Lakefront Airport to be restored

[Atterbury Dodd]

Thought this might be of interest to other Loungers (I know it was to me!)

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/clear_for_takeoff.html

Sounds like it will be an Art Deco building worth adding to my list of must visits!

 

[up196]

Great News !

I remember the building, once known as Shushan Airport, before all the "renovations" were completed. There was a display case in the lobby with models of various vintage aircraft that flew in and out, as well as a huge compass rose, I believe that is the correct term, set in the floor. My aunt worked there, I went to wedding receptions in the Walnut Room and my father and I took my son to eat there in the '90s. The restaurant had big glass windows that looked out over the airfield, and we three went to see the Lufthansa Ju 52 (D-AQUI) that stopped there on tour.

 

[David Conwill]

Great news! My grandfather was stationed there during the early days of WWII. In fact, my grandparents were married in New Orleans in 1942. Perhaps on base.

-Dave

 

[up196]

David, what branch of Service was he in. If it's the Navy, then he would probably have been at the original NAS New Orleans, located where the University of New Orleans (UNO) campus is today. It's a few miles west of Shushan/Lakefront, which was the civil airport for New Orleans and opened in 1934.

 

[David Conwill]

David, what branch of Service was he in. If it's the Navy, then he would probably have been at the original NAS New Orleans, located where the University of New Orleans (UNO) campus is today. It's a few miles west of Shushan/Lakefront, which was the civil airport for New Orleans and opened in 1934.

Army Air Forces.

This is the only scanned picture I have of him down there. I guess Lakefront was used in conjunction with Camp Leroy Johnson for training early in the war.

-Dave

 

[cookie]

Great story...where's Huey Long when you need him?

 

[up196]

Shushan Airport

Great story...where's Huey Long when you need him?

Abe Shushan, who oversaw the construction of the airport in the 1930s, was connected politically to the Kingfish, and he had his name or initials all over the place when it was built.

See the link:

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-04-05/blake.html