Pilot's Lounge at Bandera Airpark
Bandera, Bandera County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Colonel John Henry "Jack" Lapham (1885-1956) was a son of a co-founder of the Texas Company (later Texaco). He was living in San Antonio by 1920 and had many business interests. Jack, his wife, Julie Edna (Capen), and their four children all had pilots' licenses and were known as "The Flying Laphams." Jack's second wife, Lucy Jane (Thomas), was also an accomplished pilot. Jack Lapham, a WWI and WWII veteran, was a retired Army Air Corps colonel with a dream to create the first "dude ranch airpark" in the United States. In 1945, he bought a 486-acre ranch near Bandera from Dr. J.O. and Ethel Butler and established the Flying L Ranch. By late 1946, the site featured an airstrip, villas, lounges, a pool and flight training school for WWII veterans. From the air, the villas were designed to appear as planes flying in formation. The Pilots' Lounge was designed as a two-story concrete block quonset hut trimmed with handmade oak arches and cedar siding with a concrete roof. The second story has a horseshoe-shaped balcony with wooden floors and handmade oak railing and stairs. A large southeast-facing window provided a view of the landing strip and grounds. A May 1947 "Fashion Rodeo" at the Flying L Ranch was featured in several magazines, including an article in LIFE. Photographer Cornell Capa captured the event with more than 100 pictures of the fashion show hosted by Stanley Marcus of Neiman Marcus. Col. Lapham's dream of establishing a series of similar properties never materialized, and he and three others were killed in a 1956 plane crash near the airpark. Several national brands including Coca-Cola and aircraft manufacturers have filmed commercials here and guests have ranged from families to celebrities. Western movie star John Wayne stayed at the ranch when he was filming The Alamo near Brackettville in 1959-60. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2016
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After World War II, retired Army Air Corps colonel Jack Lapham—one of the flying Laphams, a whole family of licensed pilots—bought a Hill Country ranch near Bandera in 1945 and built one of America's first "dude ranch airparks." By 1946 the Flying L had an airstrip, a flight school for returning veterans, villas laid out to look like planes in formation from the air, and this distinctive two-story Quonset-style Pilots' Lounge with handmade oak arches. A 1947 fashion rodeo drew LIFE magazine, and the ranch later hosted commercials and celebrities, including John Wayne during his filming of The Alamo.
Why it matters
It captures the postwar moment when aviation, tourism, and Western leisure fused into a new kind of American getaway, and the optimism of veterans building second lives in the air.
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Related people
- · John Henry "Jack" Lapham
- · Julie Edna Capen Lapham
- · John Wayne
Related events
- · Founding of the Flying L Ranch
- · 1947 Fashion Rodeo
Themes & tags
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