Portal of the Folded Wings

The story is everything. We read in the shade of the portal with planes flying overhead. Just fabulous.

The Portal of the Folded Wings Memorial is located inside a very large cemetery. When you come into the cemetery you must enter from Victory Boulevard and it is quite a long drive around to the far, what I would call, north east corner. It is a beautiful monument that was built about 1925 and was built to represent 14 fallen historical aviators of the era. There are monuments for each of them with their titles. their history, and what’s unique about each one to be honored in such a beautiful Memorial. The accompanying photographs will display this beautiful memorial, from a what I would call a deco era. It is meant to include all aviators and in front of it has been added a replica of the Columbia space shuttle maybe a one-​eighth scale I don’t know as the real shuttle is pretty big. It is a tribute to the fallen aviators of that tragic event in 2003. I love the drive up to the monument surrounded by pine trees on each side completely covering the roadway. It reminds me of a main street in the town where I grew up. Just thinking of the bravery of some of these early aviators, some of the things they were willing to fly and test is mind boggling. This gives us memories looking into their works as they contributed to flight as we have it today. Wow do we have flight today? You bet! Hundreds of thousands of people moving every day all over the planet. Aviation and one part of its history is here at the Portal of The Folded Wing Memorial

Every birthday I set aside time to visit some macabre, death-​related place (Evergreen Cemetery, Museum of Death, Skeletons in the Closet, Marilyn Monroe’s grave, etc) as sort of a celebration of life. Momento mori, «Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,» and all that.
So near the end of the day, when we were planning to be in North Hollywood at night, Brandon D. and I swung by the Portal of the Folded Wings, honoring the pioneers of early aviation as well as the lost crews of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia.
The domed structure itself is magnificent. Stars cover the ceiling (photo:
) and the outside is beautifully detailed like a Spanish-​style church (photo:
).
The shuttle statue, which has Columbia painted on one side (photo:
) and Challenger on the other (photo:
), looks like it’s just executed a barnstorming maneuver the dome. It’s not as detailed as the scale model Space Shuttle Challenger honoring Astronaut Ellison Onizuka in Little Tokyo (
), but it’s still a great addition to a touching memorial.
Portal of the Folded Wings is a pretty crackerjack monument, as though it would be at home in San Diego’s Balboa Park or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

located in valhalla memorial park, the portal of the folded wings is a shrine to aviation that’s listed on the national register of historic places. this is a gorgeous shrine and it’s a lovely sight to see in the daylight, when the sun is streaming down onto the golden dome.
built in 1924, the portal of the folded wings was once the grand entrance to the valhalla memorial park. now days it’s located on the opposite end of the entrance, almost at the border of the burbank airport.
inside the immensely beautiful domed structure of marble, mosaic and sculpture, you’ll find the plaques of 14 fallen aviators whose bones are entombed beneath the building. among some of those buried there are walter richard brookins (a pilot for the wright brothers), elizabeth lippincott mcqueen (one of los angeles’ first female pilots) and augustus roy knabenshue (early balloon and dirigible pilot).
currently, the portal also serves as a temporary home to the burbank aviation museum. every sunday between noon and four pm, you’ll find docents around who love to talk about the history of aviation.