Columbia Air Center provided access to aviation for African American pilots during an era of discrimination. It began operations in 1941 as Riverside Field with one east-west turf runway, an office, and a hangar. The land was leased by pilot John W. Greene and Dr. Coleridge Gill, who between them owned six aircraft. Greene's association with Phelps Vocational School brought many students to the field for on-site flight instruction, ground school, and mechanics, and also spurred community interest in aviation. During World War II, when the U.S. Navy took over the airport's operations, it added seven turf runways and a 121-foot pier on the Patuxent River. After its return to civilian use under the new name Columbia Air Center, it was reorganized as both an airport and a recreational center for the African American community, with frequent picnics, hangar dances, motorcycle racing, canoeing, and flying. The air center operated only during daylight hours and offered a flying school, charter services, aircraft maintenance, fuel, and tie down space for private pilots. It used a large fleet of aircraft and became a dealer for Aeronca Aircraft and Continental Engines. Greene managed the airfield until 1954. Upon his retirement, Shirley King served as interim manager, followed by partners Charles E. Wren and Herbert H. Jones, who operated the field as the W and J Flying Service. Jones had been an Army Air Corps aviation cadet at the Tuskegee Army Airfield during World War II and after the war returned on the G.I. Bill to earn his flight instructor's rating. After leaving Columbia Air Center, he worked as a corporate pilot and operated flying schools at Hyde Field and Potomac Airpark in Clinton, Maryland. Wren later continued to manage the airfield as the Capital Flying Club with partners William L. Taylor and Albert L. Young. Wren and Taylor, along with Charles H. Dabney, also formed the Sportsmen, which organized many of the recreational events at the airport until it closed in 1956 after the landowner's heirs decided to sell the property. In 1959, the land became part of Patuxent River Park and is now owned by The Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission.