On October 11, 1910, history was made in the St. Louis area as President Theodore Roosevelt, who had just recently left office, boarded an airplane and became the first United States President to experience the innovation of flight.
The event, captured on video, shows pilot Archibald Hoxsey, a pioneer aviator, approaching Roosevelt with the request as his motorcade stops to view the events of the air meet. After some discussion, the statesmen rises from his seat and sheds his coat.
News reports from the event describe what happened next: “Roosevelt removed his slouch hat and borrowed a gray golf cap, which he pulled over his eyes. He watched the aviator’s preparations with a smile of satisfaction betraying not the least nervousness.” The report went on to describe the flight, saying the plane “traveled twice around the aviation field in three minutes and twenty seconds. He [Roosevelt] waved his hands at the crowd of thousands on the field below. When the machine alighted easily, a few feet from the starting place a mighty shout of applause went up.”1 The event took place at what was originally known as the “Permanent Aviation Field and Dirigible Harbor,” but rapidly became known as Kinloch Flying Field.
Despite being the site of this remarkable event, the exact location of Kinloch Field is difficult to discern from secondary sources. Some claim it was on the site of what is now Lambert International Airport, but others argue that it was on the site of an earlier institution, Kinloch Park Racetrack, established for horse-racing. A dig through primary resources, however, including historic maps, newspapers and original leases, suggests that neither popular understanding is correct, and that instead Kinloch Flying Field stood on its own distinct footprint.
Kinloch Park Racetrack was established in 1900, and was officially known as the Kinloch Jockey Club. The property was described as being located “two miles from Ferguson, where the Suburban electric line and the Wabash railroad intersect.”2 This land belonged to Sarah E. Chambers who was a descendent of John Mullanphy, the region’s first millionaire.3 She leased it to Robert Pate in August of 1900, who then built the track and grandstands in just three weeks leading to the headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch “The Kinloch Track: How it Came to Be Built in Three Weeks, The Task Seemed Impossible.”4 The Kinloch Jockey Club borrowed $23,000 on the unexpired leasehold on March 20, 1901. This document was signed by the president of the club Joseph D. Lucas, a great-grandson of J.B.C. Lucas, the first land commissioner of the Louisiana Territory.5 The club changed its name to the Florissant Valley Jockey Club in 1903, but two years later racetrack gambling was outlawed in Missouri and the track closed its doors.6
At this point, many narratives assume that the flying field, located in the same general area, would have simply repurposed the grandstands from the racetrack. Supporting this are descriptions of the field which describe it as falling along the same streetcar line as the racetrack. One piece of evidence that suggests this is not the case is the final lease for the track, which required that all improvements be removed at the conclusion of the lease period.7 More concrete is a map of the site drawn by author Reginald D. Woodcock with input from Woodford B. Lineback, an early aviator who flew at the site.8
The map shows the location with Frost Road to the south, Coldwater Creek to the west, and the streetcar line to the east. This would place the field on the property of Caroline Frost (1868-1934), a daughter of Confederate General Daniel Frost.9 Looking at the map below, you can see the two sites were remarkably close to one another, making confusion of the two quite understandable.
The Flying Field had been established in 1909 by the St. Louis Aero Club, led by Albert Bond Lambert. At that time, the club was the only one in the nation to have a dedicated airfield. The site was still in development around the time of the International Expo in 1910 where Roosevelt made his famous flight. In fact, the grandstands that would host thousands of onlookers in October of that year and the initial plane hangars were still being constructed just a month before. In 1911, a board runway was built at the site in an effort to make it, as Albert Lambert described, “a world’s aviation center.”10 In 1912, the airfield made history again when a Benoist biplane with U.S. Army Captain Albert Berry took off from the site. The plane flew across St. Louis to Jefferson Barracks, where Berry jumped out of the plane and landed on the Barrack’s parade field. This was likely the first successful parachute jump from an airplane.11 Then as abruptly as the site had been established, it closed at some point later that year due to a dispute over the lease. By this time, other airfields had been established nearby, including Anglum (later Robertson) Airfield.12 The grandstands and hangers at Kinloch were deconstructed and moved to a new field located on North Broadway in early 1913.13 As late as 1917, efforts continued to resurrect Kinloch Field, when Albert Bond Lambert lobbied the United States Army to establish an aviation training facility there. These efforts were without success.
In 1920, Lambert moved on to a new site just a few miles to the west. Along with the Missouri Aeronautical Society he leased 170 acres to establish the St. Louis Flying Field, which was renamed for Lambert himself in 1923. This was the foundation for our current St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
While sources have often conflated the locations of Kinloch Racetrack, Kinloch Flying Field, and Lambert Airport, it appears that each had its own distinct footprint.
Perhaps more importantly, however, in exploring these stories one can begin to see just how central the St. Louis region was in the development of aviation in the United States and beyond. Kinloch Field was part of an origin story that has shaped how we move people and goods, and by extension the ways in which we are able to live and work. An incredible contribution, and one that deserves more public awareness.
The Missouri Aviation Historical Society is dedicated to this exact goal. The organization is based in St. Louis and in recent years has developed a program of public events, a robust series of publications, and a growing archive. Check out what they are up to here.
1 “Theodore Roosevelt was ‘Up in the Air,’” Arizona Republic October 12, 1910.
2 “Kinloch Park Race Track Opened” St. Louis Post-Dispatch September 2, 1900
3 Johnson, Berkley E. An atlas of St. Louis County in the state of Missouri: data procured from actual surveys and official records/by Berkley E. Johnson. Clayton, Mo.: C. R. Black, 1893, Plat book of St. Louis County, Missouri. Des Moines, Iowa: Northwest Publishing Co., 1909
4 “The Kinloch Track: How it Came to Be Built in Three Weeks, The Task Seemed Impossible” St. Louis Post-Dispatch September 3, 1900.; Lease for 135 Acres between Sarah E. Chambers and Robert L. Pate , August 2, 1900, St. Louis County, Missouri, Deed Book 124 page 22, Recorder’s Office, Clayton, Missouri.
5 Agreement between Sarah E. Chambers and the Kinloch Jockey Club, March 20, 1901, St. Louis County, Missouri, Deed Book 127 page 245, Recorder’s Office, Clayton, Missouri.
6 Nancy, Carver E. Making Tracks: The Untold Story of Horse Racing in St. Louis 1767-1905. Reedy Press, 2014. 217-237.
7 Lease between Sarah E. Chambers and the Kinloch Breeders Association, August 6, 1903, St. Louis County, Missouri, Deed Book 144, page 86-87, Recorder’s Office, Clayton, Missouri.
8 Maps published in Kinloch Flying Field: Days of Glory to a Grave Unmarked by Jack M. Abercrombie May 2012. 12-13
9 Plat book of St. Louis County, Missouri. Des Moines, Iowa: Northwest Publishing Co., 1909
10 “Kinloch Field To Be Active Aviation Center” St. Louis Post-Dispatch March 11, 1911.
11 “Was the First Parachute Jump From an Airplane in St. Louis?” St. Louis Magazine, 16 June 2016, www.stlmag.com/news/was-the-first-parachute-jump-from-an-airplane-in-st-louis/.
12 Woodcock, Reginald D. Benoist: Thomas W. Benoist, Benoist Airplane Company, Benoist Students and Pilots. Publisher Not Identified, 1971.11.
13 Abercrombie Jack M. “Kinloch Flying Field: Days of Glory to a Grave Unmarked” Greater St. Louis Air and Space Museum May 2012. 44.
