Woolsey, Florida

Recognizing the advantages of the Pensacola harbor and the large timber reserves nearby for shipbuilding, in 1825 President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of the Navy Samuel Southard made arrangements to build a Navy Yard on the southern tip of Escambia County, where the air station is today.

[2] Navy captains William Bainbridge, Lewis Warrington, and James Biddle selected the site on Pensacola Bay.

[7] Following World War I, operation of land-based aircraft at Naval Air Station Pensacola increased.

An expansion of the balloon operating field that opened immediately north of the old Navy Yard boundary in 1916 was undertaken in 1922.

To make room for the enlarged facility, the small town of Woolsey was razed for the creation of the airdrome.

Sketch showing 1861 harbor defenses at entrance to Pensacola Bay . The town of Warrington (shown east of Fort Barrancas) was relocated north of Bayou Grande in the 1930s to provide land for Naval Air Station Pensacola .