Landscape Information
Located approximately three miles northeast of Tuskegee University this 90-acre national park commemorates Moton Field, the site of the first African American flight training facility established during World War II for the purpose of the Tuskegee Airmen program (1941 to 1949). Originally agricultural land, this former military airfield contains a broad, turf hill overlooking former aviation buildings.
Responding to a government-sponsored, flight-training initiative, in 1941 the U.S. Army Air Corps requested Tuskegee Institute to establish an airfield and flying school to train African American aviation cadets. George L. Washington, head of the institution鈥檚 existing aviation program, laid out the airfield. Landscape architect David A. Williston in 1942 addressed grading and drainage with a concrete gutter curb system; a gravel swale to direct water from the hillside to a well; and planting plans that included pine, willow, and crape myrtle trees. After the war, significant plantings by Williston were replanted on the Tuskegee campus. In subsequent decades, portions of the site were developed for a nine-hole golf course and a veterinary research facility while it also continued to serve as an airfield. In 1972, acreage was deeded to the city for the creation of a municipal airport, still active. Two decades later a parking area and pavilion were added southwest of the aviation buildings. Today, the pavilion affords expansive views of the historic and contemporary airfields, and paths from it connect to Chief Anderson Street, the site鈥檚 original drive that is lined by an all茅e of mature crape myrtle trees. The drive鈥檚 entrance is marked by a classically inspired gateway (1943) leading to a pair of "ghost鈥 structures approximating their former locations. Two hangars, one original and one reconstructed, face each other and are now a museum and visitor center. In 1998 the site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark District; in 2019 it became part of the African American Civil Rights Network.
