Maya Corbell
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base – On April 13, 1926, groundbreaking began on land recently donated to the United States Government from the City of Dayton, Ohio. However, acquiring this land was not the beginning of Dayton’s critical role in the history of aviation rather, it was a concerted effort by citizens of Dayton to maintain the city’s title as, “the birthplace of aviation.”
McCook Field, signed into existence October 13, 1917, and located in Dayton, OH, was the epicenter of United States aviation development and production during World War I. It was the home of the Airplane Engineering Department (later Division) along with other key institutions like the Air Service School of Application (now the Air Force Institute of Technology [AFIT]). By the end of the War, the Engineering Division had outgrown its wartime residence, and it lacked the runway space, land, and stability to continue its innovation and research at McCook Field. Thus, the Air Service began the hunt to find where the Division would move. In 1922, the problem had yet to be resolved, and it became clear that the Division might have to leave Dayton due to a lack of military funds to buy the land it needed. In response, John H. Patterson, founder of the National Cash Register Company, took the lead to find the land and the funds necessary to keep the Division in Dayton. He worked on this alongside his son, Lieu-tenant Frederick B. Patterson, who continued the effort after John Patterson’s death in May 1922.
Frederick Patterson created and led an organization called the Dayton Air Service Committee which rallied the support of influential Daytonians to find and procure the land that became Wright Field. This land included McCook Field, Wilbur Wright Flying Field, the Fairfield Air Depot, parts of the Miami Conservancy District (which was formed to prevent flooding in the Dayton area), and seven parcels of privately owned property. Once Patterson received word on Oct 25, 1922, that the Air Service would accept this land over other offers, the Dayton Air Service Committee began fundraising to purchase it. By November 10th, the Committee had raised over $425,000 to purchase the land. This amount was $25,000 over its original goal and is the equivalent to almost $8M today. On August 9, 1924, the deed was gifted to the United States Government by the Dayton Air Service, on behalf of the City of Dayton. This gift ensured the Air Service had the land it needed to give the Engineering Division (later reorganized into the Materials Division) a permanent home in Ohio, Wright Field.
Wright Field has changed names multiple times over the last 100 years. A portion of the Field, east of Huffman Dam, was redesignated Patterson Field in 1931 to memorialize the death of Lieutenant Frank S. Patterson, pilot and nephew of John H. Patterson, who was killed in a DH-4 test flight crash in June 1918. January 13, 1948, the fields were combined and given the name Wright-Patterson Air Force Base under the newly founded Untied States Air Force. Today, 100 years from when the land was donated, Wright-Patterson AFB is the largest single site employer in the state of Ohio and remains on the forefront of United States aviation development and innovation.
You can find out more and see additional images here.
Images From: HQ AFMC/HO Digital Image Collection.
Sources: Aeronautical Systems Center History Office, Splendid Vision, Unswerving Purpose: Developing Air Power For the United States Air Force During the First Century of Powered Flight (Wright Patterson AFB, OH: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2002).
“Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: The First Century,” Air Force Life Cycle Management History Office, 2015, A CENTURY OF GROWTH: (af.mil).
Office Constructing Quartermaster Dayton, OH, Completion Report: Wright Field Dayton, OH Volume I (circa July 1927).
Additional Reading: A Look Back… Fairfield Air Depot, A Look Back…Fairfield Air Depot (defense.gov).
Distinguished guests from the Wright Field groundbreaking ceremony held August 13, 1926 left to right, Constructing Quartermaster Captain E. M. George, Frederick B. Patterson, Katherine Wright, Orville Wright, Maj. John F. Curry, and Maj. Augustine Warner Robins, Commander of the Fairfield Air Depot. (he later became Commander of the Air Corps Materiel Division from 1935-1939). 
Wright Field dedication ceremony held Oct 12, 1927, in the auditorium of the Administration Building (now known as Building 11 on Area B). 
Aerial View of Wright Field, 1930 
Early construction at Wright Field, workers are pouring the last of the top wall on the Laboratory Building (now known as Building 16 in Area B) Aug 25-26, 1926.