A Real Chance to Save the Hangars

(Courtesy)

By Tom Modugno of GoletaHistory

A while back, my friends at the Model A Club asked if I would be willing to do a little talk about the Two Original Hangars. Of course, I agreed, and we all met at the hangars so they could see them firsthand.

Like so many people, they had no idea how to get to the hangars. So I will repost the directions that I put in my first story about them back in 2014-

If you drive down Fairview by the airport, just past McLeans Auto Body, make a right at Matthews St. and follow the signs to Fed Ex. Keep driving past Fed Ex and you will drive right into these two historic hangars. There’s a fence around them, but they are worth having a look at.

Seeing these beautifully restored vintage cars in front of the hangars seemed so natural. They both are from the same era.

As I was talking to the folks and soaking up the beautifully restored vehicles, I had a revelation about these cars and these hangars.

If you know the history of these hangars, you know that in 1928 Royce Stetson and Gordon Sackett landed in the cow pasture that was in this very spot. They worked out a deal to lease the land and they built the first landing strip that was the Genesis of the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport. They built the landing strip by dragging a primitive scraper behind a car.

What was the most popular car in the late 1920s you ask? The Ford Model A. So it would be pretty safe to say that the vehicle they used to clear the first runway was more than likely a Ford Model A.

So if we can agree that the car used to clear the first runway was a Model A, then you will agree with this statement-The Model A built the Santa Barbara Airport. I know it’s a bit of an assumption, but the folks in the Model A Club liked that statement. “The Model A, the car that built the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport”!

And with a flick of the mouse, the photos can be enhanced to really emphasize the point that these buildings and these cars are from the same era.

 

While my editing skills are limited, this photo of an early 1930s air show at the two General Western hangars mixed with the Model A Club cars came out pretty cool. A group of Model As parked at the airport they helped build.

Anyways, I gave a short talk about the history of these hangars and the airport and all the important aviation history in the Goleta/Santa Barbara area. And how very unusual it is for a modern airport to still have the original hangars of the airport still standing in the same location they were built in nearly a century ago. I also told the club members how the city of Santa Barbara has recently started to make it possible for these historic hangars to be saved and brought back to life. I also mentioned the petition to Save The Hangars that we started a while back, and if you havent signed that its not too late- Here’s a Link

Next, Kevin Haeberle of the Community Hot Rod Project took over. Kevin spoke at length about his group’s plan to save these hangars.

Kevin represents the Community Hot Rod Project, or CHRP, a local non-profit organization that has started The Hangar Project. They are asking the local community to partner with them in the effort to save the General Western Hangars and restore them to their original glory. They have already started the long process of working with the city and the airport to restore the hangars and create a thriving public space that will benefit everyone.

The city is still allowing other groups to suggest uses for the hangars, but this group is the only one that has a plan that will respect and feature the important history of these structures. The CHRP has already partnered with many local non-profit organizations, including the Police Activities League, the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Barbara and the Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation. They all share the goal of saving the hangars and utilizing them to help better the lives of our local youth and the community as a whole.

The CHRP asked one of their program mentors and a world renowned automotive designer, Mark Stehrenberger, to render these design ideas that would help to capture the potential of the site. Their plan is to make one hangar the Santa Barbara Aviation & Automotive History Museum and the other a public workshop.

The state of the art museum would showcase a rotating collection Santa Barbara’s unique local Automotive and Aviation memorabilia as well as serve as a home for the airport’s new Visitors Center, stylized in period correct atmosphere. The exterior grounds would be completely redone and manicured as a high-end event center where people could come together for community outreach events, fundraisers and more. The location has ample room for events and parking, all with a view of airplanes taking off and landing.

The second hangar would be restored and set up for use as our their non-profit headquarters and a workshop space where they would welcome folks of all ages to come and learn to work with their hands on real projects. They call it the Vocational Training Center, and they plan to use cars as tools as a gateway into the vocational trades. They’ll teach crossover skillsets that apply to many trades using car design and fabrication as the center of it. From renderings and design, 3D scanning, printing, marketing, prototyping to old school metal forming and fabrication techniques. Participants will work on actual vehicles and engines as well as upholstery, body and paint and mechanical theory will also be taught in a team building and community minded atmosphere. Their vision is to provide these lessons inside the vintage, period correct atmosphere of the hangar.

The CHRP is prepared to fund the restorations and construction of the grounds. So far, they have identified several funding opportunities from local and federal grants totaling $1.5 million, on top of the community and private donors that are ready and willing to donate to save these hangars and to help the organization with their vision for this property. But they still have a long way to go. The total amount required is estimated to be $6 million dollars!

It’s a big job, but our community has come together to do big things before. Hopefully we can do it again for a public space that we can all enjoy while it also provides a beneficial service to the community. At the same time, we’ll be saving two of the most important historic buildings in town and remembering our local history for generations to come.

Here is a link to the Hangar Project page, where you can help make this a reality by signing a promise pledge and getting on the mailing list to stay up to date on the process as it moves along.

https://www.thecommunityhotrodproject.com/pages/the-hangar-project

It’s been over a decade now that we’ve been trying to save these hangars, and we’ve come a long way, but we still have a long road ahead. Please help to get it done, once and for all!

tMo

Written by tMo

Tom Modugno is a local business owner, surfer, writer, and community activist. He also runs GoletaHistory.com and GoletaSurfing.com

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15 Comments

  1. Great seeing comments (& amusement from anon), having lacked time to comment myself when seeing this post yesterday. Some interesting ideas, and support for Tom’s hard work for years on this movement to save a sliver of SBA history. I wonder if anyone could also provide “her”story about the women who surely worked and probably also flew there during WWII and surely before. Plenty of top notch female aviators flying there today, along with every other position of importance in the large number who work and recreate there. Are the ’99s involved already?

    • Great idea John. That could surely be a whole exhibit in the Air Museum. From Amelia Earhart and Bessie Owen to the Women Reserves that served in the Marines here during WW2 to the modern female aviators, their “herstory” is a very important part of local aviation. The ’99s should be invited for sure. Thanks for your thoughts!

  2. The EAA and AOPA organizations both have STEM aviation material that would be a perfect fit in the hangars, and maybe they could also help with the refurb. Our local EAA 527 chapter might get involved at some point, and perhaps the workshop would have space for kids to build or refurb an aircraft with expert guidance. At the massive EAA annual Airventure in Oshkosh, WI kids actually build a complete aircraft during the week of the show and it’s a big hit with everyone. I know that occasionally someone in the process of building an aircraft inquires with EAA 527 to see if there are any projects in process here, and one of them could do presentations for potential builders of all ages.

  3. Thank you to Tom and others who are fighting for the few remaining pieces of history we have left in the Goleta Valley. Too often we demolish and rebuild when we should be restoring unique buildings like these so they can be functional while honoring our history and educating future generations.

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