Updated: September 6, 2005

n 1918 Mission Inn owner Frank Miller and other city leaders convinced the U.S. Army to build an airfield in Riverside. A location was chosen east of Riverside in what is now Moreno Valley. The airfield would be used to train men to fly the Army’s airplanes. The first plane to land at the new airfield was on March 1, 1918.

Many of the men stationed at March Field would visit the Mission Inn, and some stayed at the hotel when there was no room for them at the airfield. Many of the pilots and other men from March got married at the Mission Inn.

When it came time to build permanent buildings at March Field an architect named Myron Hunt, who had worked on the Mission Inn, was chosen to design the new buildings. The architect copied ideas from the California Missions to use at March Field, the same way he had done for Mr. Miller at the Mission Inn.

Classroom Lesson Plans for Aviation 3rd Grade Level
Classroom Lesson Plans
California Educational Standards

Belloli, Jay ed. Essays by Jean Block, Peter de Bretteville, Alson Clark, Robert Judson Clark, Jan Furey Muntz, Stefanos Polyzoides, and Robert Winter. The Search for a Regional Architecture California Architecture and Architects, No. 4, 1984.

This volume is a collection of essays on various aspects architect Myron Hunt’s work.
Hunt is the architect of the Caltech, Pomona, and Occidental College campuses, the Pasadena Public Library, the Rose Bowl, the Mission Inn, March Field, and many other distinguished public buildings.