The 1940 Air Terminal Museum

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Phase II: Completing the Restoration

Phase II will restore the balance of the Terminal, develop an Aviation Heritage Park along a new drive from the Terminal to Telephone Road, and complete the museum.

Once completed, visitors to the 1940 Air Terminal Museum will turn off of Telephone Road onto a bold, tree-lined drive through the new Aviation Heritage Park. Styled after original landscaping blueprints for the building, the tree-lined drive, complete with new art deco street marquis, visitor parking spaces, and circular driveway, will afford impressive views to Telephone Road traffic.

Visitors will enter the museum on the ground floor of its two-story atrium. The atrium includes the original marble floor and several of the original tiled counters. Hanging from the two-story ceiling is the magnificent art deco chandelier. On the left side of the atrium, visitors wil see airline counters recreated in their original locations. The atrium will exhibit an explanation of aviation's role in Houston's development and a detailed history of Hobby Airport with dioramas depicting the airport in the 1930s and the 1940s. A gift shop will occupy the original site of the Terminal's lunch counter. The high-ceilinged interconnected offices in the South Wing of the Terminal will be restored to depict the various functions of an airport in the late 1940s, including airline dispatching, flight planning, weather forecasting, and radio room. Behind the atrium's airline counters, the North Wing of the Terminal will house a new three-story elevator, museum exhibit space and a mini-theater.

Proceeding to the second floor by either the Terminal's original sweeping staircase or the new elevator, Museum visitors may dine in The Cloud Room Restaurant. In addition to the ourstanding views that will be offered by The Cloud Room's interior seating locations, seating will be available on the expansive observation decks on either side of the Terminal overlooking Hobby Airport. There will be no finer vantage point to view commercial airport operations anywhere in the United States than The Cloud Room's observation decks.

On the third floor, Museum visitors will find a variety of both permanent and rotating exhibits telling the story of the aviators who have called Houston home, the airlines and aircraft which served Houston throughout the 20th century, the birth and growth of corporate aviation, the important role of general aviation and the various airports which have served Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast. The top of the the Terminal is the control tower cab, which was added to the building in the late 1940s. The 1940 Air Terminal Museum will recreate a control tower of the late 1940s affording museum patrons panoramic vistas of both Hobby Airport and all of Houston from its unique vantage point.

As construction proceeds on Phase I of the museum, the Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society is working to raise the funds to begin Phase II. Learn more about how you can be a part of this exciting project.