I’m not going to lie. There are many pictures in this series, 68 total, and please give yourself some time to go through these. Most are aerial shots of the airpark throughout the years, but some are from different Western New York areas. I have broken it up into seven subpages to make it easier to navigate.
I love this silhouette of my father flying his J-3 Cub!
I’ve organized the subpages in chronological order to the best of my ability, and please contact me if you see something out of place or have something to share. I’ve also numbered all of the photos after their descriptions for easy referencing.
I hope you enjoy viewing these pictures as much as I did, and together we are discovering Gardenville Airport/Buffalo Airpark’s history.
Where it all began! The future site of Gardenville Airport/BAP, 1938. (1)
The best aerial photo that I have of Gardenville Airport, 1944. Tony finished building the Quonset hangar, the operations building is only a single story, and the horse stable is being used as a maintenance shop/garage. The remnants of his first “North” hangar are visible, center left, from the devastating fire in February 1943 that destroyed the building. (2)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. Notice “Gardenville Airport” that Tony painted on the Horse Stable roof, lower right. (3)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. Notice paving just started in front of the Quonset hangar, center left. (4)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. Look at all of the undeveloped land at this time! You can just make out French Road at the top of this photo. (5)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. (6)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. (7)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. (8)
Gardenville Airport, 1944. (9)
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My father was born in Italy on October 31st, 1911. He became a US citizen in June of 1920 along with his parents, my grandparents, Michele and Anmina Riccio. He would have been 108 years old. He passed away on February 5th, 1976. I remember as a young kid that Halloween wasn’t a day he…
In this series, you will find pictures of the hangars and maintenance shop at Buffalo Airpark in chronological order, separated by individual pages per hangar. Again, if you have anything to share or would like to comment on, please do so. Enjoy! Horse Stable The horse stable is one of the first buildings that my…
The Cessna 150 is a successor to the famous tail dragger Cessna 140, which ended production in 1951. This new Cessna 150 started production in 1958 and was later replaced by the Cessna 152 in the summer of 1977. The landing gear changed from a tail dragger to a new tricycle design, and the new…
My father Tony first purchased a 20-acre lot located in Gardenville, New York, including two buildings, a farmhouse, and a small horse barn in 1938 at the age of 27. He converted the farmhouse into the beginning of the first operations office for his Gardenville Airport. Tony completely redesigns the interior to include a custom…
Tony had many scrapbooks, but his favorite is the one he started around 1930 using his father’s hardcover book “The Home” that he glued newspaper and magazine articles into that he found meaningful about aviation. Little did he know, or maybe he did, that he was preserving aviation history so the stories would always be…
Where to start with the Cessna Skywagon? I’ve learned quite a lot about Cessna, and the many different names or model numbers that refer to the same aircraft when scanning these promotional photos. It’s no surprise with the Skywagon, and hopefully, I can explain what I’ve learned so far. Cessna started branding the “Skywagon” name…
