Remember When: Rodgers Field in O'Hara was region's first airport

While the multibillion-dollar renovation is ongoing at Pittsburgh International Airport, it might be a good time to recall the first airport serving the Pittsburgh region.

Rodgers Field, an airstrip at the present site of Fox Chapel Area High School in O’Hara, began operations in 1925. The airfield was named after Calbraith Perry Rodgers, a Pittsburgh native who became the first aviator to fly across the continent in 1911.

It took Rodgers, who was a maternal great-grandson of War of 1812 hero Oliver Hazard Perry, 49 days and 70 stops to make his cross-country trip.

Planning for the airport got underway in 1922 after the Army Air Service — forerunner of the U.S. Air Force — made a commitment to assist communities in establishing airports.

In April 1925, workers began leveling the field, erecting a service building and providing drainage and sewage.

As anyone attending a Fox Chapel Area football game before artificial turf was installed can attest to, the hard clay surface was adequate for landing small aircraft, but drainage was a problem on rainy days.

The first Army plane landed on June 5, 1925, and the site served as the Pittsburgh region’s municipal airport for the remainder of the 1920s.

The National Air Show was held at Rodgers Field in 1927 and 1931.

Amelia stops by

Perhaps the most famous person to land a plane at Rodgers Field was fabled aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

On Aug. 31, 1928, Earhart, then 31, two months after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, decided to take a vacation after writing her book “20 hours and 40 minutes.”

She was headed for Cleveland but was so impressed by Pittsburgh’s downtown from the air that she wanted to take another look.

Her passenger was her publisher, George P. Putnam, who would become her husband several years later.

At the time, Putnam was married to another woman but was spending considerable time with Earhart.

Upon landing at Rodgers Field, Earhart’s plane hit a rut and landed on its side.

The wheel was bent, the landing gear shattered and a wing was broken.

After fixing the broken wing and getting new landing gear, Earhart was off to Cleveland two days later.

And the end came

As the 1930s began, Rodgers Field was thought to be too small and narrow to accommodate larger aircraft and was unpaved. By September 1931, Allegheny County decided to get into the airport business and opened the county airport in West Mifflin.

The Army stopped its sponsorship of Rodgers Field, and the airport was closed by 1935 — although the Pittsburgh Aero Club tried a fundraiser to keep the place going.

As for Earhart, her plane disappeared during a flight over the Pacific Ocean near the Marshall Islands in 1937.

She and her plane have never been found.

When the Fox Chapel Area School District was formed in 1961, the abandoned Rodgers Field became the site of the high school.

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