On September 5th, 1937, a tragic airplane crash near the Robbinsdale Airport claimed the lives of Harriet Frost, 39, manager and vice president of the Frost Paint & Oil Company of Minneapolis, and her flight instructor, Glenn Chase, 28. Frost had taken up flying about two years earlier after frequent commercial airline trips for business sparked her interest in aviation. What began as a hobby quickly became a passion. She visited the airport several times a week for lessons and had recently begun making occasional solo flights, and friends at the airfield said she had even spoken of purchasing a plane of her own.
On the afternoon of the crash, Frost was piloting a plane owned by airport manager Harry Holcomb. Witness Joe Rusinko, who had planned to fly the aircraft after Frost returned, watched as the plane climbed to only about 200 feet above the ground. Suddenly the nose pitched sharply upward. Chase briefly took the controls, leveled the aircraft, and returned them to Frost. Moments later, the plane tilted steeply upward, stalled, and entered a spin.
The aircraft crashed onto the roof of a home at 5007 West Broadway, the residence of A. A. Dubay, located along the Jefferson Highway about a block north of the airport. Both Frost and Chase were wearing parachutes but had no time to use them. By the time the first person reached the wreckage and climbed onto the house, both occupants had already died.
Frost had lived with her mother, Mrs. A. L. Frost, at 3947 Unity Avenue in Robbinsdale and had managed the family paint company for more than twelve years; her mother served as the company’s president. Born in Minneapolis, she studied at St. Clare Seminary in Winona and later at the Minneapolis School of Art. Outside of business, she was active in several local clubs, including the Woman’s Club, the Minneapolis Figure Skating Club, and the Saddle and Bridle Club. She participated in skating exhibitions and frequently rode in horse shows at the Minnesota State Fair. She was survived by her mother, three sisters, and two brothers. Chase, a licensed pilot who lived at 2220 Third Street North in Minneapolis, was married and the father of two children.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Robbinsdale Airport was a small but active airfield on the northwest edge of Minneapolis, serving hobby pilots, flight instructors, and aviation enthusiasts during the early years of private flying. Located along Jefferson Highway near what is now Welcome Park, it was typical of many early local airfields—grass runways, light training aircraft, and a steady stream of students learning to fly during aviation’s golden age. Incidents like the 1937 crash were uncommon but reflected the real risks of early light-aircraft training at a time when aviation technology and safety practices were still developing.
I remember the Robbinsdale Airport. I was about 5 years old. It’s now somewhere near Steve O’s across West Broadway. Later it became a dirt- racing track that my dad’s friend named Carl Doran raced a motorcycle.