Amelia Earhart Home

Within the world of aviation history, there are few who are as renowned as Amelia Earhart. She was a pioneer among women pilots, breaking boundaries and pushing achievements to new heights. Her life captured the public imagination, inspired countless future pilots, and her unsolved disappearance over the Pacific Ocean has cemented her legacy as one of the greatest icons of the 20th century. However, before she became an iconic aviator, there was a time she had a much simpler life and lived in a small house within the Boston suburbs. 

Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897 and moved a lot with her family when she was young. In 1924, following her parent’s divorce, she drove her mother cross-country from California to Massachusetts and lived with her family at a home in Medford. During this time, she worked briefly as a teacher and later as a social worker at the Denison settlement house. Earhart was already a keen pilot by then and maintained her interest in aviation by becoming a member of the American Aeronautical Society chapter in Boston in which she was eventually elected as vice president. She helped finance the construction of Dennison Airport in Quincy and flew on the first official flight from there in 1927. She also worked as a sales representative for Kinner Aircraft and wrote in local newspapers and publications about flying. 

In early 1928, Amy Phipps Guest, daughter of Andrew Carnegie's business partner Henry Phipps Jr., announced her intention of becoming the first woman to cross the Atlantic by plane. She assembled a team of professionals for the endeavor, but her family strongly disapproved of her idea, and she reluctantly gave up on her goal. However, she was determined to see a woman cross the Atlantic and the search began to find another woman to accomplish it. After some searching, Earhart was selected and she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic as a passenger on June 18, 1928. The flight propelled her into global fame and soon afterward moved out of Massachusetts and eventually settling at Toluca Lake, California with her husband George Putnam where she lived until her disappearance while trying to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe on July 2, 1937. 

Earhart’s mother Amy and sister Muriel continued to live in Medford until they passed away in 1962 and 1998 respectively. In 1988, on the 60th anniversary of Earhart’s Atlantic crossing, a commemorative plaque was installed outside her home which was later rededicated and expanded on July 24, 2024. If you have an interest in Amelia Earhart and would like to see one of her historic homes, it’s certainly worth taking a quick look if you’re in the area.