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Health & Fitness

Field Guide to Coronado History: Glenn Curtiss' Coronado Home

Another in a regular series of fascinating, intriguing, or thoughtful tales about people and places in Nado history -- presented by your Coronado Historical Association It was a small event, really … a gathering of perhaps twenty folks, only a half-dozen of whom grasped the importance of what was happening. The event was routine; a prim-and-proper governmental session in Coronado’s City Council Chambers called to name a modest, non-descript house as a noteworthy Historic Resource of Coronado. There was little striking or remarkable about the structure in question, except that a dusty 100-year-old record deep within city archives held that this house was once the home of a gent by the name of Glenn Curtiss. Few today would recognize the name or even pause to look at this unassuming house on one of the city’s busiest street corners. The truth hiding within the layers of officialdom, though, identified this property as nothing less than Coronado’s intersection with a game-changing event in world history. Beginning in the winter of 1911, aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss put Coronado and North Island on the map. Seeking winter warmth, ideal flying conditions, and a degree of isolation, Curtiss arranged a free-of-charge, three-year lease of barren North Island from John D. Spreckels. There he began an early flying school, sponsored aviation exhibitions for the public, and tinkered with new aviation designs and breakthroughs. High on Curtiss’ list was to attract interest from the Navy to purchase Curtiss aircraft and he flew the world’s first seaplane from the waters of Spanish Bight between North Island and Coronado and later trained the first American naval aviator in its use. Aviators from both the Army and Navy returned again and again to North Island until the skies filled with military aircraft and Coronado was the site for a bevy of aviation firsts and world records. North Island rightfully caries the title as “The Birthplace of Naval Aviation” due largely to Curtiss’ activity. Without Curtiss, American military developments in aviation would have taken a much different path and, arguably, North Island would not be as it is today. Curtiss’ wife and family accompanied him on that first winter in Coronado in 1911 in a home described “as close to the Hotel del Coronado.” The advantages of wintering in Coronado versus staying at the family homestead in icy upstate New York could not have been more obvious to all. Curtiss commuted to work by use of a punt to row across Spanish Bight and quickly began to look for more permanent lodging for his family. By the next winter, Curtiss had selected an empty plot at 301 Alameda Boulevard between Third and Fourth Streets and built a Craftsman-style bungalow for $7000 for his family and as his office. Not only did the home overlook Spanish Bight, where Curtiss could easily follow aircraft operations, but the house stood across the street from Coronado’s golf course of the day where Curtiss, an avid golfer, kept his game in shape. Curtiss and his wife Lena would return periodically through the winter of 1915 and his mother lived for years in a next-door home at 357 Alameda. Coronado’s Historic Resource Commission approved historic designation for Curtiss’ old home that day – recognizing its unique and fascinating history that now is a gift to current and future residents of the city. Look, soon, for 301 Alameda’s own historic bronze plaque as a Historic Resource in the City of Coronado. (BL and Christy Simeral) Photos courtesy of Coronado Historical Association, City of Coronado, Hatfield History of Aeronautics www.coronadohistory.org

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