Looking Back at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport’s Humble Beginnings

Clockwise from Top Left: Eight-year-old Arthur Carter Jr., a close friend of Browning’s and fellow aviation enthusiast who passed away in 2019, stands with a Douglas DC-3 in front of the first state terminal building in the 1930s. An air show at the third state terminal building in 1948. Willard Fletcher, the airport’s first manager, pictured at Hillsgrove in 1931. An undated photo of the terminal’s interior. Photography courtesy of Chester Browning

On Sept. 27, 1931, more than 100,000 people gathered for the dedication of the new Hillsgrove State Airport in Warwick. Known today as Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport, it was the country’s first state airport. In the early days, planes landed directly on a grassy field once home to a horse and bike racing track. “Out of the three [proposed locations], it ended up that Warwick got the nod. Number one, because it was a centralized area, and number two, this is Rhode Island and there was politics involved,” says Chester Browning, a retired photographer and aviation enthusiast who owns a collection of 20,000 photos chronicling Rhode Island’s aviation history. Over the years, a series of five terminal buildings has served the state’s commercial and military air travel. Three of them are still standing, including the current Bruce Sundlun Terminal on Post Road. Browning worked out of three terminals in his role as official state photographer for thirty-four years, always ready to hop in an aircraft and rush off at a moment’s notice. Today, he’s working with the State Archives to catalogue and digitize his collection, though nothing beats observing the real thing. “In the evening [after work], I’d open up the side window and put out a lawn chair and have a glass of soda and watch the planes go by,” Browning says.