Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation and Museum

About this property

Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation, also known as Valhalla Memorial Rotunda and The Rotunda, is a 72-foot-tall (22 m) shrine to aviation located at the former entrance to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery in North Hollywood and Burbank, California. The shrine, which has been called Arlington of the Air and Westminster Abbey of Reverence for the Founders of the Air Age, was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery was founded by John B. Osborne and C.C. Fitzpatrick in 1923. The following year, architect Kenneth A. MacDonald Jr., known for Spreckels Mansion and the Broadway-Spring Arcade, built a large arched rotunda at the entrance, with the cast stone and concrete carved by Federico Augustino Giorgi, the sculptor who also created the Babylonian elephants and lions for the film Intolerance. The structure, which cost more than $140,000 ($2.63 million in 2025) to construct, was dedicated on March 1, 1925 and became a landmark in the sparsely populated area where it was built. It was also the site of Sunday afternoon opera concerts throughout the 1920s and 30s. An aircraft warning light was added to the structure in 1930, installed by Lockheed when the nearby Burbank Airport opened, and in 1950, a new entrance was created for Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, away from this structure. Aviation enthusiast James Gillette was impressed by the structure and its proximity to Burbank Airport. He conceived a plan to use the structure as a shrine to aviation, something he worked toward for two decades. The shrine was dedicated on December 17, 1953, the 50th anniversary of powered flight. The dedication ceremony was presided by Lieutenant General Ira C. Eaker and officiated by Reverend John Carruthers. Charles Edward Taylor and Matilde Moisant attended the ceremony, as did the wife of Walter Richard Brookins, whose ashes had recently been interred under the structure. The shrine was re-dedicated in 1956, organized by James Gillette. Roy Knabenshue was honored by Warren S. Eaton and John Franklin Bruce Carruthers at the re-dedication, with William Lear, Paul Mantz, Matilde Moisant, and George Otto Noville in attendance. On July 18, 1969, a twin-Piper Navajo that had just taken off from Burbank Airport crashed into the dome atop the shrine, killing the pilot and one passenger, while another passenger survived. The dome was repaired at a cost of $70,000 ($614,564 in 2025). The 1994, the Northridge Earthquake damaged the shrine's decorative facade, although the structure itself remained sturdy. In 1996, the shrine underwent restoration and conservation work, including bringing it to modern earthquake standards.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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