It’s hard to imagine now, but where shorebirds skim the San Dieguito Lagoon, and visitors stream toward the Del Mar Fairgrounds, airplanes once landed on a bustling coastal runway.
In the years after World War II, the little-known Del Mar Airport welcomed private pilots and horse racing fans flying in from Los Angeles and beyond, on land that had earlier served the U.S. Navy during the war.
The runway has since vanished beneath a transformed landscape, leaving behind few visible reminders that Del Mar was once home to its own airport. Yet for longtime residents, the memories remain remarkably vivid.
According to Del Mar Historical Society President Larry Brooks, the site’s aviation history dates back decades before the postwar airport era.
“The site was originally identified as an emergency landing area in 1922 by the U.S. Navy for the temperamental aircraft of the time,” Brooks said. “There were no improvements. It was just a relatively flat, smooth, silty bank of the river. There is no record if it was ever used.”
Aerial of the Del Mar Airport in 1947. (Photo courtesy of the Del Mar Historical Society)During World War II, the property near the San Dieguito Lagoon took on a new role as the Navy expanded coastal defenses.
“In early 1942 the Navy improved the site to accommodate two blimps used for antisubmarine patrols off Southern California,” Brooks said. “At the end of WWII, the Navy sold the site to San Diego County for $1.”
After the war, the location transitioned into civilian aviation, becoming a small but active airfield serving private pilots, business travelers and visitors headed to the Del Mar Racetrack.
For longtime resident Susanne Stevenson, the airport wasn’t simply a forgotten landmark—it was part of growing up.
Stevenson, a member of the Del Mar Historical Society, remembers the years after World War II, when her uncle and a business partner became involved with the airport.
“My uncle and a friend of his decided to buy the airport,” Stevenson recalled. “The friend had his own plane and could fly. My uncle couldn’t, but they just decided to do this, and they owned it for a couple of years.”
After the war, the airport became especially busy during racing season.
“It was after World War II, and there were planes that would come in from L.A. and other places, bringing people to go to the Del Mar Race Track,” Stevenson said.
On race days, aircraft carrying racing enthusiasts from across Southern California arrived at the small coastal airfield. Between events, however, it remained a quieter gathering place where local families and pilots knew one another.
“There were several buildings, I would say, like about five or six different buildings, and a little tower,” Stevenson said. “It was just a fun place to be.”
For Stevenson and her sister, that sense of community sparked an entrepreneurial idea.
“My sister and her friend, and I, noticed that all these pilots would just sit around waiting for the race to end, and they got hungry,” Stevenson said. “And so we just decided that we would have a business and make food for the pilots.”
With help from their parents, the girls prepared sandwiches and coffee to sell at the airport.
“We would make a bunch of sandwiches, and we didn’t know how to make coffee, but my mother helped,” Stevenson said. “And so they, you know, I guess my parents would drive it over there to the airport, and then we would sell the sandwiches and coffee to the pilots.”
The airport also had a connection to another longtime local institution, Tony’s Jacal in nearby Solana Beach.
Stevenson said her father knew founders Tony and Catalina Gonzales.
“They brought the restaurant there, and it grew,” Stevenson said. “It was great. It was wonderful Mexican food.”
As Del Mar evolved, the airport eventually disappeared. The runway was removed, the buildings were gone, and the land took on a new purpose, leaving little evidence that airplanes once landed there.
Brooks said the site’s future was shaped by transportation plans that transformed the area.
An aerial view of the Del Mar site in 1943. (Photo courtesy of the Del Mar Historical Society)“The California Department of Highways bought the site from San Diego County in the late 1950s in preparation for Interstate 5, which was built between the two blimp landing circles,” Brooks said. “One circle and the building foundations remained until the San Dieguito Lagoon Restoration project in 2006.”
For Stevenson, however, the memories never faded.
“It was just a fun place to be,” she said.
Perhaps that’s the airport’s greatest legacy—not simply that it carried race fans or supported postwar aviation, but that it became woven into everyday life in a small coastal town where children sold sandwiches to pilots, neighbors gathered to watch airplanes come and go, and a vanished runway became part of Del Mar’s story.
Read more history stories here.
Sources:
Susanne Stevenson, longtime Del Mar resident and member of the Del Mar Historical SocietyLarry Brooks, president of the Del Mar Historical Society, 2026.Del Mar Historical Society archivesSan Diego History Center archivesSan Diego Union-Tribune historical archives
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