100-year-old Airport to be Destroyed

The extensive network of airports around the country is deteriorating rapidly as developers find great value in these sizable properties that are often located in desirable areas. The Marlboro Airport (9B1), a rural airport that has been in operation for nearly 100 years in Marlboro, Massachusetts just west of the Boston metropolitan area, will be repurposed after a local developer bought the 10-acre property for $2.25 million, according to MetroWest Daily News.

The Marlboro airport was founded in 1922 and claimed to be the oldest continuously operated commercial field in the state of Massachusetts. With about 40 airplanes based at the field, the airfield averaged about as many flights a day.

The former airport owner, Sandy Stetson, bought the airport in 1999 with her husband Bob. The airport had a flight school, maintenance facility, hangars and aircraft sales. After Bob passed away in 2012, Sandy was left to care for the airport on her own and she put it up for sale in 2016 after the number of operations had slowed. “I don’t have to sit here, day after day, waiting for no one to come,” Sandy Stetson said to MetroWest Daily News.

The new owner, Capital Group Properties, officially took over the property on December 20 and plans to make it into an industrial park with 13 small industrial buildings.