May 11, 2008
Contact:
Randy Jones
Dept. of Historic Resource
(540)568-8175
randy.jones@dhr.virginia.gov
“Early Airmail Service--Studley Beacon” Historical Marker
--Hanover County marker commemorates a navigational beacon that once guided airmail pilots--
A new historical highway marker issued by the Department of Historic Resources commemorating a navigational beacon that once guided night flying airmail pilots will be dedicated this Sunday, May 17, in Studley.
The public ceremony to unveil the marker will begin at 2 p.m., at the Studley Post Office, 5411 Studley Road, at the marker’s location, near to where the beacon tower once stood.
Speakers during the ceremony will include Warde Abernathy, president of the Studley Ruritan Club, which assisted in funding and sponsoring the marker, and David Hahn, former curator with the Virginia Aviation Museum.
The ceremony also will feature the fly-over of a bi-wing airplane.
The Studley beacon tower, officially known as “Delta Airmail Beacon #47,” was erected around 1927. It was “one of 50 in Virginia on the Atlanta-New York Civil Airways Corridor,” as the marker states.
Towers such as the one at Studley, with flashing, rotating beacons, were erected beginning in the early 1920s to help pilots -- who then mostly steered a course using landmarks as guideposts -- navigate their way, especially at night.
“The Studley beacon was dismantled in the mid-twentieth century,” according to the marker, which was approved last year by the Department of Historic Resources.
Virginia’s historical marker program is one of the oldest in the nation. The first signs were erected in 1927 along U.S. Rte. 1. Today, there are more than 2,100 official state markers.
More information about the Historical Highway Marker Program is available on the Department of Historic Resources’ Website at http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/.
Text of the marker:
EARLY AIRMAIL SERVICE-STUDLEY BEACON
Airmail service was initiated by the U.S. Post Office and the Army on 15 May 1918. Because of the danger night flying posed, airway beacons such as Studley were erected along the airmail routes between the East and West Coasts and Georgia and New York. By 1922 towers with flashing beacons were placed along designated civil airways. Studley was the site of “Delta Airmail Beacon #47” erected circa 1927, one of 50 in Virginia on the Atlanta–New York Civil Airways Corridor. The Studley beacon was dismantled in the mid-twentieth century.
