Benbrook: Vernon Castle Memorial

White obelisk with small plane affixed to top

Vernon Castle Memorial

Aerial view of buildings next to a railroad track in an empty plain

Aerial view of Benbrook field circa 1918 (Benbrook Library)

Group of soldiers posing in front of a biplane

WWI pilots in training at Benbrook Field (Benbrook Library)

Two soldiers sitting on a cot

Pilots in barracks at Benbrook (Benbrook Library)

Man and woman in formal dress dancing

Vernon and Irene Castle (Library of Congress)

Two men seated in an open air plane

Vernon Castle and co-pilot prepare for flight (Library of Congress)

Man climbing on to the top wing of a biplane while in flight

Vernon Castle leaving his cockpit and mounting the wing of his plane mid-flight (Library of Congress)

Man standing next to a crashed, crumbled plane

The wreckage of Vernon Castle’s plane (Library of Congress)

Soldier with a monkey on his shoulder standing in front of a biplane

Vernon Castle and his pet monkey (Library of Congress)

Benbrook Field – an important Army aviation training center – was located here during the First World War. It was later bulldozed.

This is the site where the international dance star and war hero, Vernon Castle, plummeted to his death in a tragic aviation accident in 1918.

Nearly 50 years after his death, just off the avenue that bears his name, a monument was built to remember him.

Vernon Castle Memorial

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