A barn that long provides shelter for four St. Louis horses, located in Forest Park’s southeast quadrant, just a few stones from McDonnell Planetarium. The mounted unit of the Metropolitan Police Department in St. Louis. Although it was once a stable, this large structure was used to house planes.
The first coast-to-coast airmail route from America to California was established by the United States Postal Service after World War I. It ran through Chicago and passed through New York. St. Louis’ postmaster suggested establishing a branch line that would run from Chicago to St. Louis.
City Hall and Chamber of Commerce contributed $12,500 each to construct a hangar, and clear 100 acres of Forest Park to make way for a runway. On August 16, 1920, the first airmail flight left the park carrying approximately 150 pounds of mail. “Let’s carefully nurture the current advantages of the air service and look at its immediate expansion,” the Chamber wrote in a letter. “[so] this interchange of business might be even larger, for the lasting benefit of both cities.”
The Forest Park airmail service was operational for less than one year. It was not slow: On average, the planes delivered letters to Chicago in four hours. A train would take at most eight hours. The problem was Congress didn’t appropriate the funds necessary to maintain the route, and it was closed on June 30, 1921. The aircraft carried 52,000 pounds worth of mail and traveled 130,000 miles.
The Forest Park airfield was also home to the Robertson Aircraft Corporation, a private company. Robertsons bought a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny Curtiss biplane that was left over from World War II. They brought passengers on sightseeing and lessons flights. Ralston Purina hired them for $20 per day to paint the checkerboard logo of their plane and place advertisements on farm property. Residents living near Forest Park were unhappy about the noise and the city ordered them to move to another location. It was moved to the current St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Forest Park’s former airfield section is now known as the Boeing Aviation Fields. It boasts four softball and baseball diamonds. The hangar? It was home to the SLMPD’s mounted unit, which moved in it in 1970. The horses were moved to safer quarters after lead paint was discovered in 2009. Forest Park Forever raised $900,000. This was to pay for renovations that included asbestos and lead removal, new roofing, and offices for officers. In fall 2013, the unit returned to its hangar and is still there today.
