Ruston Airport
The first private airport in Colorado was opened in 1944 in Adams County near 102nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard. Harry Hadley Ruston, a pilot, journalist, handyman, attorney, and Federal judge, opened the airport as a training center for returning veteran pilots from World War II who he believed would want to continue flying as civilians.
The 1960 Jeppesen Airway Manual depicts three runways with
the longest running parallel to Federal Boulevard.
The 320-acre airport originally had four grass runways, including one that was 3,900 feet long. At 5,550 feet above sea level, Ruston Airport operated as the highest airport in the Denver Metro region until the Jefferson County Airport (now Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport) opened in 1960 at an elevation of 5,673 feet.
In addition to providing a valuable service to veteran pilots, the small airfield became the training ground for students from the University of Denver and Regis University. In addition to the runways, the airport contained a hangar and a small building that housed classrooms. Cadets from the Westminster Civil Air Patrol earned flying hours toward their observer wings while training at the airport. Directly south of the hangar was the operations building originally called The Pilots' Perch, which was said to have been connected to the hangar via an underground tunnel.
A 1952 aerial view of the Ruston Airport which was on the east side of
Federal Boulevard (above the buildings in the photo).
Competition from other regional airports and rising residential real estate prices contributed to the closing of the airport in 1961. The Pilots' Perch became the Flight Deck Bar before it was eventually closed. That building was demolished in 2005; the hangar building was demolished in 2017.