Added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 18, 1998

This weekend I began what will surely become a lifelong journey that I’ll probably never complete: visiting all of the sites in Los Angeles listed by the National Register of Historic Places. My first stop was one of my favorite spots near me, the awe-inspiring Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation.

Situated at the far end of the Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, just south of Hollywood Burbank Airport (née United/Union Airport), the Portal is easy to miss. Constructed by architect Kenneth MacDonald, Jr. and sculptor Federico Giorgi in 1924, the Portal was originally the main entrance to the cemetery; I imagine Ford Model Ts rolling under its elegant arches, passengers marveling at Giorgi’s baroque ornamentation and the stars decorating the ceiling of the rotunda. Giorgi, btw, is the same guy who created the magnificent Babylonian sets in DW Griffith’s Intolerance. Watch a clip here.

When United Airport (later renamed Union Airport) opened in 1930, the constant aircraft noise convinced the cemetery to close the eastern entrance. One of the cemetery’s employees – a big fan o’ flying named James Gillette – embarked on a two-decade plan to repurpose it as a shrine to aviation. And it worked! On December 17, 1953, the 50th anniversary of the Wright Bros’ first flight, the rotunda was rededicated as the “Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation.” A number of early pilots, mechanics and engineers are buried there, many of whom worked in Burbank and Glendale during the early decades of aviation. A few years after the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, a 21-foot-long model of the Columbia was added just west of the Portal in memory of the Challenger and Columbia crews; echoing the Portal’s Hollywood connections vis-a-vis its sculptor Giorgi, the shuttle model was originally built as a prop for the 2003 disaster flick, The Core.

UPDATE 10/15/23:

For years, the Burbank Aviation Museum was housed in the four corner rooms inside the Portal of the Folded Wings, and you could find docents there on Sunday afternoons. Unfortunately water damaged during Hurricane Hilary damaged the Portal’s roof, and seeped into the rooms, so the museum has vacated and is looking for somewhere new. Visit them on Facebook for the latest.

Sources & Recommended Reading

+Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation’s NRHP nomination form

+Visit the Portal’s defiantly old-school website