Street Talk
Moffett
By Nick Perry
Newsletter Editor
BLVD.
100
1937 view of Moffett Blvd. looking
north from the railroad
Nov. 9, 1932 Oakland Tribune
In anticipation of our summer event highlighting Arrow
Development at 243 Moffett Boulevard, let’s take a look back
at the origins of this prominent street.
In order to understand the naming of Moffett Boulevard, some
background on the naming of Moffett Field is necessary. When
Congress authorized spending $5 million dollars to establish
a new West Coast Navy air base in 1929, a fierce competition
erupted between San Diego and the Bay Area to “win” the
base. Our region rallied to purchase the former Ynigo Rancho
for the base. Although not within city limits, the area was
generally considered part of Mtn. View’s hinterland.
Bay Area air base boosters worried that distant Washington,
DC, decision-makers might get nervous about locating a
dirigible base in a place called “Mountain View,” since the
name implied a mountainous region. Sunnyvale, Mtn. View’s
younger and (at the time) smaller neighbor to the south, was
emphasized in campaign material instead.
The excitement over the Sunnyvale site’s selection
overshadowed misgivings Mtn. View residents had with the
name chosen—Naval Air Station (NAS) Sunnyvale. But the
prestige and economic boost of being “home” to a Navy base
prompted Mtn. View’s city leaders to devise plans that would
more closely associate the base to the City, despite the name.
In 1930, Mtn. View Councilman Earl Minton proposed
building a boulevard that would extend Castro Street to the
base. At the time, the City was jockeying with Sunnyvale to be
the first city to connect its downtown with the base’s main
entry gate. Mtn. View’s new thoroughfare was to be named
Moffett Boulevard, in honor of Admiral William Moffett, an
esteemed Navy leader and advocate of the base’s dirigible
program.
The road to building the boulevard wasn’t smooth . Because
Mtn. View’s city limits at the time extended only a few
blocks north of the railroad, the City needed to build through
unincorporated county land to complete the boulevard.
Farmers in the area were not supportive, and in the midst
of the Depression, support weakened for taxes to fund the
boulevard’s estimated $7,5000 price tag.
Admiral William Moffett
Dec. 17, 1932 Oakland Tribune
Nevertheless, after injunctions, restraining orders, and court
rulings, the purchase of the land began in 1933 and the street
within the city limits was paved, ending unceremoniously
at the edge of a tomato field . Finally, by May 1935, Moffett
Boulevard was extended all the way to the base, completing
what was dubbed “the gateway to Mountain View.”
Ultimately, the name NAS Sunnyvale was short-lived. Mtn.
View’s name for its boulevard, on the other hand, proved to
be tragically prescient. Just weeks before the base opened in
1933, the USS Akron, one of the Navy’s two dirigibles, crashed
off the coast of New Jersey in an electrical storm killing 73
of the 76 people onboard, including Admiral Moffett. The
new base’s landing field was named in his honor, and the
base became popularly known as “Moffett Field.” On April 20,
1942, the base officially became known as Naval Air Station
(NAS) Moffett Field.
Efforts to further associate Mtn. View with the base did not
end with Moffett Boulevard. In 1939, Earl Minton and other
prominent civic leaders in the Mtn. View Breakfast Club
began a campaign to change the City’s name to “Moffett City.”
According to the Oakland Tribune, a meeting was held where
Mtn. View’s city attorney explained to the club that the name
change would require approval by over 50% of the City’s
voters and would be an expensive endeavor. In the midst of
the Great Depression, the prospect of a costly election and
a costly name change was enough to shelve the proposal,
ultimately ensuring that today, a trip down Moffett Boulevard
will still lead you to Downtown Mtn. View—not Downtown
Moffett City !
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