engineer Tazewell Ellett, work on tearing down the hangars at
the field was completed today.” The buildings were hauled off, the runways
became overgrown and the West End’s airport was largely forgotten, but Westview
had made its small contribution to aviation in Richmond.
A map roughly locating the single strip of the Westview
Airport, aligned with Mallory Road in the area behind the Home Depot at Broad
and Horsepen roads. From Virginia Airports: A Historical Survey of Airports
and Aviation from the Earliest Days, by Vera Foster Rollo, PhD, and Norman
L. Crabill, (Richmond: Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society, 2003).
The end of World War II in 1945 saw servicemen and women flooding home, producing a national housing shortage and subsequent construction boom. With 1,600 buildings permitted in the city in 1946, construction in Richmond reached its highest peak since 1924. “Another major housing development on the old Westview Airport property on Horsepen Road is now well under way,” reported the Times-Dispatch in July 1949, “and will be completed sometime this Winter.” The new development of 384 apartments and homes would be called “Crestview,” perhaps in recognition of the plateau Matt Will had chosen for his airport before the war.
In addition to apartments, dozens of houses were constructed
in “Crestview,” like this house which still stands on the corner of Vanderbilt
Avenue and Harvard Road. It is shown here in its original 1947 Henrico County
real estate record. This home is typical of the development that swept over the
Westview Airport site during the post-World War II building boom.
The level, open acreage inherent to airfields was ideal for
developers as the population of Richmond and the surrounding counties swelled,
overtaking what was once rural land. Today, all of Richmond’s early little airports
have disappeared. Hermitage Airport was finally consumed by suburban homes. The
Shockoe Examiner recounted an unusual sort of airplane crash in Richmond’s West End of a flight that originated at Hermitage Airport in 1945.
Today, there is no trace of the considerable facilities of
Central Airport, which was near Mechanicsville. The site of the little Parnell
Airport, which was south of Richmond near Bells Road, is now covered with
warehouses. There were airstrips on large estates outside of Richmond, and the Virginia
State Police once operated their own airfield at their headquarters on
Midlothian Turnpike, but these are all either overgrown or completely
obliterated by new construction.
This commons area behind “The Village at Horsepen”
development is probably the site of the now utterly erased Westview Airport.
The apartment blocks that were hastily constructed after
World War II at Crestview have been removed, but many of the small frame and
brick homes in the neighborhood remain. The land where the apartments stood has
been again scrubbed clean and replaced by a development called “The Village at
Horsepen.” Behind the new buildings a six-acre recreation area spreads over a
plateau – probably the same area picked by Matt Will as ideal terrain for his
airport. Where a control tower, extensive hangars and garages once stood, today
there is only a passing jogger and fitness trails. Where once the throaty roar
of airplanes racing down the runway filled the air, today there is only the
sound of children playing in the distance.
- Selden
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