Roosevelt Field, airbase (1916-1920) and airport (1920-1951) near New York City
Roosevelt Field is a former airfield in Hempstead, on Long Island in New York, once one of the busiest aviation hubs on the East Coast, now largely occupied by a major shopping mall and residential developments. A few original hangars remain standing at the edges of the site, alongside historical markers that indicate where runways and terminals once stood.
The field was established during World War I as a military training ground and named after Quentin Roosevelt shortly after his death in combat in 1918. Through the 1920s it became a major hub for civilian aviation, before military use resumed in World War II and the site was progressively redeveloped from the 1950s onward.
The field was named after Theodore Roosevelt's son Quentin, a pilot who died in World War I, not after the president himself as many assume. Street names like Lindbergh Boulevard still carry the memory of the aviation era for anyone walking through the area today.
Most of the site is now a large shopping mall, but the surviving hangars and historical plaques are located around the perimeter and are easy to reach on foot from the parking areas. Visiting on a weekday morning tends to be quieter, giving more space to look around the historical remnants without crowds.
When Charles Lindbergh took off here in 1927 for his solo flight to Paris, his aircraft was so heavy with fuel that it barely cleared the telephone wires at the end of the runway. Witnesses described the moment as one of the most tense they had ever seen at an airfield.
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