Featured image credit: Seth Styles
The fluttering wings of angels heralding the passing of a life into the great beyond aren’t an idea unique to Burbank, California. But you’ll find a greater depth of meaning in the symbol to longtime residents of the city. It’s not just because of Burbank’s intimate history with the aviation industry, although that has a lot to do with it. But to get the best idea of what we mean, one needs only pay a visit to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery, specifically the Portal of the Folded Wings Shrine to Aviation. It’s on these grounds that symbolism became tragically literal on a fateful July evening in 1969, a bizarre event still discussed in aviation circles to this day.
Welcome to Valhalla
Most Burbank residents are well-acquainted with the opulent Portal of the Folded Wings, sometimes referred to simply as the Valhalla Memorial Rotunda or simply “The Rotunda.” Over the decades, it’s earned its distinguished reputation as the “Arlington of the Air” or the “Westminster Abbey of Reverence for the Founders of the Air Age”, although admittedly the latter lacks the punch of the former. But initially, it was simply a lavish decorative rotunda that greeted guests to Valhalla, an intricate gateway to the world beyond our world. Sadly, for one pilot and his passenger, this path would be morbidly direct.
It was 1923 when financiers John B. Osborne and C.C. Fitzpatrick founded Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. In this mortuary garden, serenity would be respectfully traded for the roar of jet engines, and the fragrance of roses would be overpowered by the pungent pong of fuel when the Burbank Airport opened nearby just five years later. But what truly made Valhalla a landmark was the rotunda built in 1924 by architect Kenneth A. McDonald, Jr., who, the same year, would construct his renowned Broadway-Spring Arcade.
The rotunda was dedicated (for the first of many times) on March 1, 1925, instantly becoming a local attraction in the still freshly developing area. Its opulent beauty lent it to decadent events such as live operas on Sunday afternoons, lasting well into the 1930s. Subtle iconography of flight incidentally peppered its sculpted concrete and cast stone edifice, including winged cherubim, and a star ominously exploding at the center of its mosaic-encrusted crowning cupola. But it would still be decades before the structure was rechristened as the Portal of the Folded Wings.
The Intricacies of the Portal of the Folded Wings
Even before finding additional meaning as a memorial, the structure that would become the Portal of the Folded Wings inspired contemplation, reverence, and awe. No one short of noted sculptor Federico Augustino Georgi could be trusted to craft its Spanish Colonial Revival-meets-Churrigueresque elements. If the name’s familiar, you’re likely remembering him as the talent who sculpted the elephants and lions in D.W. Griffith’s 1916 epic Intolerance, one of the most influential films of all time. Georgi worked in Colorado Yule white marble, masterfully cast stone, and reinforced concrete to meet the exacting artistic vision.
Adhering to a cubic design, the 72-foot-tall masterpiece features walls and a roof spanning 50 feet by 50 feet with cardinal point alignment. A looming archway punctuates each wall, thus creating four identical support pillars. Within each pillar sits a 10-foot by 10-foot chamber accessible by steel doors. The ceramic tiles of these chambers create a beautiful contrast to the flagstones that distinguish the center of the structure. A domed ceiling exhibits a mural of a milky nocturnal sky, its celestial void powdered with stars.
Builders employed concrete and terra cotta in the construction of the domed roof. It’s a particularly breathtaking crown with its ruddy Spanish tile and copper flashing, culminating in the supernova of an exploding star motif. At the roofline, Georgi’s cherubs peer precociously from concrete garlands wreathing urns, full-scale statues, and a massive 12-foot clamshell niche harboring a classically-influenced sculpture of a maiden. When the Burbank airport opened in 1930, Lockheed outfitted the rotunda with a light to warn pilots away from the nearby structure. However, it could do nothing to safeguard the two lives lost in July 1969.
Turning an Entry Arch Into the Portal of the Folded Wings
Ultimately, the design and construction of MacDonald, Jr.’s rotunda cost over $140,000 (equivalent to roughly $2.57 million in 2025). The Burbank community immediately embraced it. Yet, by 1950, it had become abundantly apparent that it didn’t function well as an entry point to Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. When Pierce Brothers purchased the cemetery that year, one of the earliest changes they made was to redirect traffic to a new entryway at the intersection of Victory and Cahuenga. Vehicular access to the rotunda entry at Valhalla Drive was closed, and the rotunda was relegated to a decadent decorative piece.
