Bowman Field was established in 1919, as Kentucky’s first commercial airport. It remains the oldest civilian airport in the state and is the oldest continually operating commercial airfield in North America. It was founded by Abram H. Bowman an aviation enthusiast. The land upon which Bowman Field is built, was owned prior to World War I, by German Baron Klaus von Zedtwitz but seized by the U.S. government during the war, under the Alien Property Act.
Notable events at the aiport during its long history, include the landing of Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927, and the use of the hangers, and airfield as the base of Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus for the James Bond film Goldfinger in 1963
The airport terminal, the center piece of Bowman Field (and the Bowman Field Historic District), was built in 1929, and is an example of Art Deco architecture, and more specifically the aerodynamic Streamline Moderne style.