Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation

Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation and Museum

Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation is in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Location 10621 Victory Blvd
Los Angeles, California
Architect Kenneth McDonald, Jr.
Architectural style Spanish/Mission Revival
NRHP Reference # 98000246[1]
Added to NRHP March 18, 1998
Marker plaques inside the portal
Amelia Earhart Tribute at Portal of the Folded Wings; note error in birth date.

The Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation is in Los Angeles, California. The shrine is a 75-foot-tall (23 m) structure of marble, mosaic, and sculpted figures and is the burial site for fifteen pioneers of aviation. It was built in 1924 as the entrance to Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. Aviation enthusiast James Gillette was impressed by the rotunda's close proximity to the airport and Lockheed Aircraft Company. He conceived a plan to use the structure as a shrine to aviation and worked to that end for two decades. It was dedicated in 1953 by aviation enthusiasts who wanted a final resting place for pilots, mechanics, and other pioneers of flight.[2][3]

Dedicated to the honored dead of American aviation on the 50th anniversary of powered flight, December 17, 1953, by Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker USAF (retired). Beneath the memorial tablets in this sacred portal rest the cremated remains of famous flyers who contributed so much to the history and development of aviation. The bronze plaques upon the marble walls memorialize beloved Americans who devoted their lives to the advancement of the air age. Administered under the auspices of the Brookins–Lahm–Wright Aeronautical Foundation, this shrine stands as a lasting tribute.

On May 27, 1996, it was rededicated by Dr. Tom Crouch, Chairman of the Aeronautics Department at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.[4][5]

Burials

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Planes Fly Over Resting Place. Air Pioneers Paid Frequent Homage.". Los Angeles Times. April 8, 1979. It is fitting that the sounds of planes frequently echo through a giant rotunda here.
  3. ↑ Giacinta Bradley Koontz (September 9, 1997). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation and Museum" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2014-11-20. Photos
  4. ↑ "Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation". Archived from the original on 2007-08-16. Retrieved 2007-09-25. In 1924, architect Kenneth MacDonald, Jr., and sculptor Federico Giorgi built the Valhalla Memorial Rotunda, a structure now known as The Portal of the Folded Wings — Shrine to Aviation, on the eastern edge of this property. Originally intended to be the entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park, visitors drove through the arches via Valhalla Drive, off Hollywood Way. The Rotunda, with its graceful garden walls and three reflection pools, became a tourist attraction and was used for musical concerts, radio broadcasts and other public events during the 1920s and 1930s.
  5. ↑ "Resting Place for Early Aviators Gets a New Look.". Daily News of Los Angeles. April 1, 1996. They were among America's aviation pioneers — men and women who flew around the world in rickety contraptions at the turn of the century, undaunted by fear and seduced by the skies. In life, they were united by their love of adventure. Today, many of them are still together — interred in an obscure monument in a North Hollywood cemetery, directly under the takeoff path for Burbank Airport. Located in a corner of the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park and Mortuary, the
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 16, 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2013.
  7. ↑ Pp. 898, "The Papers of Wilbur and Orville Wright," M. W. McFarland, Editor, McGraw-Hill Inc., 1953
  8. ↑ "Finding Charlie's grave: now located at The Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation and Museum.". Aircraft Maintenance Technology. Retrieved 2007-09-25. It is unique to the United States, if not the world, that 14 of America's most famous aviation pioneers, including the Wright Brothers' mechanic, Charles Taylor, are buried just steps away from Burbank's busy airport and the former site of Lockheed's Skunk Works. Appropriately these graves are covered by dignified bronze tablets with shiny symbols of propellers and wings. These Early Birds rest beneath the dome of an ornate structure, so singular in its own right that it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now called The Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to ...
  9. ↑ "C. E. Taylor Laid to Rest With Aviation Pioneers". Los Angeles Times. February 3, 1956. The body of Charles E. Taylor, the man who built the engine for the world's first airplane, was interred yesterday in the Portal of the Folded Wings at Valhalla Memorial Park, a mausoleum dedicated to aviation pioneer ...


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