Miami’s aviation history began in this Pan Am hangar. County grounds plan to save it

The facts were not in dispute: The oldest standing building at Miami International Airport, a 1929 hangar built by visionary Pan American Airways founder Juan Trippe, played a singular role in aviation history. It’s all that survives of Miami’s original airport, the very ground zero where Trippe launched and developed international air travel.

And, for more than a year, an ardent group of historians, preservationists, former Pan Am pilots and flight attendants and devotees of Trippe’s storied airline had pressed an uphill campaign -- to save MIA’s Hangar 5 as a protected landmark for conversion into a museum dedicated to Pan Am’s and Miami’s foundational place in global aviation history.

But that wasn’t enough for a narrow majority of Miami-Dade County’s historic preservation board, which on Wednesday brought the Friends of Hangar 5’s dream crashing down to earth.

By a 3-2 vote, the board turned down a petition to begin a process of historic designation for the hangar, stunning what had been an animated, standing-room only crowd of supporters into silence. Two board members were absent for the hearing, held in a meeting room at Miami-Dade’s Main Library downtown.

The decision leaves Hangar 5’s future in doubt. MIA administrators have earmarked the hangar, which sits at the rear of the airport off Northwest 36th Street and is leased out to a charter airline, for future replacement by a modern maintenance facility, though there are no immediate plans in place.

Bitterly disappointed supporters of designation said they may still push to save the hangar, either through a long-shot appeal of the preservation board’s decision to the Miami-Dade Commission, or by seeking commissioners’ individual support for the museum idea.

“It’s disgraceful that the county historic preservation board should vote against designating one of our most historic sites,” said Deborah Stander, a campaign organizer and daughter of a former Pan Am vice president.

Conflicting agency interests

Stander and other supporters said they believe the cards had been stacked against them by the unusual circumstances surrounding the designation of the hangar, including awkward and potentially conflicting roles for county departments.

The airport, whose administrators opposed designation, is owned and run by the county. At the same time, the county’s preservation chief, Sarah Cody, concluded in an extensive report on the hangar that it qualifies for historic designation for its role in the development of MIA and Pan American. Meeting one of the criteria for designation is legally sufficient for approval.

Cody nonetheless recommended that the board, made up of volunteers appointed by county commissioners and acting independently as a quasi-judicial body, reject historic designation. Among her reasons were that the hangar may have structural or other deficiencies, although officials from the airline leasing it say that’s not the case. Cody also said the hangar is relatively inaccessible to the public because it sits within the airport’s secure operational side.

She also said here are better venues for showcasing history the history of the airline and aviation in Miami. Among those, Cody said in her report, are Miami City Hall and a clutch of restored hangars in Coconut Grove’s Dinner Key that once made up Pan Am’s 1930s seaplane base. She also cited an ongoing project for restoration of Pan Am’s long-vacant Miami headquarters, a historically designated building flanking Hangar 5 at MIA, for use as a private, luxury air terminal.

In a somewhat unusual move, the board’s chair, Jared Beck, not only told the audience he opposed the designation at the outset of the public hearing, but he also asked MIA officials in the audience to speak at the hearing, although they had not asked to do so.

The county aviation department’s deputy director, Basil Binns II, told the board that MIA officials “appreciate the historic nature of the building” but added that the airport’s needs for expansion have “exploded” and should take precedence.

But longtime preservationists and neighborhood activist Elvis Cruz called the county “hypocritical” for its stance, noting that the board routinely approves historic designation for buildings and properties over the objections of their owners.

Preservationists’ plan

Instead, preservationists said, the county should integrate the hangar and their proposed museum into the restoration project for the HQ building, known as the Taj Mahal for its original sumptuousness. They noted that none of the other Pan Am buildings house or have space for museum exhibits. And some argued that sparing the relatively modest hangar should not have a significant impact on airport expansion.

Miami historian Seth Bramson pledged to donate his extensive collection of Miami transportation and aviation artifacts and memorabilia to the proposed museum.

“The thought of tearing down this building is criminal,” Bramson told board members.

Former Pan Am pilot Stuart Archer, wearing his old uniform, pleaded with the board to save the hangar, noting that the move would be timely because organizations of former Pan Am employees are planning a centennial celebration for the airline, which ceased operations in 1991, in three years.

“We were pioneers,” Archer said. “It’s time for Miami to step up for Pan Am.”

Two preservation board members, Bob Ross and Scott Janowitz, urged designation. Janowitz expressed surprise that the hangar was not already recognized as a historic landmark.

“This is a very big historical place for Miami,” he said.

“I fail to see how this structure meets the criteria” for designation, Beck said in response.

After Ross’ motion for designation failed, Beck asked if anyone wanted to make a fresh motion to accept recommendations from Cody instructing that MIA install a historic marker in place of the hangar and offer to donate the structure to anyone willing to take it -- conditions MIA officials had already agreed to. No one responded to Beck’s question.