The Ford Building, today's home of the San Diego Air & Space Museum, was built for the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition by the Ford Motor Company at a cost of $623,037 ($6.23 per square foot). The entire 100,000 square foot building was occupied by Ford exhibits during the Exposition which ran from May 29 to November 11, 1935.

At the close of the Exposition, the building was converted to serve as the Palace of Transportation for the 1936 Fair, which opened in March of that year. The renovation included the painting of over 10,000 square feet of murals on interior plaster walls. The largest of these, the “Mar of Transportation” mural, is 20 feet high and over 450 feet in length, depicting all manner of man’s ideas and methods of transportation, both real and fanciful, from early man through 1935 and even a glimpse into the future.

The 1936 Fair closed in September of that year and since that time the building, or portions of it, has been used variously the National Guard, the American Red Cross, as a vocational school for aircraft industry employees during World War II, and in recent years as storage by the City’s Park and Recreation Department.

In 1973, the “Ford Building” was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as an exceptional example of the “Moderne” style of architecture, and City Council, in 1977 designated the building for use as the Aerospace Historical Center to house the San Diego Aero-Space Museum and the International Aerospace Hall of Fame. A federal grant for the complete renovation of the building was received by the City in September 1977 and construction was begun in December, 1977. The project was completed as a cost of $3,088,000.

The first official action by the Aero-Space Museum to acquire the Ford Building for its use occurred at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, October 28, 1965 when then Mayor Frank Curran’s Senior Advisory Committee for the San Diego Aero-Space Museum appeared before the City Council requesting use of that edifice. The committee was composed of Anderson Borthwick, Joseph E. Jessop and T. Claude Ryan who spoke for the group.

Every year since that date actions were taken, studies made, architectural advice, counsel sought, conferences, meetings, etc. in pursuit of a safe and adequate exhibit building for our multi-million dollar collection. Two and a half Bon Propositions, hundreds of letters, etc. and finally WE HAVE ARRIVED!

HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Aserospace Historical Center
(Official Opening June 28, 1980)