Aviation has played a part in Downey's history ever since 1929, when a section of ranch land was converted into an airport and aircraft manufacturing facility. In 1943, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation was formed with the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee Aircraft corporations.
Currently the home of Downey Studios, the city is proposing to redevelop the site into a mixed-use development called the Tierra Luna Marketplace. (There's a lot of controversy over this, which I won't go into here.) The building to the right is the old administration building for Vultee Consolidated, as can be seen by the emblem embedded into the floor of the rotunda.If you click on the photo below and view one of the larger formats of the photo, you'll see a clear shot of the rotunda in the center right of the picture.
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| Photo courtesy The Downey Historical Conservancy |
Love the picture of the floor. If and when they tear down the building, someone needs to save that logo and put in the museum.
ReplyDeleteNice shot.
Fortunately, Bill, that small set of office buildings is being preserved in any new development. Hopefully, the emblem will also become available for public viewing, instead of through the window like I had to do.
ReplyDeleteI was going through my Grandpa's stuff, and came across an old silver colored badge for Consolidated Vultee. The badge was made in Chicago. I came across this site while looking it up. My Grandpa retired from L.A.City fire in 1941. mike
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