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Post Info TOPIC: Airfield in San Rafael's Canal District?
Paul Penna


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After I emailed him, the guy fixed his page and replaced the photo with this one.

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SteveC


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Dah Paul. Out of Context is my only excuse. As soon as I read your post and looked again, I felt really dumb.

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Paul Penna


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Steve's right, they got the wrong area; this photo he's referring to isn't in San Rafael at all, but Corte Madera, east side. The park in the lower center is San Clemente Park; the large road running diagonally from bottom center up toward the left is Paradise Drive.



Here's the Google map of the area.



PS: I emailed the guy about this.

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SteveC


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In Joe's link, the last picture of the site of the San Francisco Bay Airport taken in 2006, (and just before the Hamilton pic) has me baffled.



It can't be The Canal area (IMO) and I don't recognize anything in it.



At first I thought the Santa Venetia airport, but that's still there.



What is the picture of ?

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JG


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I took the 1954 map of the Canal airfield from that web page and superimposed it on today's map......the landing strip was where Larkspur St. is today from Canal to Kerner Blvd.......note the old Marin Drive-In (now Marin Square).





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Paul


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Hi Andrew,

I went to a friends party at the clubhouse at the old pool at Hamilton 2 years ago , and I checked out the old neighborhoods up on the hill and along the street that winds way around. I must say I was impressed with the nice modest houses with giant yards and lots of big trees, old Hamilton is sweet.

Then I went to another party in one of the new row houses, it was depressing. Only 5 feet of toxic mud seperated each house. The house was big and modern but the view of 50 bathroom windows was a drag. And you are right, the king of the 'Eddy Rock Gang' was aressted there last year, he had a load of 'hubba rock' (crack) stored in the baby's bedroom. I guess Hamilton is the new 'crib fer the gangstahs' now, closer than Santa Rosa for buiness.

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AndrewTF


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Yeah, Hamilton's kind of an odd place now. I grew up in Novato (and actually live there now) and remember the base as it was when it was still owned by the military, but inactive. Some of the old parts of the base that still exist, especially the 1930s era officers' housing, are idyllic. It's too bad that the rest of the development there doesn't maintain that feeling, but then they wouldn't have had as many houses to sell.



The really bad part of the whole thing is the so-called affordable rental housing there (Bay Vista Apartments), which seems to have devolved into Marin's crime and criminal epicenter. I'd love to know what the "real" story is on that place.

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Paul


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Andrew, I checked out that link, very interesting, especially the feature on Hamilton AFB. I think they should have left the airfield to serve the thousands of commuters they added up there. As long as the commuter planes could stay out away from Marin airspace, that would be the ideal solution to all their whining up there.

It cost us taxpayers a lot of money to build that airfield, and it's a shame that the City of Novato and their private 'Hamilton partners' ripped us off and put in a ultra high density, southern California style housing development. Hopefully that won't happen again.

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AndrewTF


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There's probably way more information than you ever thought you wanted to know about this airfield here:

Abandoned and Little Known Airfields: San Francisco Bay Airport

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stingray


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Thats great.Another mystery solved. next???????

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Dewey


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In the photo, notice San Rafael Hill in the background: the airfield is definitely in the canal area. Stingray's found the answer. Thanks!



So I checked my USGS 15-minute map (1950) and there it is, "San Francisco Bay Airfield."

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stingray


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According to my map,the road isn't called smith ranch yet,It's a continuation of lucas valley that leads to the R.R tracks and train station called Gallinas.(not having anything to do with the street called Las Gallinas).Maybe the airfield relocated to smith ranch from San Rafael due to construction?

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stingray


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The way I described it, is exactly the way my map shows it.I would scan it for you, but i'm having scanning issues at the moment.I have an I.J newspaper from 1960, that talks about the first phase of construction for apartments in the canal.I'll have to find the paper to verify that, but my map and airfield information is right here in front of me.Thomas Bros. maps always seem to be right up with the times.

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Paul


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I really do not know, but I thought the canal apartment community was built around 1956, and the S.F. bay airport on the map, I thought that was the San Pablo bay. Could that photo possibly be of the Smith Ranch airport?

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stingray


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I have a 1956 thomas bros. map of marin.It shows the san francisco bay airport, located in between medway st. and bellam(then called railroad ave),running parallel between belvedere and rafeal st.

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Jason


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Dewey

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Date: 10 days ago

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I found this picture of an airfield at what appears to be the area behind Litchfield's or in that vicinity. Anyone know more? The photo would have been taken around 1946-1950.




181=52-download-16.jpg

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