More Than 100 Years Ago Lee Field Was Bedford’s First Airport

Submitted by the Bedford Historical Society

Hanscom Airport was not the first airport in Bedford!

In an attempt to build on the success of the airplane after its use in WWI, in 1919 the Curtiss Airplane Company leased a field from farmer Ernest Yates. This field, off South Road, and named Lee Field by the Curtiss Company, and was to be part of a network of small airdromes or landing stations placed strategically around the country. The purpose of this facility was to provide not only a relay point for aircraft that lacked the ability to travel great distances without landing, but it also provided the Curtiss Company with a regional base to promote the sale of their aircraft.

The airdrome opened in July with much fanfare and excitement. Local teen, Mabel Kirkegaard, made the following entries in her diary:

• Monday, July 19, 1919: “An aviation field is started on Yates farm in Bedford, Tow machines arrived today, one from Worcester. Some town!!”
• Wednesday, July 23, 1919: “Mr. & Mrs. Dunlop came down & they & I went over to Yates farm to see the air plane.”
• Thursday, July 31, 1919: “Airplane over at Yates Farm met with a slight mishap – ran into a stone wall.”
• Tuesday, November 11, 1919: “Took 6 pictures of the ‘Flying Parson’ and his aeroplane this morning. He made several flights from Bedford field.”

Curtiss staged many promotional events, which made their way into not only the local paper, but the Boston Globe. One such event, mentioned above by Mable, was the arrival of the “Flying Parson,” Lt. Belvin Maynard, seen in the photos above. Lt. Maynard, representing the Red Cross, visited Bedford to offer airplane rides to those who had made generous donations to the Red Cross during the war.

The airdrome closed for the season in early December, 1919, opening again when the weather improved the following spring. It was still operating in the summer of 1920; however it did not seem to generate the same level of excitement, as can be seen from the minimal entries in the Bedford Enterprise that summer. The Curtiss Airplane Company, unable to sustain the level of interest in aviation that they had enjoyed during the war, struggled financially. The 1921 edition of the Flying Guide and Log Book by Bruce Eytinge still lists a commercial airfield in Bedford, operated by the Curtiss Airplane Company, but operations seem to have tapered off dramatically. In the book, Curtiss-Wright Airports: A Nation-wide Chain of Strategically Located Ports, published in 1929 by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation (Curtiss merged with Wright Aeronautical in 1929), there is no mention of a Bedford, MA airfield.

Click to read or print Clippings from Bedford Enterprise PDF files

This photo is brought to you courtesy of the Bedford Historical Society. The Society was founded in 1893 and exists today to preserve Bedford’s history. Learn more about the Society at its web page, www.bedfordmahistory.org or on its Facebook page. Visit the Historical Society in its archives in the Bedford Police Station. Contact the Society by email at [email protected] or call 781-275-7276 for hours or directions.