At Roosevelt Field, a pop-up museum brings alive site's famed aviation history

If you live on Long Island, you've probably shopped at Roosevelt Field. And you may not have known it, but you were walking in the footsteps of aviation's pioneers.

The site of the massive shopping mall once was home to the most famous airport in the world. Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh flew out of there, as well as world-famous aviators Wiley Post, Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan and Roscoe Turner, who flew with his live mascot, Gilmore the Lion. Aviation pioneers such as Glenn Curtiss once set up shop there.

The field in central Nassau County was the scene of numerous aviation breakthroughs that altered world history.

For the next few weeks and maybe longer, a new pop-up exhibit from the nearby Cradle of Aviation Museum called “Flying Through The Years At Roosevelt Field” will occupy a second-floor storefront at the mall adjacent to Nieman Marcus. Patrons taking a break from holiday shopping — or dreaded post-holiday returns — can wander in and take a free stroll through the incredible, but little-known history of the heralded airfield that gave the mall its name.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people who come here have no idea this was an airport,” Cradle of Aviation Museum curator Joshua Stoff said, standing in front of the pop-up Tuesday. “And, that it was not just any airport, but that it was the most famous airport in the world in the 1920s and '30s.”

“I think the majority of people on Long Island have no idea the rich aviation history that took place literally where they're standing,” Cradle of Aviation Museum president Andy Parton said. “When you say this was once the largest airport in the world, I think that really blows people away.”

Parton and Stoff said the early to mid-20th century pilots who flew out of there were household names — as recognizable as sports stars, musicians and movie legends of today.

On weekends, families from all over the metropolitan area and Long Island drove to Roosevelt Field to see those stars — and to watch, perhaps for the first time, an airplane take off and land.

Named for World War I pilot Quentin Roosevelt, youngest son of President Theodore Roosevelt and the only child of an American president to be killed in combat, Roosevelt Field began life as a vast 1,000-acre parcel known as the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome.

A gully, now occupied by the Meadowbrook Parkway, divided the civilian airfield in two — an eastern and a western field — and an adjacent area south of Stewart Avenue became a military base, Mitchel Field, now occupied by the north campus of Hofstra University, commercial buildings, Nassau Community College and Museum Row, as well as the Mitchel Field Athletic Complex.

The first licensed female pilot in the United States, Harriet Quimby, learned to fly in 1911 on an airfield that was part of Roosevelt Field. A year later, she became the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

The first successful trans-Atlantic air crossing — by the British dirigible airship R-34 — ended at Roosevelt Field in 1919. Future helicopter pioneer Igor Sikorsky tested early airplane designs at Roosevelt Field, and famed World War I French ace of aces René Fonck was involved in a fatal crash there while attempting to become the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic.

Lindbergh set off from Roosevelt Field on May 20, 1927, landing his single-engine Spirit of St. Louis some 33½ hours later in Paris, becoming the first to fly nonstop and solo across the Atlantic and forever changing the face of aviation.

The pop-up museum was made available with space gifted by the mall, and features model airplanes, dozens of historic photos, information panels and graphic flooring that enable visitors to experience the layout of the old airfield, complete with boundary roads, hangars and runways.

There's a life-size, stand-up image of aviatrix Annette Gipson, who in the 1930s hosted the All-Woman Air Race at Roosevelt Field. The race-starter was none other than her friend Amelia Earhart.

Visitors will learn Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran, the most-accomplished female pilot of all time — she still holds more aviation records than any pilot in history, man or woman, dead or alive — learned to fly at Roosevelt Field. And that the African American Harlem Air Squadron flew out of there in 1935.

Roosevelt Field general manager Christopher Brivio grew up in Flushing, and got his pilot's license at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida. As a kid, he came with his family to Roosevelt Field and the flea market at old Roosevelt Raceway. But, he said, he was unaware of much of the aviation history until he started working with the Cradle of Aviation to create the pop-up.

“I knew of its history as an airport,” Brivio, 53, said, “but not to this extent. … This is bringing a new experience to our customers, and that's part of why we're doing it. … People can see how impactful this place was and see the timeline that takes you through all that is Roosevelt Field.”

The airport closed May 31, 1951.

The mall, designed by architect I.M. Pei and developed by William Zeckendorf, broke ground in April 1955. Macy's opened Aug. 22, 1956, followed by the rest of the mall on Dec. 14, 1956.

Correction: The Roosevelt Field general manager is Christopher Brivio. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect name.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”