In the 1930s Shushan Airport was one of the most advanced airports in the country. During the airport's heyday, the Orleans Levee Board extended the airports' runways numerous times to accommodate the newer and increasingly larger passenger planes,…

In 1936, a $250,000 Works Progress Administration beautification project took place at the airport and included extensive landscaping, paving roads and runways, and this fountain. Enrique Alférez sculpted each statue to represent one of the four…

The art deco administration building epitomized a fine combination of form and function. Not simply a place for travelers to wait for their flights, the airport allowed white New Orleanians to relax and entertain themselves. Observation decks and…

On February 9, 1934, the first Mardi Gras after Prohibition was repealed, hundreds of people crowded around the airport to see the Pan-American Air Races. Abraham Shushan, the Henderson brothers (air race promoters), and Harry Williams planned these…

You are currently standing in front of the Lindbergh/Williams hangar. This hangar, the administration building behind you, and the Moffett hangar across the driveway were the airport’s original three buildings; space for nine more hangars and other…

All of the land now occupied by the Lakefront Airport was once marshland home to numerous fishing camps. In 1922, Abraham Shushan, President of the Board of Commissioners of the Orleans Levee District, pushed for a lakefront improvement project to…