Lunken Airport Terminal

Wilmer Avenue and Airport Road, East End

1936-1937

Kruckemeyer & Strong, architects

Lunken Airport, Cincinnati’s first municipal airfield, was built in an area historically known as Turkey Bottom. The original course of the Little Miami River (later relocated) snaked through the middle of what would become the airport: lands first occupied by settlers in 1788. 

After World War I, Edward H. Lunken and US Army Major E.L. Hoffman envisioned a permanent airfield on the property. In the late 1920s, Lunken agreed to donate the facility to the City if it would agree to expanding and improving it. A bond issue was passed and the City purchased additional land to enlarge the airport. Later, New Deal programs helped fund further improvements, including artist William Harry Gothard’s stylized murals depicting man “uplifted by the power of flight” or, conversely, held down by gravity. Winners in a Federal Art Project competition, both artworks remain in place today. Gothard later became the chief conservator of the Cincinnati Art Museum. 

Construction of the Lunken terminal, which contains the control tower, began in 1936: a stylized yellow brick building with semi-hexagonal tower, exhibiting restrained Art Moderne influence.

At its dedication on May 23, 1938, Lunken was the largest municipal airport in the world. However, recurring problems with flooding, heavy fog and surrounding hilltops led northern Kentucky politicians to push for a new airport in Kentucky. Lunken continues to serve private aircraft and the fleets of local corporations along with Ultimate Air Shuttle and some commercial flights. 

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