The Airflite Café - Grounded - California
Does this building seem oddly familiar, like something out of a Twilight Zone episode perhaps? Read on, fellow travelers, searchers and explorers. At the signpost up ahead, you’ve entered the location known as “Grant.”
Back in the late 1940s, a man by the name of John Grant created “one of the finest sports centers in California.” Having been one of the builders of the world-famed aqueduct that carried/stole water from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles, Mr. Grant was apparently a man of means. And an ardent sportsman who greatly loved hunting and fishing. So he acquired some property and built a little sportsman enclave in the Eastern Sierra, which he called, “Grant.”
Most of the remaining architecture in Grant was once his. “The J.G. Motel offers the weary tourist all the comforts of the finest hotel, with rates from $3 up. There is an excellent café, and one of the finest and most complete service stations in the United States; adjacent to this service station is the Airborne Pack Station which operates planes into the fishing and hunting areas of the High Sierra.”
But for this post, we’re looking at the “excellent café.”
So the excellent café dates back to 1948-ish and I’m not sure if it had an actual name, other than café, when it first opened. A man by the name of Gene Christensen acquired the building and ran the Southern Inyo Garage and Store for a bit. But by 1957, the building had been remodeled and returned to a café, possibly named Frank and Ann’s Airflite Café.
Although there were undoubtedly many stories and happenings in the building from its construction to this time, the main claim to fame that we can point to today is that the building featured prominently in a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone, entitled “A Hundred Yards over the Rim.” It starred Cliff Robertson and was the 23rd episode of the show’s second season. It’s available on YouTube, give it a watch 👍.
The name was changed to Joe’s Airflite Café for the episode. It later became the Stagecoach Inn. The restaurant closed sometime during 1975, after which it became a market that operated for many years. It’s sat unused (other than for random storage, I guess) for many years.
Make it a point to stop and take a picture of Joe’s Airflite Café the next time you’re speeding by on the 395. If history holds true, one day it will be gone.
Return to Abandoned Home Page
Follow on Instagram @exploratographer
