Stapleton International Airport

Stapleton International Airport (IATA: DEN, ICAO: KDEN, FAA LID: DEN) was a major airport in the western United States, and the primary airport of Denver, Colorado. It opened on October 17, 1929, and was replaced by Denver International Airport in 1995.

It was a hub for Continental Airlines, the original Frontier Airlines, People Express, United Airlines, and Western Airlines. Other airlines with smaller operations at Stapleton included Aspen Airways, today’s Frontier Airlines, and Rocky Mountain Airways, all three being based in Denver at the time.

Stapleton International Airport was replaced by Denver International Airport in 1995; it was closed and the property redeveloped as the commercial and residential neighborhood of Central Park, which was named Stapleton until 2020. The Stapleton International Airport codes were transferred to the new airport, which continues to use them today.

Stapleton opened in 1929 as Denver Municipal Airport on October 17. The development of the airport was spearheaded by Denver mayor Benjamin F. Stapleton and Improvements and Parks Department manager Charles Vail. Prior to the new airport's opening, Denver had been served by a number of smaller facilities, including an airstrip along Smith Road in Aurora (first used in 1911), an airfield at 26th Avenue and Oneida Street, Lowry Field near 38th Avenue and Dahlia Street, and Denver Union Airport at 46th Avenue east of Colorado Boulevard.

In the late 1930s the facilities consisted of two hangars and a small administration building mainly used for air mail processing. United Airlines and Continental Airlines began service in 1937. The March 1939 Official Aviation Guide (OAG) shows nine weekday departures: seven United and two Continental.^{[citation needed]}

Continental moved its headquarters from El Paso, Texas, to Denver in October 1937, as airline president Robert F. Six believed that the airline should have its headquarters in a large city with a potential base of customers. Continental moved its headquarters to Los Angeles in July 1963.

The airfield was renamed Stapleton Airfield on 25 August 1944, in honor of Mayor Stapleton, who had served from 1923-1931 and from 1935 until 1947.

Stapleton's modern horseshoe-shaped terminal design was announced in 1946, and was shelved in 1947 by incoming mayor James Newton. The original administration building was extended with new wings in the early 1950s, and replaced entirely in 1954.