But James Gillette, an avid fan of aviation history, recognized a prominent opportunity in the rotunda. For two decades, he lobbied and labored at repurposing the rotunda into a memorial shrine for the giants of aviation. On December 17, 1953, the 50th anniversary of the advent of powered flight, Gillette had the honor of dedicating the Portal of the Folded Wings, a fitting tribute to the pioneers of aviation. In addition to serving as the solemn burial site of 13 aviation leaders, the Portal of the Folded Wings also hosts the cenotaphs for Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviator, and Billy Mitchell, who was instrumental in the establishment of the United States Air Force.
Burbank’s History with Aviation
Few cities are as fit a place to host the Portal of the Folded Wings as Burbank. During World War II, the city was a major production hub for military aircraft as well as a mecca for training pilots. The city’s strong ties to the aviation industry have continued well into the present, with historic tributes like the Portal of the Folded Wings serving as a reminder of this profound relationship. But part of the inherent bravery of shooting for the stars through aviation is the unspoken possibility that a flight could end in disaster. Horrifically, the 50-foot by 50-foot by 72-foot Portal of the Folded Wings, despite its relatively diminutive area, was the site of just such a tragedy.
Tragedy Literally Strikes the Portal of the Folded Wings
In the early evening of July 18, 1969, a Piper Navajo, a lightweight twin-engine model specializing in private passenger flights and cargo transport, was departing Burbank Airport. Destined for Fresno, the small aircraft was nearly loaded to capacity with the pilot, two passengers, and a significant amount of cargo. However, the cargo was not properly secured. In the golden glow of that summer evening, a horrible cacophony tore through the sky, jerking gazes upward. Witnesses watched helplessly as, at 5:24 PM, the Piper Navajo struggled before shattering across the proud dome of the Portal of the Folded Wings.
Experts speculated that a shift in the unsecured cargo had disrupted the plane’s center of gravity. However, investigators also discovered significant carbon buildup caking the spark plugs of one of the engines, lending to critical engine failure. Both the pilot and a passenger died at the scene, likely in the shadow of the Portal of the Folded Wings. The other passenger, who was sitting directly beside the pilot without a fastened seatbelt, survived, but with considerable injury.
Photos of the incident, preserved in the Los Angeles Public Library’s Calisphere collection, show the Piper Navajo reduced to formless wreckage at the base of the shrine. The plane’s impact damaged the dome of the Portal of the Folded Wings, but crews eventually repaired it for $70,000 (roughly equivalent to $600,000 in 2025). But the loss of life would leave a permanent scar on the memorial for those Burbank residents who recalled that fateful summer night.
Preserving the Portal of the Folded Wings
In the subsequent decades, the Portal of the Folded Wings has become a sacred local attraction, inspiring a slew of preservation efforts. In 1996, two years after the Northridge earthquake wrought minor damage on Georgi’s richly-crafted facade, a team upgraded the Portal of the Folded Wings to modern earthquake safety standards. This also allowed the opportunity to renovate the shrine’s interior to include a museum of aviation. In 1998, it earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places and was officially registered with California State Parks, granting it additional protections.
Today, the Portal of the Folded Wings continues to be a point of pride for Burbank residents. But the bitter irony of a plane shattering across the face of a shrine memorializing fallen aviators will always haunt its stone angels and concrete flowers. In this way, it’s the perfect representative of aviation: the promise of dizzying heights with the threat of cold, hard tragedy following just beneath the cottony mists of the clouds.
With a brand that says as much as JohnHart’s, Senior Copywriter Seth Styles never finds himself at a loss for words. Responsible for maintaining the voice of the company, he spends each day drafting marketing materials, blogs, bios, and agent resources that speak from the company’s collective mind and Hart… errr, heart.
Having spent over a decade in creative roles across a variety of industries, Seth brings with him vast experience in SEO practices, digital marketing, and all manner of professional writing with particular strength in blogging, content creation, and brand building. Gratitude, passion, and sincerity remain core tenets of his unwavering work ethic. The landscape of the industry changes daily, paralleling JohnHart’s efforts to {re}define real estate, but Seth works to maintain the company’s consistent message while offering both agents and clients a new echelon of service.
When not preserving the JohnHart essence in stirring copy, Seth puts his efforts into writing and illustrating an ongoing series entitled The Death of Romance. In addition, he adores spending quality time with his girlfriend and Romeo (his long-haired chihuahua mix), watching ‘70s and ‘80s horror movies, and reading (with a particular penchant for Victorian horror novels and authors Yukio Mishima and Bret Easton Ellis). He also occasionally records music as the vocalist and songwriter for his glam rock band, Peppermint Pumpkin.
.jpeg){kind=link}