Riverside Hangar

Riverside Hangar
Riverside Hangars in the foreground
Location: 690 Bayfield Street
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Built: 1942
Architect: Unit Structures & Rilco, Inc.
Architectural style: similar to Quonset hut
Governing body: Local
NRHP Reference#: 07001315[1]
Added to NRHP: December 27, 2007

The Riverside Hangars are semi-cylindrical-shaped hangars for aircraft installed at Saint Paul Downtown Airport in 1942, immediately adjacent to the Mississippi River. Their important design features are their low-cost and that they were erectable quickly by unskilled workers. In Saint Paul, Minnesota, during World War II, Northwest Airlines employed up to 5000 people at the site, modifying new B-24 Liberator bombers, some of which received the highly classified H2X radar, which proved to be an invaluable tool in the European theater.[2] Due to frequent flooding, proposals have been introduced to build a flood wall on the riverbank, but opposition and cost have thus far squelched the plans.

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