LOVE FIELD'S BEGINNING

The Start of Love Field Airport

From Proud Heritage Volume II by DCPA. This 317 page hardcover book is now available online.


Lou Foote Flying School at Love Field, C 1934
William Berry Taylor owned the land south of Bachman Lake which became the northern portion of the present day Love Field Airport. Taylor was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1844. His father, William Stephen Taylor, was a Colonel of the 45th South Carolina Regiment in the Mexican War. William Berry Taylor fought in the Civil War in Company D of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Bonham's Brigade, C.S.A.

After the war, William B. "Bill" and his brother, John Taylor, decided to migrate west. They came in a covered wagon to Texas and camped on the south side of Bachman's Branch in 1866. Bill learned that the land on which they camped was a part of the original Dickerson Parker Survey. In 1870, he rode on horseback to Palestine, Anderson County, and purchased 400 acres of this land from the heirs of Dickerson Parker, Mary Parker Curry and John Parker, for $2.50 an acre.

Bill Taylor purchased additional land adjoining this 400 acre tract until he owned over 640 acres of rich black farm land. In 1903, Taylor divided 454 acres of his land among his five children. Each child received 90.8 acres. Alice Amanda (Mrs. E. E. Ewing)
and Charles B. Taylor sold their acreage to Fletcher and William Stephen "Will" Taylor, as they preferred to live in town. Margaret (Mrs. J. F. Root) continued to live on the farm, as did Fletcher and Will.

Also in 1903, the Taylor family sold 47.652 acres of land to the City of Dallas for the building of Bachman's Dam. In 1916, the U. S. Government sent a delegation to Dallas County to locate suitable land on which to establish a training school for pilots. They chose the Taylor farm as the major part of the land for the school and airfield.

The Dallas Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturer's Association of Dallas joined forces at this time to buy some of the land. They, in turn, leased it to the U. S. Government for the training school. William Stephen Taylor sold 111 acres, but kept a strip of wooded land next to the lake and the old home place with 12 acres on the corner of Lemmon Avenue and Shore Crest Drive. Fletcher Taylor sold 190.4 acres, keeping his home and about 11 acres just north of the old airport terminal. Margaret sold 91.36 acres and her home.

The Dallas Chamber of Commerce also bought some land from Bill Rhode and Jerry O'Leary. They leased land from J. M. Cochran and J. B. Wright. All this land was either bought or leased by S. D. Hanley, who permitted his name to be put on the deeds. The U. S. Government leased this land from the Dallas Chamber of Commerce with the option of buying it when the war was over. The new airport was named in 1917 for Lieutenant Moss Lee Love one of the earliest pilots in the U. S. Army "Signal Corps Aviation Section." He was killed in an air crash in California in 1912.

When the war was over, the Government did not exercise its option to buy the land. The citizens of Dallas then formed a Trust Estate called the Love Field Industrial District on 6 June 1920. The trustees of this organization were Louis Lipsitz, V. W. Hobson, J. E. Lawther, T. E. Jackson and Lewis T. Carpenter. They raised $83,187.62 by selling shares to the people of Dallas. With this money, the Love Field Industrial District bought the Taylor, Rhode and O'Leary land from the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. They also purchased the land which had been leased from J. M. Cochran and J. B. Wright. In 1921, S. D. Hanley deeded a total of 515 acres of land to the Love Field Industrial District. A total of 644.5 acres was purchased at this time.

There wasn't much automobile traffic at Love Field in the early days. The entrance to Lou Foote Flying School was on the opposite side of the house. On 21 April 1926, the City of Dallas purchased this land from the Love Field Industrial District to form the municipal airport. Fletcher Taylor lived on his land on Lemmon Avenue until about 1939, when he sold it to the City of Dallas for the expansion of Love Field.

Will Taylor and his family continued to live in the old Taylor home place which they had kept with 12 acres until 1947, when the City of Dallas bought the remaining part of William Berry Taylor's land in order to expand the airport.