Portal of the Folded Wings
A shrine to American aviation
A quarter mile beyond the runway threshold is the Portal of the Folded Wings, the final resting place of a few dozen aviation pioneers. Visitors at the portal get the feeling that the stream of low-flying jetliners passing thunderously overhead are paying homage, a fitting tribute to those aeronautical compatriots who have flown west.
The portal was designed by Kenneth MacDonald Jr., a well-known San Francisco architect, and Italian sculptor Federico Augustino Giorgi, who is buried at the point offering the best view of the portal. The structure was completed in 1924 and intended as a grand entrance to the Valhalla Memorial Park, the cemetery with which the portal was associated. Surrounded then by farms and dairies, the 78-foot-tall rotunda was the tallest structure for miles and used by early pilots as an aviation checkpoint. They referred to the cemetery as the “marble orchard.”
The portal, with its graceful garden walls and three reflection pools, became a tourist attraction and was used for musical concerts, radio broadcasts, and other public events during the 1920s and 1930s.
Aviation enthusiast James Gillette was impressed by the portal’s proximity to Burbank’s then-called Union Airport and the Lockheed Company. He conceived a plan to dedicate the structure as a shrine to aviation and a memorial to early aviators. Gillette tirelessly pursued that goal for two decades. The portal was finally dedicated in 1953 by aviation enthusiasts as a final resting place for pilots, mechanics, and other pioneers of flight.
The portal initially became the resting place for 15 such pioneers: “a shrine to honor the dead of American aviation.” The U.S. National Registry of Historic Places now includes the Portal of Folded Wings. Carl Squire, a vice president of Lockheed, referred to the portal as “the Westminster Abbey of reverence for founders of the air age.”
In addition to those interred under the portal, several brass plaques mounted on the marble walls honor historical aviation figures resting elsewhere. These include General William “Billy” Mitchell and Amelia Earhart.
The Portal of the Folded Wings is in the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, a cemetery at 10621 Victory Boulevard, North Hollywood, California. This little-known gem of aviation history is open to visitors every day of the year during normal business hours. Burial sites are still available in and around the portal, but only for those involved in aviation. Additional information can be obtained by calling the memorial park at 818-763-9121.
The original pioneers
Bertrand “Bert” Acosta – Record-setting pilot. Admiral Richard Byrd’s co-pilot on their 1927 attempt to fly from New York to Paris.
Jimmie Angel – Famed pilot. Discovered in Venezuela the world’s tallest waterfall, later named Angel Falls. (His ashes have been removed from the portal and scattered over the falls.)
Walter R. Brookins – First civilian pilot trained by Orville Wright. Was a member of the Wright brothers’ exhibition team.
Mark M. Campbell – Stunt pilot, parachute expert, and aircraft designer.
John Franklin Bruce Carruthers – Chaplain of the Portal of the Folded Wings and aviation historian.
Col. Warren S. Eaton – First member of the Aero Club of California “to produce a functioning airplane.” Built aircraft for Lincoln Beachey, famed exhibition pilot.
W. Bertrum “Bert” Kinner – Built the first certified aircraft engine as well as Amelia Earhart’s first airplane, the Kinner Airster.
Roy Knabenshue – America’s first dirigible pilot and builder. Established in 1905 the first scheduled airline with dirigible flights between Pasadena and Los Angeles.
Elizabeth L. McQueen – One of Los Angeles’ first female pilots. Founder of the Women’s International Aeronautical Association.
Matilde J. Moisant – Became the second licensed female pilot in the United States the day after Harriet Quimby became the first.
J. Floyd Smith – Test pilot and instructor for Glenn Martin at the Griffith Park Aerodrome in 1911.
Hilder F. Smith – Flew aerobatics in her husband’s Flying Circus. Parachuted from Glenn Martin’s airplane over Los Angeles harbor in 1914.
Carl B. Squire – Barnstormer, test pilot, and vice president of the Lockheed Company. Sold aircraft to Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Roscoe Turner, and others.
Charles E. Taylor – Built the engine for the Wright Flyer. Operated the first airport (Huffman Prairie, Ohio). Cal Rodgers’ mechanic during the first transcontinental flight.
Evelyn “Bobbi” Trout – Early American aviator. Set numerous female endurance records. Participated in the first Women’s Air Derby (the Powder Puff Derby) in 1929.
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