Columbia Air Center

Last updated
Columbia Air Center
Summary
Serves Croom, Maryland
Built1941
In use1941-1958
Coordinates 38°45′22.6″N76°42′20.5″W / 38.756278°N 76.705694°W / 38.756278; -76.705694
Columbia Air Center
Statistics
... etc.
closed 1958

The Columbia Air Center was an airfield in Croom, Maryland from 1941 to 1958. It was started by African American pilots who were not permitted to use other airports, but was also open to whites. [1] It had an all black staff, [2] and a number of the trainers had served in World War II as Tuskegee Airmen.

John R. Pinkett founded the airport in Croom, Maryland, in Prince George's County on leased land near the Patuxent River. Originally operating as Riverside Aiport, it was renamed Columbia Air Center in December 1944. It was largely known as Croom Airport or Columbia Airport. [3] It housed up to five runways, three hangars, ten planes, and an all-black chapter of the Civil Air Patrol. The airport was operated from 1941–1954 by John William Greene Jr, and also by Tuskegee Airmen, Herbert Jones Jr., who would later form International Air Association, the first African-American owned airline. [1] [4] [5]

In 1959, the property was purchased by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and became the first part of the Patuxent River Watershed Park. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Andy Zieminski (February 7, 2008). "County's first black-owned airport becomes training ground". Gazette.net: Maryland Community Newspapers Online. Archived from the original on January 8, 2009. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
  2. ↑ Washington Afro-American newspaper article of August 16, 1941, as quoted in Clayton Davis. "Columbia Air Center, Croom, Maryland". Archived from the original on 2009-10-27.
  3. ↑ "Columbia Air Center". Field of Firsts Foundation | College Park Aviation Museum. Retrieved 2025-02-22.
  4. ↑ Courtland Milloy (23 December 1998). "One Man's Flight Plan". The Washington Post.
  5. ↑ The Washington Post. 29 March 1989.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
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