Heller Field

North Newark

Photos

Newspaper Articles

Do you have a photo of this Business?
If so please email me.

 

Heller Field was an Air Mail airport in the early 1900's.

From: the Smithsonian Institute - Directions:

Heller Field is located in Newark and may be identified as follows: The field is 1 1/4 miles west of the Passaic River and lies in the V formed by the Greenwood Lake Division and Orange branch of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad. The Morris Canal bounds the western edge of the field.

From: Newark Evening News December 8, 1919

Newark today sent out its first mail as the Eastern terminus of the United States aerial mail service. The Washington mail plane, piloted by Frederick A. Robinson, hopped off on its non-stop trip to the capital at 6:44 this morning. The Chicago mail left by the air route at 8:45 for Bellefonte, Pa., the first stop. P. W. Smith piloted the latter plane. No special exercises were held at the field today or Saturday, when the first mail arrived, the formal dedication being scheduled for next Monday.

Both Walter H. Stevens in the Martin that came from Washington on Saturday afternoon carrying the first mail by air to this city, and Smith, who was in charge of the Chicago mail, encountered rough weather on the way here. Stevens gathered handfuls of snow from his cockpit to prove he had passed through a heavy snow storm. Smith's plane had shaken off most of the snow, but his flying wires and landing gear showed traces of ice when he taxied into the hangar.

Men at the field were beginning to think that something had happened to Smith Saturday when two hours and a half had elapsed since his departure from Bellefonte. The light was getting dull and a few snowflakes were coming down when Smith spun into the field, the time of his trip being two hours and thirty-five minutes.

There was a meager crowd at the field Saturday afternoon and very few children. Police reserves were on hand and kept the people who were there well out of the way of the ships. Yesterday there was a crowd of about 1,000 persons at the field when a De Haviland came in from Belmont, but there was no trouble.